? about wicks

[sparkette]

I am not finding much information about wicking at all, I have bought two books... The Candlemakers Companion and A Guide to Candlemaking, and neither say much about actually choosing wicks. I am starting to wonder if it is not the wick that is the problem but this darn Coconut Wax I am using.

How fast should my melt pool grow?

If there is still wax on the sides of the container does that mean the wick is too small?

Is there a "wick generator sizer" online anywhere.

Thanks to all that relpies.

[Henryk]

Can't answer about coconut wax, but will give my general opinion. Yes, there are a couple "generators" online - the trouble IMO is that the results have rarely worked for me personally, or you get an extremely wide range of answers.

Wick too small - maybe. You can get leftover wax on the container for either too small of a wick (not efficient enough) or too large a wick (burns too fast and tunnels straight down).

There is a generally accepted 1" per hour rule with a 1/4" deep meltpool but you can't use that in a couple circumstances off the top of my head - i.e. large, multi-wick candles - meaning it should not take 6 hours to get across a 3-wick 6" pillar, secondly, you have to take into account the container burn in general - meaning it is perfectly acceptable IMO to have some hangup on a jar during a couple initial burns IF deeper into the jar you get a perfect burn that cleans the jar while not sooting and making the glass too hot.

HTH.

[sparkette]

Thank you so much. That helps alot. It's frustrating trying to figure this out. I have to melt down a candle tonight because the appearance on the jar is nasty and have to try again.