Starburst Palm Testing

[topofmurrayhill]

CSN 14 end of burn 5. Looks to me like it's either perfect or even a tiny bit too small.

[topofmurrayhill]

Here's the end of burn 6 for CSN 14.

[topofmurrayhill]

CSN 14 end of burn 7.

[topofmurrayhill]

End of burn 8 for CSN 14.

[topofmurrayhill]

CSN 14, end of burn 9 and end of burn 10. You can see that some fragrance oil has bled into the label.

I will be trying CSN 16 also. The 14 certainly works, but it seems like kind of a lot of wax left after 10 burns.

Since this is a fully finished pillar, I'm going to burn it to the end. I suppose it will extinguish during burn 11 or 12.

[topofmurrayhill]

Here's the end of burn 11 for CSN 14.

The candle extinguished itself 2 hours into burn 12, for a total burn time of 46 hours.

[topofmurrayhill]

Remember our 50/50 featherburst pillar? The one colored somewhere in between salmon and a pig's ass? Well here it is again, remade and wicked up to CSN 14 (the previous CSN 12 blew out).

The burn photos are from the end of burn 1 and the end of burn 2.

[topofmurrayhill]

End of burn 3 for featherburst CSN 14.

[topofmurrayhill]

End of burn 4 for featherburst CSN 14. This is 50% starburst and 50% feather palm.

The melt pool got a little wider than I would like and I'm wondering if the burn isn't still a little slow. We'll keep going and see what happens, but if CSN 16 works in the regular starburst pillar, it might be good to try in this variation too.

[topofmurrayhill]

The new CSN 16 tester is on the left.

I wanted to take this opportunity to try out some added stearic acid, as I said I would. But how much to use? Looking around the board, I found that people talk about using all different amounts. I tried to pick a value somewhere in the middle of the range and decided that stearic would be 3% of the wax mixture (before fragrance).

The regular starburst candle, as usual, slid out of the mold with a little shaking rather than falling out like feather and tortoise shell. It also got a little scratched on the way out--any burrs on the mold are a problem. The candle with added stearic shrank away from the mold and came out very easily. It was more uniformly covered with a crystal pattern and felt dry rather than slightly greasy. I bet it also won't sweat while burning. So adding stearic acid solves some problems.

It would be interesting to see if the voids differ, but I'd rather burn the candle than cut it up at this point.

I figure that stearic acid is already a normal component of palm wax. Rather than thinking of this as palm wax plus stearic, we could think of it as a slightly different palm wax. In fact, it's kind of like what I'd imagine getting if I added some feather wax to the starburst. With more stearic, I wonder if it would get more featherish...?

Oh yeah, that notch on the bottom edge of the stearic candle is where it grew a nostril. Beats me. Maybe just a fluke.

[dnj]

I really love the look of the 50/50 feather / starburst.

The designs are really pretty and really like the pigs ass color!!!!

Sorry...just had to laugh at that description...good one

[topofmurrayhill]

Featherburst CSN 14, end of burn 5 and end of burn 6.

[topofmurrayhill]

CSN 12 was a blowout, CSN 14 worked well, and here is the first burn for my new CSN 16 tester on the left. I wanted to try out that wick as well.

The candle on the right, also wicked with CSN 16, has added stearic acid.

The photos are at 1 hour and 4 hours.

The candle with added stearic had a taller flame for the whole burn. It showed no fragrance bleed on the outer surface. The straight starburst candle still sweated, even though I used less fragrance oil than last time.

Edited April 22, 2010 by topofmurrayhill

[topofmurrayhill]

I think we can call CSN 16 a fail--these were pretty close to melting through the side after 4 hours. I like the way this wick burns though. I might still choose it if I were making these just for myself. I don't mind burning them for less time.

In the second burn, there wasn't really a big difference between the straight starburst candle and the one with added stearic.

Edited April 22, 2010 by topofmurrayhill

[topofmurrayhill]

These are the CSN 16 testers split in half. The first photo is the straight starburst candle and the other is the candle made with a 3% stearic and 97% starburst wax mixture.

I'm convinced that the extra stearic decreased the amount of void space. It didn't decrease it to the point where I wouldn't do something about it. In fact, it looks as though the melt pool could drain right out the bottom edge of the stearic candle.

I wonder how much stearic it would take to eliminate the void space. And at that point, would it still be starburst wax or would it turn into feather palm or something?

