Wicks with Pillars

[caryfh]

I recently started making some pillars with Ecosoya PB when my dad cleaned out his shop and passed about 20 molds my direction. I'm doing some testing to try to figure out what size wick works best with each shape of mold, but then decided to come here because I had a question about the type of wick others are using.

I have pretabbed, waxed wicks... and then I also have a spool of wick. The spool works great, although haven't perfected a way to keep the wax from oozing slowly out the bottom. And I think the pretabbed wicks would work well too, if only I had a wick pin that was tall enough, and wide enough for me to be able to insert the wick after the candle cooled.

So what do those of you who make pillars use? And when you're trying to shape the candle at the end (making the bottoms square), what supplies do you use? A frying pan? Can you tell I'm new to this sort of candle??

[ChrisR]

Depending in the pillar size and your wax, I use flat braid or square braid spooled wicking. Wick the mold and duct tape the hole real good and you shouldn't have any leaking. I personally dislike wick pins and tabbed wicks for pillars.

If your mold is level and on a level surface, you shouldn't need to do much to the finished pillar. A warm frying pan works just as well as anything if you need to adjust the bottom.

[topofmurrayhill]

I'd encourage sticking with the spooled wicking for pillars too. Try the shiny aluminum metal tape rather than the plastic duct tape. They should be pretty close to each other at the home improvement store. At normal pouring temperatures with concave molds, just one piece of tape should do the trick. If you use flat-topped molds or pour very hot, use one piece in the same direction the wick is laying and another to cross over it.

[caryfh]

Thanks for the tips. Will have to try the tricks with the tape. Has resorted to using some plummer's putty, which was working okay, but kind of pain to clean up... not so sure it even come off of the wick. Thanks, will keep going with my testing with the spooled wick.