Made Candles All Day

[The15thMember]

I spent the entire day making candles in preparation for Christmas.  I got two new molds from Etsy this year, both Christmas trees.  One is a medium-sized spiral tree, and the other is a mini tree with a tea light base.  I made 3 of both of the new molds.  I also made 4 tapers, 3 gnomes, a dozen tea lights, and one big pillar.  The pillar took me two tries actually.  I had some wax leak out of the bottom of the mold, and when I when to pick it up to remove the candle, the mold stuck to the counter, and I just pulled with wick right out!    The good thing about making candles is you can always just melt them back down and repour.  The wick was a waste of course, but at least it can be used as a Wikki Stick!  (Anyone else remember those?)

My wax this year was really yellow.  You can see the difference between this year's gnome and one left over from last year.  Even accounting for the aging of the wax and the wax bloom, the gnome from last year was from a batch of wax that was very tan for some reason.               

[Terri Yaki]

How did you get your wax so clean? So far, mine all has some dirt in it, even after giving it a second filtering through a clean cheesecloth bag.

[The15thMember]

It's not 100% perfect, there are some noticeable flecks of debris if you look closely.  If I was selling candles, I'd probably filter again, but for my own household purposes, once is good enough.  I will sometimes have debris that settles out when I remelt the wax to pour into the molds, and when that happens I just don't pour in the dirty dregs at the bottom of my measuring cup.  Most of this wax was pretty clean to start with, since it was predominantly wax from crushing and straining honeycomb, so I'm guessing yours is difficult to clean because it is really dirty. 

[Lesgold]

Nice candles Reagan. You?ve done a great job there. Looks like the candle from last year was made using wax melted from older comb, burr comb etc. TY, did you melt your wax in water when you strained it?

[Kathyp]

Nice!  Makes me want to break out the big chunk I put aside for just that reason! 

[The15thMember]

Thanks guys! 

[animal]

Really cool. I especially like the twisty trees .. liked the looks of them even before I read what they were.

Why waste the wick ? I used to saturate the string in wax before casting a candle and pinch the end flat for easy lighting. Also used little metal square "clampy" things on the base sometimes, or weights for dipped tapers. Never did beeswax though, just tinted paraffin... and an experiment with deer tallow, that I normally don't admit to ... It (accidentally) produced scented candles that weren't very pleasant.

[Terri Yaki]

Really cool. I especially like the twisty trees .. liked the looks of them even before I read what they were.

Why waste the wick ? I used to saturate the string in wax before casting a candle and pinch the end flat for easy lighting. Also used little metal square "clampy" things on the base sometimes, or weights for dipped tapers. Never did beeswax though, just tinted paraffin... and an experiment with deer tallow, that I normally don't admit to ... It (accidentally) produced scented candles that weren't very pleasant.

Now that's an interesting experiment. If you use beef tallow, will it smell like steak?

[animal]

I didn't get the tallow pure enough (I was like 12, so that's my excuse). The smell was ok at first but after a couple of weeks it smelled like a cross between rotten meat and the first soak of bark-tanning hides. I was a strange kid, and decided to try to use every part of the deer I was killing. The first hides came out good. The second batch was disposed of after my mother opened the basement door and caught a whiff of it. 
Tanned a few as an adult, but the wife objected more than my mother.

[Terri Yaki]

I didn't get the tallow pure enough (I was like 12, so that's my excuse). The smell was ok at first but after a couple of weeks it smelled like a cross between rotten meat and the first soak of bark-tanning hides. I was a strange kid, and decided to try to use every part of the deer I was killing. The first hides came out good. The second batch was disposed of after my mother opened the basement door and caught a whiff of it. 
Tanned a few as an adult, but the wife objected more than my mother.

That's a shame, wimminz just don't seem to understand.

[BeeMaster2]

Terri,
One way to get good clean wax is to take an old deep electric cooker pot, drill and install a gate valve about an inch or two above the bottom and put water in the bottom. Melt the wax slowly to minimize bubbling and draw your wax from the valve. The light dirt floats and the heavy dirt sinks into the water.
Bill Murray made one and he makes perfect candles. I plan on making one for my wife.
Jim Altmiller

[Terri Yaki]

Terri,
One way to get good clean wax is to take an old deep electric cooker pot, drill and install a gate valve about an inch or two above the bottom and put water in the bottom. Melt the wax slowly to minimize bubbling and draw your wax from the valve. The light dirt floats and the heavy dirt sinks into the water.
Bill Murray made one and he makes perfect candles. I plan on making one for my wife.
Jim Altmiller

What is a deep electric cooker pot? You're not talking about a crockpot are you?

[The15thMember]

Really cool. I especially like the twisty trees .. liked the looks of them even before I read what they were.

Why waste the wick ? I used to saturate the string in wax before casting a candle and pinch the end flat for easy lighting. Also used little metal square "clampy" things on the base sometimes, or weights for dipped tapers. Never did beeswax though, just tinted paraffin... and an experiment with deer tallow, that I normally don't admit to ... It (accidentally) produced scented candles that weren't very pleasant.

I couldn't reuse it for this pillar because I cut the wick so close, trying not to waste it, that it would have been difficult to rethread.  I could use it in a smaller mold though.  I kept it after we were done playing with it, so maybe I'll use it next time.   

I didn't get the tallow pure enough (I was like 12, so that's my excuse). The smell was ok at first but after a couple of weeks it smelled like a cross between rotten meat and the first soak of bark-tanning hides. I was a strange kid, and decided to try to use every part of the deer I was killing. The first hides came out good. The second batch was disposed of after my mother opened the basement door and caught a whiff of it. 
Tanned a few as an adult, but the wife objected more than my mother.

That's a shame, wimminz just don't seem to understand.

Hey!  Don't toss all us women in a bucket now!  Using every part of a carcass is a phenomenal goal!  We'd be encouraging that kind of experimenting around here.    In fact we are thinking about tanning our goats hides next butchering season. 

[BeeMaster2]

Terri,
Something like this.

Presto 06006 Kitchen Kettle Multi-Cooker/Steamer, Black https://a.co/d/7lnTiAu

It is on Amazon.
Jim Altmiller

[animal]

That's a shame, wimminz just don't seem to understand.

Well, to be fair, my wife has a sensitive nose ... which, when I think about it, makes it really strange that she got mixed up with me, but go figure...

And 15th ... Seriously ... modern methods of curing a hide stink way less than the old fashioned ways. I was a kid that didn't want to spend any money. .. and you guys are in the country, so you don't have to do it in the basement of the house ... so don't
Also... flesh, stretch and dry a batch and turn 'em over to a tanner might be an option, if you wanted.

[The15thMember]

And 15th ... Seriously ... modern methods of curing a hide stink way less than the old fashioned ways. I was a kid that didn't want to spend any money. .. and you guys are in the country, so you don't have to do it in the basement of the house ... so don't

Fair. 

I split off the rest of this conversation onto a new topic, which can now be found in Farming and Country Life.