Glass Glow Palm - Round 1

[vagabond66]

Hey all

I've been an avid reader here for a while and thought I would share my first experience with a Glass Glow palm container pour. I scoured the internet and the other posts here before giving it a shot so thanks to all the other folks that posted their results and tips...it made the process much easier.

[RichardLOZ]

Very nice crystal pattern there, although I do have to say that you must be a glutton for punishment pouring GG into an apothecary jar, even double wicking. I have tried and tried to wick those jars various ways and have not yet had any success, so I will be following you test burn with avid interest to see how you make out.

Cheers

[dnj]

Really nice color and great pattern there What scent did you use?

Please let us know how it burns. I only do palm wax on occasion but was never brave enough to do it in a large container or double wicked.

[vagabond66]

Thanks for the replies on the crystal formation. I've been using a para/soy blend for many years and decided to give the palm wax a try just to see how it was to work with. I mainly use the apothecary jars with my para/soy so out of convenience I just grabbed it for this test as well. I honestly had no clue or concern about how it would burn I was just testing for proper crystal formation. I'll test the burn for sure in a day or 2 just for kicks but I have to say the CT is amazing for this wax, at least with this first attempt.

A little bit of info on the test:

I wanted to eliminate any heat loss going from my melter to the pouring pitcher so, I just melted a lb of wax in the pitcher itself on a tinfoil covered burner.

Got the temp up to 210 F and then brought it down to 200 F and added 6.5% FO and 4 drops of CandleScience liquid dye.

FO was/is AH Flannel Sheets

Stirred in both directions for 1min each and then poured at ~190 F.

The jar was pre-warmed at 170 F in my oven.

I did "wreck" the top 4 times as it cooled and then just topped off with a heat gun to get the final result.

I have a chemistry background so I really enjoy the frustration/fascination with testing and will continue to do so with varying temps to play with the crystal formation.

Vagabond

[Candybee]

Love the blue color you got and the crystal pattern is nice. Good job for your first try.

I use a hot griddle to keep my pour pots on to keep the wax hot while I am adding scent and dye. That way the wax temp stays hot until I am ready to pour. Got my griddle pan at Walmart for about $20.

[mparadise]

Those look wonderful! Just curious, when you did the remelt on top with the heat gun, did you get the large crystalization or just the smaller crystals? I decided to do repours because I wanted to have the larger crystals that matched the sides. I was just curious what everyone else is doing/has found.

Richard, the 16 oz apoth jars are MUCH easier than the smaller 10 oz jars to wick if that helps. I still haven't gotten the smaller jars wicked correctly. I gave up and went back to my 8 oz tins instead rather than make myself nuts. In theory it should be a similar sized wick but I have had NO luck.

[soy327]

Can you share what you wicked it with?

[topofmurrayhill]

The pour looks terrific from the side. Both those wicks are going to curl in the same direction the way you have them oriented. The curl will be away from the camera.

[vagabond66]

Candybee - Thanks for the tip on the griddle. I may have to look into something like that for the future if I stick with this wax....just another piece of equipment to add to the seemingly never ending pile I already have.

Mparadise - I "wrecked" 4 times using a 1/2" putty knife, I waited for about 45min or until I wouldnt gain anything from punching down one more time and then hit it with the heat gun to level the wax off. I had large crystals forming on the top at the time.

Soy327 - I used 2 ECO 10s....I took a wild guess as to what to use based on what I had used in the past with soy. I was more interested in just the getting the crystalization process nailed than I was with how it would burn after the fact

Topofmurryhill - I'll start the burn tomorrow night and take more pics unless its a total flop so we'll see just how it burns.

[topofmurrayhill]

I'll be interested in how ECO works.

I'm confident that it doesn't burn true to size in palm wax. The question in my mind is whether ECO is one of those wick types that will work in palm if you use an oversized wick, or if it just tends to fizzle regardless. It mainly depends on the chemical treatment. I have ECO tentatively pegged as a fizzler, but I didn't try a large enough size to be certain. I think your sizing here should be sufficient to answer the question more definitively than my testing did.

Another question is what will happen when you first light the candle. The ECOs should burn true to size at least temporarily (to make it interesting, I'll say 20 minutes to an hour). Palm wax isn't much more viscous than paraffin and 2 x ECO 10 is a lot of firepower for one container, so I imagine things could start off a little torchy.

