A Day In The Life Of A Chandler
Part 1
Which wax to use?
Soy wax is used in all of our candles at Cubbishly Kes, it is often considered more environmentally friendly compared to traditional paraffin wax and burns slower and cleaner. Soy candles haven’t been around a long time, with soy wax only being invented back in 1996. Soy wax is a vegetable wax derived from soybean oil. To get to the oil, harvested soybeans are cleaned, dehulled, cracked, and rolled into flakes.
Soybeans
Which wick to choose?
When Shall and myself first started to make our candles we honestly knew nothing about wicks, in fact we knew very little! I mean, is there more than one wick? You bet there is!
Selecting the right wick is critical to making the candle work properly. Without the proper wick, your candle will not burn cleanly. Wicks are the most central and important element of a candle. There is litrally hundreds of wicks available which makes it even harder to find the right one.
When choosing your wick you have to account for several variables.
The type of wax used
The melting point of your wax
The fragrance used plus percentage
The colour (dye) used plus percentage
The size of your candle (diameter)
The shape of your candle
Cotton wicks come in a variety of sizes.
What size container for your candles?
There are an enormous amount of containers for candles on the market these days in all shapes and sizes.
So depending on the candle size you choose you then have to consider what is the perfect wick so your candle burns correctly.
A wick that is too big will burn too hot coarsing the pool of wax to get too deep and also coarses the wick to mushroom giving off soot, this is also a fire hazard not good!
A wick that is too small will tunnel this is when the pool of wax doesn’t reach the sides of the container. I knew none of this in the beginning, I have had many candles in the past that have done just that and thought that was just what candles do!
So, finding the correct wick is so important.
How do we do this?
It’s a time consuming process but has to be done. They are called ‘burn tests’. You take say 3 containers with the same diameter and then wick them with 3 different sized wicks, you also have to add the fragrance to these candles as the fragrance also effects the burn. Then you let them cure for around 3-7 days when you can then light them and see which is best. It sounds simple but even then you may not get the right burn, so the process has to be repeated.
I kind of like it that the process is a challenge, did I really say that!
