More Tortoise Testing using 30 ply

[debratant]

Ok...here is my first test.

The photo's suck...just so you know. My camera needs charging and I don't have any fancy set ups. Just my counter top lol.

I'm not happy with the pattern on this. This is actually the second pour after I remelted because I got impatient with the first one and started finagling with the mold and had major spillage...duh. I can't help it. I was dying to see if the pattern came out. lol

I poured this one at 190...so maybe next time I'll pour at 185 and hope the pattern improves. I didn't heat the mold, cover, insulate etc. Didn't want to be bothered taking up too much of my kitchen counter space.

After following Tops testing...I noticed too that the first burn...there is a nice flame. Not too high. At the end of the 3 hour burn...the flame is rather high IMO. I'm hoping the flame will die down on the next burn tomorrow.

[lrbd]

Thanks for sharing your results debbie

Laura

[debratant]

This is the second burn with the 30 ply flat braid. I did trim the wick before lighting...didn't intend to, but did it out of habit. I am a stickler about trimming and I darn well forgot to leave this one alone. I won't trim the wick the rest of these burns.

At first lighting...then 3 hours later...also a picture of what the wick looks like after the 2nd burn.

Oh...I used Backwoods Lemon Tart @ 6%. 8 drops of liquid yellow dye.

[debratant]

The 3rd burn.

When first lit....after 3 hours..and to show the wick.

Please excuse the milk and the newspaper. It was dinner time and I was still drinking my milk. I have to LOL at myself. I spilled my whole cup of coffee all over the newspaper, stove where the candle was and all over my camera which was near the candle. What a mess. My kitchen is just way to small to do candles and cook dinner.:rolleyes2

[topofmurrayhill]

Welcome to the party and thanks for sharing your work. I have to revisit some wicks now that I have an FO that works well with tortoise shell, but maybe you'll save me the trouble of testing flat braid. I thought 30 ply might be the size and it's looking promising. A concave top mold might help with that tall flame you got at the end of the first burn. I've decided to go back to those for the same reason. What ever happened to your CSN testers?

Edited April 27, 2010 by topofmurrayhill

[debratant]

Hi Top.

It's hard to see but my molds are concaved. I can't seem to get a good picture at all.

The 30 ply does seem to be doing quite well. We'll see how burn 4 goes.

I still have the two CSN testers sitting here. I will light them today at some point. They came out pretty though.

I'm going to try covering next time because the pattern on this pillar isn't too prominant. Could be the yellow...but I think it is more that they need to cool slow as you posted in your thread.

[debratant]

Here are the two that I plan to test with csn wicks. Will do that later today

[topofmurrayhill]

I got some conflicting results, but slow cooling seems the way to go as long as you don't overdo it like I did the first time. Go over them with a paper towel when they come out of the mold and they'll get shiny.

[debratant]

Thanks for that tip on the paper towel Top. I will do that next time. Mine aren't very shiny I've noticed.

Here are the results of burn 4 for the 30 ply.

Before starting burn 4....1 hour into burn...after 3 hours and the wick

once extinguished. I meant to add the the flame seems to be at a good height

and I'm not trimming this wick anymore. I really love these flat braid wicks. The

scent throw has been good too.

Edited April 28, 2010 by debratant
adding something

[topofmurrayhill]

If it's not my imagination, the scent throw is killer with the tortoise shell in particular, both hot and cold.

It's never too late to shine them up--try it.

[debratant]

I'm really bummed. On burn 6, the 30 ply started to blowout.

Here is end of burn 5 and the end of burn 6.

[debratant]

I'm kind of wondering if the fact that our house is not level (at least in the kitchen) is having an effect. I noticed with burn 5 that the melt pool

just looked off. I had removed my black plate I was using and put the pillar on a pillar stand for burn 5. If you look in my photo's I had the pillar off center on the plate because it just wasn't sitting level in the center LOL. It was burning perfectly though off center of the plate since it was level there. Then I decided to use the pillar holder and the burn started changing.

Does this sound crazy? I know this house is off level because when I pour, I see it in the molds...which is why I use a box with rice now and I actually use a mini level to make sure they are level :rolleyes2

I'm going nuts I think LOL. Pulling at straws, blaming the house for the 30 blowing out. Seriously...could it be possible though???

[topofmurrayhill]

It's not your house. Welcome to the club. I've been through this several times. They usually blow out around that burn unless you've got the right wick in them. Even then, this wax melts out wide and you probably should limit the test burns to 3 hours.

I happened to pour 30-ply and 27-ply testers this morning before I saw your post. I guess it's a good thing. Maybe I can confirm your results with the 30 and we can see how the 27 works.

I saw your photos of the fried CSN testers. Is that the same fragrance oil or a different one? I'm guessing it's different.

[debratant]

Yeah, it's a different oil. I will likely remelt those ones back down.

The flame is pitiful on those two. Here is the wick after the burn.

See how the wick looks real thin before the tip? What's that about?

Is that what "fried" looks like?

I'm looking forward to seeing your results with the 27 and 30.

I'm going to order more flat braid today...and also some spooled csn wicking.

Edited April 30, 2010 by debratant

[topofmurrayhill]

Yeah, that's what fried looks like. I posted several photos of wicks that look just like that.

Tortoise Shell is apparently pretty acidic, so all wicks get fried except for CSN and NST2-treated wicks like RRD. I'm actually kind of surprised that your flat braid worked as well as it did, which is why I'm checking it out firsthand.

Now if that were the whole story, it would be OK. I have no problem using CSN; it works best in all the palm waxes anyway. The problem is that some fragrance oils aren't compatible with it and they cause even the special wicks to burn crappy. That's what you ran into with your red candles. The very first FO I tried with tortoise shell was like that and I wasted so much time and material on it.

Whichever fragrance you used for the 30-ply is the one you should use for testing right now, until you can identify more good ones.

[debratant]

I'm going to remelt that 30 ply and retest. I remelted the 2 berries and lillies and ended up with one pillar due to a major mold leak :rolleyes2 and I didn't catch it in time. I was outside staining the deck...multitasking. Anyway, I have a pound of lemon tart...so I'll continue to test only that scent from now on.

I'm still gonna burn that berries and lillies though. I rewicked it with a 24 ply. The pattern came out

better this time..cooled it under a cardboard box. The left over wax I poured into some dixie cups

and will throw them in my tart burner. My husband took my good camera to work, so I have been

using my phone camera, so the pics aren't the best.

Edited May 2, 2010 by debratant

[debratant]

Well that didn't work out well. I kinda knew it was way too small. It

fried on the second burn. I didn't even get to take pics.

I poured another tester and wicked with a csn 11.