chuck_35550

The answer to your question is no. I used to do that but I pour one candle with no wick and then poke a hole in the middle and set a wick down in it and burn. If the inital couple of burns go poorly I yank the wick out and try another one. Once I settle on a wick then pour a regular candle and test burn it to the bottom. You might want to consider pouring three candles with varying amounts of pound cake fo to compare cold throw, hot throw and wick effieciency. You might find less fo to work better and save you money or more fo might blow your doors off, which is what most people think they want a candle to achieve. HTH Steve (you're gonna get different opinons by the way)

Placement of your tester is important too. If your house draws or ventilates in a pattern through the house you could possible smell nothing in the room but get a good throw down the hall. HTH Steve

Cause the flame is wickedly high. Even when you trim the wick down to the wax its wickedly high and hot. I have a bunch of jars that will never get used until they are double wicked, for safety's sake if nothing else. IMHO Steve

Yup, that's what I'd do. My only beef (scuse the pun) is that lard is hydrogenated and it makes me wonder how much better the qualilty would be if you used a natural rendered lard?? Steve

Stella, you really need to buy "Scientific Soapmaking" by Dunn. This is his method of using test batches in single oil and then multiple oil soaps. I ususally grab a bar after a week and then try another one from that batch in a month or so to see the difference in quality. I used to have a local supply of pomace and it was great; now I use evoo. Even if the bottle says 100% pure olive it may not be? Steve

I really like pomace too. I'll have to give your advice a whirl. Thanks Steve

I'm curious about the Castile discussion. Would pomace be a best oil or are you describing an organic type of extra virgin oo? I've never made any type of 100% oil soap. Oh and Scented, you know if Top were to jump in what he would say about shortening? I like it in small doses for the soy oil. These are the oils that are on hand so that's what I stuck with but it would be nicer with a little palm or tallow. Thanks, Steve

What about: Sweet Almond Oil: 5% Avocado Oil: 5% Castor Oil: 5% Coconut Oil: 20% Evening Primrose: 2% Macadamia: 5% Olive Oil: 15% PKO: 5% Shea Butter: 5% GV Shortening: 33% Iodine: 55 INS: 153 and the other numbers look ok to me. You might want to go to a 35% lye concentration and cpop it or insulate it real good for a full gel. Milk is going to accelerate saponification but should never be heated or insulated IMHO. See what you think. HTH Steve

If the 8s do work out, buy a bag of wick bases and double the number of wicks. It really saves a lot of money and is easy to do. HTH Steve

Gotcha. I misinterpreted your post, whew. Steve

I have plenty of repeat customers and am no more a blowhard than some others on this board. I'm just saying that you asked about procedure in testing and you got responses. I bet you do just as you are and really wouldn't expect otherwise. I'm encouraging you to stick with your chosen medium and learn it well enough to be confident. I don't get a medal if you think this is wise advise and certainly understand that some people think they know it all.

The secret to this business is to pick your wax an stay with it until you learn all there is to know about it. How are you going to test each and every batch of wax and each and every fo each and every time you order it? Formulas change and wax certainly has variations that only somone with a practised eye would be able to detect and make the corrections. These people who jump around from one wax, wick and fo to another, never learn the basics of the medium. Make the candle and burn it and see what it does as a complete system. Trying to pin this down is worthless IMHO, just do it. Peace out. Steve

Yup, those are the full bottles on my fo shelves. Not so much weak as not true to the fragrance.

There are a lot of good threads from folks who used 6006 for a long time. I had no problem mixing it with a little soy and pouring 185 degrees into a cool jar and not insulate. The problems started after you lit one and the wet spots showed up as the adhesion broke down. Got great ct/ht but have stayed with Clarus wax for years now. Hey Brad. What's up with supplies? Steve

Would everyone agree that first burn creates a memory pattern for subsequent burns? Partial meltpools from short term burns are difficult to overcome and often times results in tunnelling and the subsequent failure of the candle. I just have to go with the remark that it makes more sense to use a wax that does not require steps to make it work. If a person is just dead determined to make a wax behave; then tempering is a possible solution if it provides results. Anything is bs if it doesn't provide you with results but it may be anything but bs for the person who gains from the effort. Kudos to anyone who comes on the board in search of answers or positive feedback. That's what a good forum provides. Please leave all cash contributions at the door. Steve

SKS has free shipping on orders of $250.00 or more. They are great to work with and the containers were good quality. Don't know if their prices beat Lonestar but free shipping is a real deal maker IMHO. HTH Steve http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/G2.html

Wow! I've added these on my favorites and they are too useful. Good to see you back on the board Top. Steve

Between our increased demand on fuel oil, as a result of a harsh winter and the Egyptian turmoil; expect prices to continue upward. Shipping is the villain. I have good stock supplies and have pretty much stopped producing anything at this point. Valentines is not a good event for me and sales usually don't pick up until spring and then fall flat for summer. Steve

Sorry to take so long to get back but this has been a bad week. My parked car was creamed and totaled and I am trying to pass a kidney stone. He suggests that if you have a delicate fragrance to soap at a cool temp with a higher water content and in a cooler environment to help disperse the heat from saponification. He points out that these soaps that have remained in a mostly curd state may have pockets of neat soap (gelled). It is important to use a mold that quickly disperses the heat and that you do nothing to insulate or encourage increased heating. The only differences in the soap are that the neat soap maintains its shape in the soap dish better than the curd soap. He states that superfatting and adding your expensive oils at trace is mostly a waste of time. HTH Steve

I use a non-stick slotted spoon that allows the wax to flow through instead of around. I have used a hand mixer and didn't find that it added air bubbles but it didn't do any better than just stirring with my easy to clean slotted spoon. I've been using that spoon (think serving spoon with slots) for years now lol. I keep it in my pour pot and stir after each candle I pour to insure that the fo has not settled. I also keep my oven thermometer in the pour pot (has the long silver cord attached to the thermometer) to make sure my temp stays the same. Works real nice. HTH. Steve

Oh I have such a bad case of soaper's envy. If I had that kind of talent, you would see me on Oprah! Great soap, as always, Babs. Steve

This issue is well addressed in "Scientific Soapmaking". The outside of the soap doesn't always indicate what is happening within the soap during the saponification process. Good book. Steve

I have always preferred liquid candle dye but at this point, I don't use color at all. The wick sounds about right for that diameter. I use cd16 to 18 depending on the fo. I would look at the three fos (bakery with lots of vanilla or cinnamon are real wick cloggers) or maybe look at the wax to see if the dye didn't dissolve completely. HTH Steve

The Saponifier Magazine is a good source about all kinds of soap and candle making techniques and tips. The best way to approach getting started is to find out the nearest supplier to your location. Don't waste your time and money on craft shops or stores. Once you locate a supplier then look at the waxes they offer and decide if you want to do pillars, votives, containers or wickless/tarts/melts. Use the search tool for those waxes and read up. Container, wax, wick, fragrance oil and color/no color. I always recommend a kit but its not necessary if you have in mind what you want to do. HTH. Steve

No. I dropped those jars a long time ago. Too expensive but they were great containers. Steve