Pardon me, it's just interesting to try and predict and then see if reality matches up.

[Meridith]

Try wicking it with 2 ECO 4's or 6's. 10's I would think would be too large for that jar. They are for me with soy and most FO. With the 4's I get a good burn and great throw; the wick never fizzled out and burned clean. The 4 did burn a bit hotter and achieved a MP faster than I'd like but you can still handle the jar and the wick doesn't soot. I still need to try the 2's but the ones I have are too short. Also, my experience has been that when I wicked down when I'm at the point I am like with the 4's, the next size down burned slower and cooler, the wick struggled a bit at times, and the throw was lacking. The ECOs don't seem to torch as much when first lit like the CSN. The CSN mellows out after a few minutes, but no matter the size, they always do that for me.

To keep my pour pots warm, I keep them in the oven with the oven on warm.

[mparadise]

Thanks for the heads up on the crystalization. I will have to try it again with my heat gun on a lower setting and see what happens.

As far as the ECO 10's, I use that size in quite a few of my FO's in 16 oz apoth jars (had NO luck with these in the 10 oz despite my jars having the same diameter). They are a little torchy for the first couple of minutes but settle right down once there is a small melt pool to draw from. That size is my "go-to" wick for GG and I start testing up or down from there. They leave quite a bit of hang up for the first couple of burns but give them a shot because they always take care of it during subsquent burns.

[snewbie]

Ive found the heat gun to not be my friend with palm wax. Try just doing a final pour 2-3 mm above the last level. Nice looking wax.

Edited May 27, 2010 by snewbie

[vagabond66]

Snewbie - what issues were you having with the heat gun? I kept mine on the lower setting which will go up to 570F and I worked in a circular pattern until I had a nice even top which didnt take long.

I think it's going to have a tad too much heat with this size wick as well but we'll see.....I just lit it up.

[snewbie]

For me, the heat gun with the palm is a no-go. It worked fine with soy. I think we will all find our best method for ourselves.

Edited May 28, 2010 by snewbie

[vagabond66]

Ok....here is the 1st 4 hour burn.

As most of you expected the flames were a bit high to start...about 1" to 1 1/4" for the 1st hour. For the next hour, they died down to about what you see in the pic and burned steady for hours 3 and 4.

The melt pool was wider than I would have liked for the first burn but then again with that size wick probably not unexpected. I will continue to perform subsequent 4 hour burns and report the results back.

Seeing how the first burn took off though I'm assuming at this point that I will go down to ECO 8s and probably move the wicks about a 1/4" further apart.

The throw was very impressive. I may be doing quite a bit more testing with this wax.

[vagabond66]

Just noticed the time stamp is off on the pics.

Also, shot from the top....youll notice the wicks were slightly off center hence the off center pool and it had cooled slightly and started to crystalize again.

[Meridith]

Ok....here is the 1st 4 hour burn.

As most of you expected the flames were a bit high to start...about 1" to 1 1/4" for the 1st hour. For the next hour, they died down to about what you see in the pic and burned steady for hours 3 and 4.

The melt pool was wider than I would have liked for the first burn but then again with that size wick probably not unexpected. I will continue to perform subsequent 4 hour burns and report the results back.

Seeing how the first burn took off though I'm assuming at this point that I will go down to ECO 8s and probably move the wicks about a 1/4" further apart.

The throw was very impressive. I may be doing quite a bit more testing with this wax.

Your burn looks pretty good so far. I'd be curious to see how the 8's do too. With most 6's and the FOs I've tested so far, I get a burn that is way too hot and a MP that is too deep - over 1 inch in about an hour. the throw is great though. I did not think a 6 would burn that hot with palm. With my soy and the same jar, I double wick with 8 and 6's, depending on the FO. I even have some FOs I wick with 2 4's. I tried 10's as suggested but they are too much for my soy wax and that jar. This has been one of my issues with palm containers that I double wick, if it burns a bit too hot and achieves too deep of a MP to my liking, the throw is great. But when I wick down to get the burn time, and MP depth, jar not too hot like I want, the throw is diminished. Slowly but surely we continue to test these and slowly but surely we are getting some that are passing testing. But now with the weather getting warmer, I'm testing some of my difficult FOs again to make sure everything is good to go.

