Parafin and soot

[Gbhunter]

If you over wick a parafin candle you end up with a massive soot stream comin from the flame and the wax will be consumed very quickly. My question is that if you have wicked the candle properly are you still getting this soot but at a much slower rate thus it is not visable to the human eye?

[Wessex]

Soot is the byproduct of an incomplete burn (wax being consumed). If your candle is wicked perfectly, you will get no soot. Of course everytime the flame is disturbed (walk by it, AC kicks on, etc.), it will throw some soot. So to answer your question, a properly wicked candle should produce no or very little soot. But there is no such thing as a perfect burn, LOL. Some times you may notice sooting on the container top at the end of a burn. This is because at the end of a burn (especially in a deep container) the flame will struggle to get enough air and "dance" and flicker. This means the wax is no longer completely being consumed.

Pardon the rambling answer, LOL.

Cheers,

Steve

[Gbhunter]

Its a good anser and one that really helped answer my question

When I started I used to put 60 ply flat braids in my 3 inch pillars! That was a soot fest turned the room gray! Now I use 140 mp wax and 24ply(even though most sites recomend 27 ply I found the the 27 ply creates this tiny soot trail comin off the top of the flame so I went down a size and although the 24 ply can cause the trail too it usually means its time to trim the wick, i did try to go to 18ply and it failed horribly.). I use 140mp wax and add 2tbs of stearine to it per lbs and the candle burns perfectly down without sagging or spillingng.nd my happy formula as I call it! For the 3 X 6 pillars anyway.(of course once I start adding FO im sure everything will change in my "happy formula".

Its just hard to try and make sense of all the info out there. Some sites tell you that "PARAFFIN WAX IS TOXIC AND EVIL!!" and "Soy is been sent to us from heaven because it so pure and all"... The you find a site that states the exact oppisite.

Edited October 3, 2010 by Gbhunter

[Judy, USMC]

Let me throw something else out there regarding the topic.

I'm using a container candle for example - just because it's easier to see the soot throw off. If you burn it for 3 hrs, blow out, trim the wick and immediately re-light it you will get very, very little soot build up on the glass even if you burn it continuously all the way to the bottom as long as you keep the wick trimmed.

However, if you let the candle burn for the same length of time (all the way to the bottom) WITHOUT trimming the wick you get an unbelievably thick coating of soot.

So the question is ... does the soot come from uncombusted wax or is it coming from the fibers in the wick?

(I honestly don't know the answer - so this is not a trick question.)

Edited October 3, 2010 by Judy, USMC

[Wessex]

I think an untrimmed wick simply feeds too much fuel to the flame to get complete combustion. Just an educated guess, though.

Cheers,

Steve

[coconut]

If you search this board you will find some very good (and very bad) answers to your question. I think part of the soot comes from the FO as well. I have paraffin candles with light FO that don't soot at all. I have some with heavy FO that only soot when an untrimmed wick is lit and then does not soot after that. If I find soot on the glass, I discontinue that wick and try a different wick or a smaller wick. Soot is not a given with paraffin. HTH.

[Scented]

Its just hard to try and make sense of all the info out there. Some sites tell you that "PARAFFIN WAX IS TOXIC AND EVIL!!" and "Soy is been sent to us from heaven because it so pure and all"... The you find a site that states the exact oppisite.

For you and anyone else ... go to the National Candle Association's site and BELIEVE what you read about certain waxes under the FAQ section.

http://www.candles.org/about_faq.html

Paraffin took a nasty, nasty rap not so long ago and if the candle industry isn't careful, it could find itself susceptible to a lot of regulation just to try to weed out the BS ... and then you're faced with additional problems. Just saying ... there are fanatics out there and some on this board who refuse to see outside of the tunnel. At times in our lives, I suppose we're all like that ... but until the BS stops flying you'll probably start reading that Palm is the godsend and not soy, which has been found to be lethal in xyz ... in other words, certain people within the industry feel the need to vault their product into fame, fortune and higher prices by using deceit. It's apparently the new American way.

[Candybee]

Soot as a byproduct of an incomplete burn is only partly true. Anything you light up that has a flame produces soot as a byproduct. How its wicked, the type of wax, fragrance, additives, etc., will all effect the amount and color of the soot.