Lightning Bug Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 I have a candle that is almost wicked right, but occasionally puffs a bit of smoke. Wicking down doesn't clean the jar. If I added 2-3% natural soy additive or beeswax would this make the candle more apt to not soot, since it hardens the wax some? I guess what I want to know is can I change the consistency of the wax and not the wick? TIA. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Generally, I've seen that increasing the viscosity (thickness) of the wax can stabilize the flame and make it less prone to dance and puff as things heat up. Sometimes you can get an improvement in the burn and not have to wick up if you put in just the right amount of additive.I deal with this more on the paraffin side when I'm developing a container blend, because paraffin is much less viscous than soy so you can really see a difference, but you could maybe take advantage of the same principle. Seems worth a try.What I use for paraffin is stearic acid and that's probably where I'd start with soy also, to keep it all veggie. Stearic is very compatible because that's what soy wax partially consists of anyway. My instinct is that something like 4% might be enough to improve the burn without affecting the melt pool. Beeswax has potential too because it's a pretty viscous wax. Dunno about the soy modifier -- I don't use additives if I don't know what they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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