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Feather Palm Testing


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Aha! I suspected so! The excellent patterns on your candles tell the story of the difference! Thanks! :)

:confused:

Which are the thicker? And the thinner?

I have seamless aluminium molds bought from CW, Peak and ebay...

I always get THAT pattern...

who carries thinner? or thicker, what do I know about the thickness of my molds ......

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Sorry I was unclear, Sabrina... I was actually thinking more of the patterns Top got at room temp cooling on the tortoise shell than the feathering. You are correct - the pattern is the same, but the intensity & evenness of it is different when the thicker, professional grade aluminum molds are used than the thin & thinner aluminum or tin molds more commonly available. I also use tin molds and I have to insulate them more than I do the medium thick aluminum molds.

I have seen 3 different grades (thicknesses) of aluminum molds. I don't know the exact specs - I think of 'em as thin & thinner. The price usually tells the story. The thinner aluminum molds are usually a good bit cheaper.The aluminum ones I have purchased have been two different grades of aluminum - the el cheapo real thin ones are almost worthless because the heat escapes too quickly from them and they ding up quite easily. They are little different from tin molds as far as evenness of cooling and durability. Professional grade aluminum molds are a lot thicker and heavier than the ones I have. :)

Edited by Stella1952
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Aha! I suspected so! The excellent patterns on your candles tell the story of the difference! Thanks! :)

I don't really believe it would make a significant difference, even with the dinky ones. I know the dinky ones you mean, but hardly anybody sells those. I have a few because they were available in an odd size I needed. A few suppliers occasionally have them at a discount.

The rest of the aluminum molds are all equivalent. There's no special professional grade. The ones that CandleScience and Candlewic sell, for instance, are professional molds. Most suppliers sell molds like that and candle companies of all sizes use them. The ones I've been using are from CS and CW.

Edited by topofmurrayhill
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Thanks Stella, I'd like to see one professional grade mold just to learn about the differences.

I don't use tin molds except for some special candle as hearts, I only use seamless alu, but when I do patterns are beautiful, and candles releases better than alu.

I guess we're slightly OT but thanks for explanation!

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So here's my do-over: burn 2 for LX NST2 sizes 16, 18, 20 and 22. I did a 4 hour burn to make up for the false start, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be using 3 or 4 hour burns for the rest of the testing.

The 16 had the most tendency to mushroom, as was the case during the first burn. It was the only wick with a mushroom at the 3 hour point. The heat from the mushroom even brought the melt pool surprisingly close to one side of the candle on this burn. It will get one more chance, but I anticipate eliminating it after the next burn. I don't think it's got the stuff.

The 18 looked good but grew a small to moderate mushroom between 3 and 4 hours. The other two showed just a hint of mushrooming in the final hour. The 22 ended up with a big honking flame. Too big I think, but it will continue for now.

Photos are near the beginning and near the end.

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Edited by topofmurrayhill
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Here is burn 3 for the LX NST2 wicks. The photos are at about 1 hour and 3 hours.

Off the bat, the problem I am having with these is mushrooming. The 16 started doing it early enough that I didn't bother burning it to the end. The only wick that didn't mushroom during this 3-hour burn is the 22, but the shell got too thin with that one.

So perhaps I'm at the point of eliminating all these wicks at once. Too big, too small, too shroomy. What I may do is "water down" one of the testers to a lower fragrance level, just to see what affect the FO concentration might have on the burn. I notice that the Feather Palm is a little softer and more melty than the Tortoise Shell Palm.

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Burn 8 (4 hours) for CSN 12. I have no complaints.

I decided not to waste my time with LX NST2 for this wax because CSN is obviously working so much better, so I remelted those testers to try a few other odd wicks.

Before melting them down, I split them. This wax seems surprisingly soft--much softer than the Tortoise Shell Palm. I expected that I would be showing you a photo of the voids, but mostly there were none. The few that I found were not large enough to be of major concern. We will try this wax in taller molds, but so far it seems that it could be a one-pour as CandleScience suggests.

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I recycled the LX NST2 testers to try out some miscellaneous wicks. I was gonna add a few drops of dye to switch up the color, but I forgot. Oh well.

This is one hour into the first burn.

In the center background is LX 18 NST2 again. I've been getting the feeling that the wax has been a little overloaded with 5% of this FO, so I thinned that one out to 4% to compare the burn with the previous LX 18 NST2 tester. I wonder if it will burn better and mushroom less (or preferably not at all) with the lower FO amount.

On the left is CDN 8. The CDN wicks worked terribly in the Tortoise Shell Palm, but I wanted to give them another chance in Feather Palm. The CDN 8 and the LX 18 NST2 started this burn with a rather similar flame, but at this point the CDN looks like it's feeling a little under the weather.

One the right is regular 36-ply wicking. I had a bad feeling putting that fat wick in the mold, apparently for good reason. The flame is enormous and the size is obviously too large. I'll probably extinguish it after another hour or so. If it holds up for that long in the palm wax, I may test a more appropriate size.

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Here is the 3-hour point for burn 1 of the miscellaneous wicks.

On the left, CDN 8 has finally curled over and the crud at the end of the wick has trimmed off. The flame is a little small for the wick size and I'm not certain if it has just settled down to a normal burn or if it's gradually overtrimming. The flame was distinctly larger when it was first lit. I'll let it burn for another hour and see what the final result looks like.

In the center background, the burn for LX 18 NST2 with 4% FO is not very different from what it was with 5% FO. These wicks stay very straight and tend to mushroom in this wax. The burn is fairly ugly, so at this point I'm going to extinguish the candle and consider LX NST2 eliminated for wicking Feather Palm.

