I need a suggestion for a Good Taper Wax

[ILikeWaxMelts]

The Title says it all.

can anybody recommend a good taper wax.

I know beeswax is best for tapers...

But what's the second best taper wax out there???

[JanetsCandles]

I use paraffin with vybar 103 for my tapers, dipped and molded both. It stays firm and doesn't drip for me. I can't use straight soy for it, doesn't pull from the molds, and dipping it is a pain in the arse.

[ILikeWaxMelts]

JanetsCandle,

Which paraffin do you use?

[Scented]

I'd say as hard as you can find (high melt point)

[JanetsCandles]

I use Hobby Lobby's wax, so 133-135 melt point. Works fine for me.

[EricofAZ]

I'm on this quest too.

I'm hanging pretty close to 4627 with lots of vybar and a healthy portion of stearic added to get the candle close to a dripless burn. The wick is still undecided. So far I've burned about 30 tapers with no clear winner for wax/wick combo, but some clear losers.

Another close contender is 1343.

Any wax that has a resistance to forming a wide melt pool should be on your list. This is not necessarily high MP waxes. Vybar has a great effect on making the MP smaller. So does stearine.

I tried adding micro wax that has 195 mp and it ran like crazy even with vybar.

Of course, the wick is also a huge component to this build.

Edited June 23, 2011 by EricofAZ

[rjdaines]

Well, you all confused me with this topic. Someone suggests a hard wax and then I see 4627 mentioned which a is " super soft paraffin blend wax for container candles". Never having made a taper I would have thought that a good pillar was would have been a good place to start, something like 4625. I'd love to make molded tapers at some point myself.

[ILikeWaxMelts]

I use Hobby Lobby's wax, so 133-135 melt point. Works fine for me.

Do you use flat braid wick or Square braid JanentsCandles???

[Maggie]

Well, you all confused me with this topic. Someone suggests a hard wax and then I see 4627 mentioned which a is " super soft paraffin blend wax for container candles". Never having made a taper I would have thought that a good pillar was would have been a good place to start, something like 4625. I'd love to make molded tapers at some point myself.

That is what I was thinking too. I don't pour tapers...and never plan to...lol. But...I googled best wax for making tapers and found this. It's one of the pages from the original Candlemaking Techniques from Peak. Here is the link......

http://www.candletech.com/candle-making-basics/hand-dipped-tapers/

[SliverOfWax]

Goodness. There aren't enough additives on earth to make 4627 into a taper. Well...maybe there are, but why?

Use a high mp wax (like someone said, 1343) and be done with it. 1343 is a great wax, or was back when I used it.

I'm all for experimenting, but why waste time trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

[rjdaines]

Goodness. There aren't enough additives on earth to make 4627 into a taper. Well...maybe there are, but why?

Use a high mp wax (like someone said, 1343) and be done with it. 1343 is a great wax, or was back when I used it.

I'm all for experimenting, but why waste time trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

Still confused, 1343 is "straight" paraffin with a MP of 139F, not as high a MP as 1260 which has a MP of 163F? It seems that people down't use 1260 for tapers tho.

I guess people start with 1343 and add stearic.

[so confused]

Edited June 23, 2011 by rjdaines

[JanetsCandles]

Actually I've used 1230A for it as well (Had some available, worked in testing, so used it) and had no problems, so honestly yes, higher is better, but you can go to the lower end of the spectrum on melt point.

As for the question, it depends on the size of taper I'm wanting to go with. On dipped or dinner taper sized molded tapers, I use 15 ply flat braid. I use other sizes for different diameters, but it's always flat braid on paraffin, it works very well.

You can use 1260 for an outer dip on the tapers. But it's too hard to burn well for a core.

Edited June 23, 2011 by JanetsCandles

[Scented]

Goodness. There aren't enough additives on earth to make 4627 into a taper. Well...maybe there are, but why?

Use a high mp wax (like someone said, 1343) and be done with it. 1343 is a great wax, or was back when I used it.

I'm all for experimenting, but why waste time trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

There are higher mp waxes than 1343 like a 1554 (that probably isn't the number any more) The reason for the higher waxes is it slows or lengthens burn time. I personally would go higher than 1343, which is prone to sagging.

[EricofAZ]

Of course everyone is confused. That was a typo. 4625 is what I meant with vybar and stearic. Seems to be one of the better waxes so far for dripless, but it needs lots of vybar.

The reason I was experimenting with the 1343 is because that is the cut/carve wax for dipping. I thought it might be good to have the base candle made of the same but that doesn't seem to be working out very well for dripless.

IGI recommends 4793 and 4807 for tapers. I don't know where to buy those. I have some 4794 here that I might try.

Edited June 24, 2011 by EricofAZ

[ladysj]

I use Hobby Lobby's wax, so 133-135 melt point. Works fine for me.

Do you mind sharing what wick you use? My son is wanting to make dipped pillars & I have no idea of which wick to start with. TIA

Edited June 24, 2011 by ladysj

[EricofAZ]

I'm experimenting a lot with wicks. So far the 12 ply is the best. It is strong enough to hold the candle while dipping and has very low smoking when blown out.

The down side to the ply wicks is that they sometimes curl into the candle and generate a shape like curlie fries. When they light off again with the wax flow, the fire at the top is so large that it is a hazard and the dripless candle is gone.

P wicks like P160 seem to work pretty well.

LX smokes like crazy when blown out.

Zink leaves this wire behind that has to be dealt with and for some reason, the flame burns down low towards the melt pool which is bad for dripless. Keeping the flame high above the melt pool and sucking the wax up the wick is better.

Square wicks do pretty well except that they tend to carbonize and break off after a while and the carbon hits the melt pool and lights again to form yet another type of rim fire and hazard.

I haven't found the perfect wick yet. I'm going to try RRD

TL's are pretty good, but a bit small. The flame is small and the ROC is low so that the wick tends to tunnel and therefore the flame heats the sides and the candle leaks.

[JanetsCandles]

Do you mind sharing what wick you use? My son is wanting to make dipped pillars & I have no idea of which wick to start with. TIA

Depends on what size you're making. If it's small, go with 12 or 15 ply to start. You might be better to just check to see if you can get some samples from a supplier and test what would work best for your wax formula.

[EricofAZ]

Ok, I got my hands on some 4807. First test burn of this on a 10 inch taper with a P160 wick was awesome. No additives. Only light dripping at the half way point. (So far all prior wax tests required additives.)

I'm using the P160 as a baseline test wick because it performed the overall best in all the waxes I used. The P160 always stood up straight (hardly any curling) and ashed at the end where it did curl on all blends up to this point. In the 4807 it did not turn to ash, but mushroomed. By the lower third of the burn, the mushroom was pretty big. It took 6 hours to get to the lower third and by then it was leaking so I terminated the burn and will try some additives and go back to the ply wick to avoid the shroom.

------------

So now I'm burning a 4807 taper with a Ply 21 and Stearic. Its a good tall flame (1.5 inches) and well into the upper third so far with no dripping - even with the AC going. There is a concave surface that looks like it is burning down in the center with the sides coming in. I've seen the AC breeze lean the flame over 90 degrees at times and there is a little soot at that point but not on the regular upright flame burn. No ash forming, just a bit of shroom. Best wax by far to this point.