How-To: Making Candles

[piglet]

I have copied and edited this posting across from the 'Renewable Candle' thread in the Equipment forum.


I made my first candle, from left over wax, a few days ago (Paraffin wax - Approx 6" tall by 2" diameter)

In total, on continuous burn it lasted approximately 24 hours.
The flame is strong and bright and all the wax appears to be being consumed. Yes, I did get a little spillage, but I had the candle within a glass so the spillage was trapped and then consumed as the candle burn lower.

But I have noticed that the wick is not completely burning away and I have a couple of times trimmed the top during the burn. Sometimes the weight of the un-burnt wick was causing it to lean, and consequently the candle was burning unevenly to one side. This could then lead to spillage.

I used a good quality cotton parcel string, bought in a DIY store, which was soaked overnight in a mixture of Borax and Salt. Then hung to dry and finally dipped once in wax. Perhaps the quality was too good?
Does it need dipping in wax? I did that because I read somewhere that you should?

The wick/candle does smoke just a little and when used within a glass globe can cause some soot to form on the top rim of the globe, but I get this with shop bought candles also, and is easily wiped clean.

I know its not a big deal, but I would prefer if all the wick was consumed, so wondered I anyone had any suggestions for a cheap and easily obtained wick material that may be more appropriate?

[ForgeCorvus]

I haven't forgotten that I need to add some pics... Lifes been a bit hectic.

Piglet: Are you using just a single strand of string ?

[piglet]

I am using the whole string at this point ....Untwisting the strands, to reduce the the thickness, was to be the next option. But I need to still be able to create a large/hot enough flame to create enough heat to melt all the way to the outside rim of the candle.

I have bought a number of large cheap long life candles in the past, and the wicks have failed to create enough heat to do this, and you end up with just the centre hollowed out and the rim intact (which has to be trimmed periodically)...... which is where a lot of my left-over wax, for this project, is coming from.
At the end of the burn test, at around the 24 hour mark, the wick was still burning with about 2% wax remaining.

I did transfer the candle to a small burning jar which trapped the small amount of spillage that did occur, and this was then consumed later in the burn.

I am quite pleased with my very first attempt, but the less maintenance required, during the burn, the better, so I will keep tweaking.

[ForgeCorvus]

OK Piglet, I'm going to be a little pedantic at you for a moment so I'll say sorry first.

String is a single strand of twisted fibres.
Twine is two strands of twisted fibres that are counter-twisted together.
Cordage is three or more strands of twisted fibre counter-twisted together

Which are you using ?

Modern candle wick is made from several strands of string that are braided (plaited) together, this means that the wick is flat in section causing it to curl over in use. The tip of the wick pokes out of the candle flame into the air which (due to the wick end being hot) then chars the excess off..... So you then have in effect a self-trimming wick.

The rest of your candle experiment seems to be going really well though.... Looking foward to further updates


BTW, you wax dip the wick before use for a few reasons.
To ensure that the wick is straight (moulding and dipping)
Making sure that the wick is saturated with wax (Threading)
To make poking it through to hole in the top of a mould easier

[izzy_mack]

Great topic, I've been making candles for some time, using the left overs from bought candles and an old pan and baked bean tin. The only cost for me was wick although I could have used string to make my own. Have got friends to keep their "lumps" after burning pillar candles and occasionly give them a new candle back to encourage them, they're usually delighted but don't seem to want to try themselves ??!!?? Such an easy skill, if I can do it ... why would you not want to try?

[cpslashm]

A usual plait is three-way but using more strands gives a flatter plait.

How to do a five-way plait:

1. Tie five strands together at one end and splay them out.

2. Take the left-most strand and put it in the middle of the other four.

3. Take the right-most strand and put it in the middle of the other four.

4. Repeat from 2. until you run out of strand.

You now have a flat wick.

When I have enough fingers, I attempt a 7-way plait with my wife's hair, but don't use it as a wick....

[piglet]

String is a single strand of twisted fibres.
Twine is two strands of twisted fibres that are counter-twisted together.
Cordage is three or more strands of twisted fibre counter-twisted together

Which are you using ?

Ok..back again after numerous experiments.

I wanted to see just how simple I could keep the process so started with various grades of 'String' (single strand of twisted fibres), but I had the problem of it not burning entirely and falling into the wax and the flame being extinguished.

Then I tried unwinding the twisted fibres and then plaiting them. I still had the same problem.

Then again, I unwound the fibres and reduced the number and made a finer plait. And again still the same problem, the wick just refused to burn away before it fell into the wax. Although it did happen less often.

So, I looked at some professionally made wicks and it was plain to see that they were very tightly plaited, but when I tried to do this with the fibres from the string I found it was just to easy to break them under the pressure of trying to achieve a really tight plait.

By this time I has decided that the process was beginning to become more complicated and time consuming that I had first hoped, as my original project was to make candles with the absolute minimum of fuss and expense (apart from the intial outlay for the mould etc)

So, for a very small fee I managed to aquire a quite a large quantity of professionally made wick and of course it worked perfectly first time.
I probably have enough to last me a lifetime, but still feel it would be nice if I had managed to manufacture a servicable wick using just what comes to hand from your average kitchen drawer.

Anyhow, is there any others out there got any futher tips or advice on how to succeed where I failed?

And thank you to ForgeCorvus for pointing out the differences, as I didnt know

[ForgeCorvus]

I'd forgotten about this thread....... Yet again, I must sort some pics and finish off the How-To sections

Piglet: Are you still using the Borax and salt pretreatment? I'm assuming this is to retard flammability ?


Off to find some tallow for sale cheap

[Hamradioop]

Illustrated how to on survival candles
http://www.teotwawki-blog.com/2012/02/d ... ndles.html

[Hamradioop]

DIY Beeswax Survival Candles



http://www.teotwawki-blog.com/2012/06/d ... ndles.html