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Beeswax Tea light candle issues

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Lesgold:
Hi Folks

I?m a total newb to candle making and was hoping some of you could help me. I?ve made a few skep candles from beeswax and they are burning really well as I was able to use the recommended wick. When it comes to beeswax tea light candles, I?ve been struggling to get reasonable results and was wondering if you could guide me in relation to wick choices. I?ve been testing tea lights that are 39mm wide and 24mm deep. A number of wicks have been tested but the results have been poor. What am I doing wrong? I know the wax is clean but I?m assuming that the wicks may be the problem (or is there something else that I haven?t picked up on) I?m just about to start a test burn on three candles.


The wick on the left is a CDN 6 with a quoted melt pool up to 46mm

The centre wick is a square braided cotton wick with a melt pool up to 40mm

The wick on the right is a square braided cotton wick with a melt pool around 50mm.

I will light them up in a couple of minutes and show you progressive photos throughout the first couple of hours. Hopefully someone will be able to tell me what the issues are. Will post again in about 15 minutes.

Cheers

Les

Lesgold:
Here is a shot after 15 minutes. As you can see, the candle with the CDN wick is already struggling.


The15thMember:
I was told by the company I get wicking from that flat braided wick (which the CDN is, correct?) does not work well with beeswax.  The candle on the right has too large of a wick, that flame is too intense.  I think the middle one looks fine, and I'd think the burn pool number on that one would be correct, since tea lights that have been lit a long time will essentially be totally liquid wax.  My candles look about like that, although they are a little shallower than yours. 

This old thread of mine has a picture of one of my lit tealights, in case it would help you to compare, although unfortunately when I took this picture I had just lit the candle.  https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=54174.0

If you want, I can light one tonight and take some pictures of it as it burns so you can see what looks normal. 

Lesgold:
Thanks Reagan. That would be great. I?ll post another picture at the one hour mark. Things are not looking good at the moment. Max2 is using the same setup as me and tells me that he is getting reasonable results with the CDN6 wick. It appears to be drowning in its own melt. I agree with you that the one on the right appears to have too large a flame. I am pleased that you said that as I don?t have any experience in this area to make an informed comment.

Lesgold:
Not looking good at the one hour mark. What?s going on here?  If they stay alight, I?ll post once more after one more hour.

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