My last shot at Palm Pillars

[cleanglow]

Have you ever had a forever melt around the tea light? I had one melt the other day. but i have test burned a whole batch & nothing, ut this one melted like crazy right around the glass tea light (to where i could pull out the glass)....

That's really strange. I know you use the same glass tea lights that I use and I've never had that happen.

[grama]

Your palms are beautiful, love the color. What color dye is it?

[Lantern Light Mama]

I use #1/0 square braid wicks in my 3inch palm pillars. No one seems to really use these, but I just swear by them! They burn very slow, no huge flames, no dancing, and by the time the candle is halfway down the top edges are very thin and artistic looking. I have pics on my website in the gallery...I should do more. They are so unique looking...I just love the palm too.

[patka]

I use #1/0 square braid wicks in my 3inch palm pillars. No one seems to really use these, but I just swear by them! They burn very slow, no huge flames, no dancing, and by the time the candle is halfway down the top edges are very thin and artistic looking. I have pics on my website in the gallery...I should do more. They are so unique looking...I just love the palm too.

Lantern, I think I will the wicks you mentioned. BURN VERY SLOW sounds really good to me. I find my palm candles burn quite fast. I use CSN wicks and Starburst pillar / Glass Glow container wax and the wick consumes the candles much faster than what I saw with soy. I use CSN 7 in my votives and CSN 12 in 3" Glass Glow and CSN 14 with 3" pillars. And I trim the wick to almost nothing and I spend much time to eliminate air pockets, and still they burn fast. I may try this wick or some other wicks, I am just concerned if the acidity of the wax could cause the wick to deteriorate in the candle over time. I was told by Candlescience that this will happen to wicks that are not treated for palm wax. I know the CSN and CDN wicks are treated for palm.

[Stella1952]

No one seems to really use these, but I just swear by them!

LLM, we use this same wicking in some of our molded art candles and find that it has a very acceptable burn, even in candles over a year old. I prefer the burn from CDNs, but cannot use them for certain applications.

I am just concerned if the acidity of the wax could cause the wick to deteriorate in the candle over time. I was told by Candlescience that this will happen to wicks that are not treated for palm wax.

I'm raising an eyebrow at this... How long does it supposedly take for this "deterioration" to occur to the extent that it causes a significant problem with the burn? I just haven't seen this to be the case with the palm wax candles we make... With either the CDNs or the square braid, I get a nice slow burn just as LLM describes (except with Glass Glow).

[Lumina]

Beautiful candles, and I know your frustration on the wicking part. Have you tried adding a little soy to the wax? The soy softens the palm a little and they seem to burn better. At least to me they do.

How much soy do you add to a lb of palm? I love to make these candles, sometimes they are just too brittle.

Thanks

Cindy

[patka]

I'm raising an eyebrow at this... How long does it supposedly take for this "deterioration" to occur to the extent that it causes a significant problem with the burn?

Stella,

I was also wondering about the time it would take. I looked at Wicks Unlimited's website and they just have this information about the CDN wicks:

"The Stabilo KST series of wick is identical to the Stabilo series except that it has been treated with a special patent-pending process to resist the corrosive action of the acidic nature of natural-based candle waxes."

They don't say how much it would take for the wicks that are not treated to deteriorate. It could depend on whether one is using a plain unprimed wick from the spool that soaks up the palm wax or a wick that has been primed with a neutral wax....

[patka]

LLM, we use this same wicking in some of our molded art candles and find that it has a very acceptable burn, even in candles over a year old. I prefer the burn from CDNs, but cannot use them for certain applications.

I'm raising an eyebrow at this... How long does it supposedly take for this "deterioration" to occur to the extent that it causes a significant problem with the burn? I just haven't seen this to be the case with the palm wax candles we make... With either the CDNs or the square braid, I get a nice slow burn just as LLM describes (except with Glass Glow).

Stella,

I should have been more careful when I wrote my post. I was mostly thinking of Glass Glow when I wrote my note. I am actually happy with the way my 3" pillars have been burning (much thanks also for your advice on how to remove airpockets from palm candles!:smiley2:). The few Starburst votives that I tried with CSN 7 did burn a bit fast, but I will try a different wick to see if I can get a better burn. But Glass Glow seems to burn fast no matter what and I tried different sizes of CSN wicks and CD wicks. So far I have tried GG candles without anything in it and also with 3% FO, no dyes.