[topofmurrayhill]

Featherburst CSN 14, end of burn 7.

[topofmurrayhill]

Featherburst CSN 14, end of burn 8.

[Jane42]

Top - I have been following your testing and I have a question.

We are testing Crystal Palm Pillar I really, REALLY want to have a full shell left after the pillar has finished so I can then put a tealight in and continue to enjoy it.

I have tried quite a few self-trimming wicks, since that is all we use for our jar and votive candles (LX's) Also CSN and CD's.

If I want to have the melt pool stay round and not go oval, like it does with the self-trimming, would it help if I tried a wick with wire in it...does that make sense?? We have avoided those wicks because people STILL think they are lead wicks...:rolleyes2

I have tried off and on for two years trying to get this right, and I continue to get the sides burning down - which is not what I want.

I know customers are not going to want to "work" to get this......be told to turn it constantly, etc.

Maybe what I am looking for is never going to work?? I even tried wicks so low it tunneled....lol....but that didn't work either!!!!

Any words of wisdom?

Thanks!

Jane

Edited April 23, 2010 by Jane42

[topofmurrayhill]

I haven't concentrated on accomplishing this, but my gut feeling is that folks have been led on a bit of a wild goose chase. And my gut is often right.

It seems that ending up with a perfect cylinder of wax is more of a candle burning project than a practical candle design. It can work out maybe with just a certain sort of wick and burning the candle in just the right way. It may also sometimes require burning the candle for very long session and we can't assume everyone's gonna do that. The design you usually aim for is one that works when people get home from work and want to burn a candle after dinner until bedtime.

I'm finding that when you use a wick that actually works correctly in palm, it doesn't take that much wick to start nibbling away at the top edge of the wax shell, or even to make a wide enough pool to melt through the side. If you underwick too much, you basically just have a candle that doesn't work very well.

As far as zinc wicks are concerned, they would certainly be a good choice when you want a round centered melt pool, but whether they burn well in palm wax I have no idea.

[topofmurrayhill]

Just to explore a little further, here's what happens when I double the amount of added stearic acid to roughly 6% of the wax blend.

The surface of the candle is covered with a superfine crystalline pattern. It not only looks fuzzy, but it feels a little like the candle is covered with a thin layer of felt. The candle contracts even more and just drops out of the mold. Probably due to the contraction, the void space decreases even more, but possibly not to the point that you can ignore it. In feather palm, I think the voids disappear because the sides of the pillar bow in slightly. The sides here stay straight.

I conclude that there's no reason to add more than a small amount of stearic acid, like maybe 2%. There are some concrete benefits to that. It aids in mold release and it increases the crystalline surface pattern, which eliminates fragrance bleed. The tightness in the mold and the sweating are arguably significant problems that can be easily solved with a little stearic.

[topofmurrayhill]

Feather/Starburst 50/50 CSN 14 end of burn 9.

[topofmurrayhill]

Featherburst CSN 14, end of burn 10. Since I filled the voids and cut the wick, I figure I'll burn this one to the end.

[topofmurrayhill]

Here's the final result for the 50/50 feather and starburst blend, wicked with CSN 14. Worked out pretty much perfectly. It made it to the end of burn 11, so I let it keep going for a little while until it extinguished. Total burn time about 45 hours.

[topofmurrayhill]

I'd like to wick starburst palm with the same types of wicks that worked in feather palm, so here is a test of CDN 16. At the same time, I'm taking the opportunity to compare CDN to regular CD 16. The photos are from the start of the burn, 2 hours and 4 hours.

CD 16 and CDN 16 start off basically the same. CDN is burning faster by the end, but I think that's just because the CDN didn't trim properly. The CD wick curled and trimmed normally, while the CDN stayed straighter and shroomed a fair amount.

[topofmurrayhill]

This is burn 2 of the CD 16 and CDN 16 testers with photos from 2 hours and 4 hours.

The CD and CDN are burning the same as far as I can see. It's interesting that the chemical treatment of the wick should make no difference in starburst. Each wax is different, but I remember Laura testing LX with two different treatments and the difference was big.

I chose CDN 16 because I was successful with CDN 12 and 14 feather palm and I thought this wax might need a wick up as it did with CSN. It's disappointing that the burn isn't stronger and a little surprising that I seem to need to wick up even more. If anyone has experience with CDN wick sizing in starburst I'd be curious to hear what range you typically try.