On the right, our big bruiser of a plaited wick looks a lot more sedate. The curl in the wick gradually turned into a 90 degree bend and the extra wick burned off. As with the CDN, I'm not certain how to interpret the results yet. We'll let it go for another hour and see what happens.

The German manufacturers seem to specialize in a lot of options for chemical treatments of their wicks, whereas American manufacturers like Atkins & Pearce seem to have a "one size fits all" approach. Paraffin candles in the USA have historically been made with stearic acid compositions typically up to 30%, so I think the wicks have always been designed to deal with that. That may explain why the 36 ply holds up respectably in palm wax. However, I think the bottom line is that it still overtrims. Here we had to put in a very large size and had a flame that went from large to medium. If I put in a more appropriate size, the flame will probably go from medium to small. Compare that to the consistency of the burn that I got with CSN at the beginning of this thread.

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So here is the end of burn 1 for the miscellaneous wicks--a total of 4 hours. I haven't decided what to do with the CDN and flat braid testing. I could try a larger CDN and a smaller flat braid. I could continue burning these and see how they do. But life is short and CSN worked extremely well, so I'm just not sure about going through the exercise when I already seem to have the best wick. If I were doing all this testing offline, I definitely wouldn't bother.

By the way, I didn't warm the molds when making the two testers in the front. Pouring into a cold mold made no difference at all.

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Edited by topofmurrayhill
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Here is the end of burn 9 for CSN 12. All the burns were 4 hours. Since I didn't set up this wick to extinguish itself near the bottom, this will be the last burn. I am very satisfied with the CSN 12 results. The wick burned cleanly without any mushrooming. It consumed the shell in an attractive way. It never came near blowing out. I originally lit it at a legnth of 1/2" inch and it never once needed to be trimmed.

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This is the end of burn 2 for CDN 8 (left) and 36-ply flat braid (right). The burn was 4 hours long.

Both of these wicks burn somewhat smaller than their size.

In the case of CDN, it overtrims and works as though it's burning soy wax. Even though the flame is small, it does seem to settle down to a stable burn. I may try testing a larger size.

The FB 36 also trims down and burns small in this wax. It burned like its real size for a while at the beginning of the first burn because I left it long. Apparently it should be cut short before the first lighting. Like the CDN, it did settle down to a stable burn and also a very clean one, with no sign of mushrooming. I think Sabrina has the size right on target. I am interested in continuing to burn this tester to see how it will do.

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Edited by topofmurrayhill
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In the case of CDN, it overtrims and works as though it's burning soy wax.

Does this mean it "sucks a$$" in this application as you reported in your soy testing thread?

I may try testing a larger size.
I don't know why you'd bother! From what I've read in all your tests, Heinz should just stop making CDN according to your observations... :undecided
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Time for some votives.

CSN 7 worked perfectly in Tortoise Shell Palm. Since Feather Palm seems to burn more slowly, I made CSN 7 and CSN 9 testers.

It shouldn't be too important what length you trim the wick to when lighting up a votive. However, since the treated wicks trim more slowly, you want to be careful that the tip of the wick doesn't curl around and touch the surface of the wax before it has a chance to burn away.

I have a strong feeling that I'm going to wish there was a size in between CSN 7 and CSN 9.

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Here's a new CDN 10 tester burning alongside the 36-ply flat braid. This is 2 hours into a planned 4-hour burn. The CDN started off with a nice strong flame, and I wish I'd taken a photo earlier because now it has totally faded out. It's mushrooming, and more than half the wick seems fried. I have to admit, Stella was right--I guess I shouldn't have bothered. I'm just trying my best to cover the bases.

Testament to the ever-versatile plaited wicking, the 36 ply is holding up surprisingly well into its third burn. It hasn't needed trimming apart from the first lighting, and it's burning pretty cleanly without any mushrooming. This is a large wick that has trimmed down to a small flame, so we can't say it's perfectly adapted to this wax, but so far it looks like FB 36 or 40 might do the job in practice. We'll keep going and see how it works out.

Also, here are the CSN 7 & 9 votives two hours into their burn, which will be continuous until they expire.

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After 4 hours, the end of burn 1 for CDN 10 and burn 3 for FB 36.

In the final hour, the CDN exposed some new wick and bounced back.

The FB 36 seems to be doing nicely so far.

The votives continue to burn well at the 4 hour point. CSN 9 seems like it might not be too big after all, but we have a long way to go.

I forgot to mention previously that I decided to pour the new CSN 10 tester using the more "generic" palm wax pouring instructions that are commonly heard on the board. It was poured between 195 and 200 degrees into a warmed mold and cooled under a cardboard box. There's no apparent difference in the way it came out, but this does demonstrate that Feather Palm is easy to use and not very sensitive to variations in procedure. In contrast, Tortoise Shell Palm can require more specific conditions to really "nail it." It wouldn't have turned out well if it was poured like the CSN 10 tester.

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I'm very short on time so I can't follow, read and post as I'd like, but I still have my 36 ply tester, with its beautiful shell, to show you.

I know size seems large, and it maybe not the perfect wicking, I do what I can with what I have on hand but this seems to work really fine. Truth to be told, I'd try a CSN only to compare HT.

Thanks

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I'm very short on time so I can't follow, read and post as I'd like, but I still have my 36 ply tester, with its beautiful shell, to show you. I know size seems large, and it maybe not the perfect wicking, I do what I can with what I have on hand but this seems to work really fine.

Mine is working fine so far also. The burn is not so different from CSN, even though the size seems large. If it keeps going well, I would probably include it as one of the recommended wicks.

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