[vagabond66]

Here is the 2nd 4 hour burn

The wicks being slightly off center is little more noticeable now. Good solid burn for the whole 4 hours though. Each flame was a little over half inch. Scent throw was still really strong as well. From the side shot you can see that it's completely cleaned off compared to the side further away where there is still about 3/8" left. Guess I'll have to watch the wick placement a little bit more with these as the wax seems to be more temperamental with the heat.

[topofmurrayhill]

It may not be the wick placement so much as the orientation that isn't optimal. As I mentioned earlier, your wicks are both set to curl towards the same side of the jar, plus they're pointed perpendicular to the axis you placed them in.

For most ordinary containers, you want to keep the wicks pretty close together for a circular melt pool; I wouldn't move those any further apart. For the most symmetrical melt pool, have them curl away from each other. Even towards each other might be OK, but not to one side as you have them now.

The curl will be in the direction of the upward-pointing braid pattern.

[vagabond66]

Top - Thanks for the observation on the wick orientation. You are correct in that they are perpendicular to placed axis. In all honesty I paid no attention to placement I was more excited to see the formation of crystals for the first time. If they had been placed in properly the pool would have been more uniform in nature. As it is burning right now, I have almost a full melt pool with just a little bit of hangup on all sides. I will definitely watch the orientation for testing purposes now that I have the initial cool factor of the crystals out of my system.

[vagabond66]

Here is the 3rd burn - I let it go for 5 hours this time. After the first 2 hours, the melt pool had reached the sides. The flames were not quite 1/2" in height. In the 3-5 hour time length, the pool was about 3/8" deep and the flames were ~5/8" in height.

I did notice that towards the end of the 5 hours that the FO scent was starting to distort a bit. My assumption is that it was due to the amount of heat being generated but some of you more seasoned folks may have a better idea on that one.

[lrbd]

I am almost done burning my first glass glow . I used csn . They are not curling . They look like little straight pointed nothings . It is very weird.

[vagabond66]

I completed the last burn of the Glass Glow test last night or at least as far as I wanted to take it. Within 2 hours of lighting it up I had a full MP and it was over 1/2" deep.

At this point, the glass was fairly hot (I wouldnt have wanted to keep my hand on it for more than 5-6 secs) and the scent throw was starting to distort a bit meaning that it had a touch of a burnt smell to it or some other smell I couldnt quite put my finger on.

Once I put the candle out and let it cool off, I noticed that I had a new band of color that was a dark purple where the 5/8" MP had been.

Again since this was my first attempt with this wax I'm just making the assumption that this was due to the high temp but I'll have to do some research on this and see what I can dig up.

In any case, I really do enjoy this wax and am now anxious to do a couple more tests using dual ECO 6 and 8. Will post when I have them made up and ready to go.

[Meridith]

I completed the last burn of the Glass Glow test last night or at least as far as I wanted to take it. Within 2 hours of lighting it up I had a full MP and it was over 1/2" deep.

At this point, the glass was fairly hot (I wouldnt have wanted to keep my hand on it for more than 5-6 secs) and the scent throw was starting to distort a bit meaning that it had a touch of a burnt smell to it or some other smell I couldnt quite put my finger on.

Once I put the candle out and let it cool off, I noticed that I had a new band of color that was a dark purple where the 5/8" MP had been.

Again since this was my first attempt with this wax I'm just making the assumption that this was due to the high temp but I'll have to do some research on this and see what I can dig up.

In any case, I really do enjoy this wax and am now anxious to do a couple more tests using dual ECO 6 and 8. Will post when I have them made up and ready to go.

I thought the 10's would be too much. I don't know how people can DW with them in soy and this jar or ones similar because they are too big for me. Just shows that all our experiences can differ. I thought if the 10's were too much for my soy, they would be too much for palm since I've found that I don't need to up from what I use with soy. I use my soy wicking as a guide when I'm testing new wicks for palm. I find it provides a nice starting point.

You might find the 8's to also be too much as well. The 4's and 6's have burned well for me. The 6's are still a little too hot but the throw is great. The 4's have a diminished throw (not that bad though) but have burned well with what I've tested so far.