chuck_35550

The easiest thing to do is to take the container and place it on your scale and hit the tare button. Fill the container with water to the fill line of the container and you have the amount of wax needed. Easy peasy. HTH. Steve

I don't strain my wax either but it makes sense to improve the quality of your product. I don't get wax with chunks of debris or large particle matter as a free additive. I would be one unhappy camper if that happened. I received a damaged case because of UPS negligence and got a free case in the deal. The damaged wax had grease in it and was all smushed up. It was not my problem, it was the distributor's and UPS' problem and they fixed it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. IMHO. Steve

Try 85% 6006 and 15% soy (I like 464 better than 415) heat to 190 degrees and pour at 180 or 185. A 8 or a 10 cd wick should do just fine (the 10 may be a little hot). Pour into warm jars and leave out on the counter to cool. HTH. Steve

I keep a small toaster oven on my work table that holds about a dozen jars at a time. I keep them nice and toasty (no pun intended) until time to wick and pour. I pour the amount of wax I need into my glass coffee pour pot and put it on a hot plate and put my thermometer in to monitor temp. I set my timer for 2 minutes and stir in my fo and or color. I grab a jar out of the oven and wick it and place it on my scale and tare and then pour and place in a covered box. The whole process goes rather quickly and I can pour several dozen candles in less than an hour. I use a turkey fryer. The wax will leave a white film on the pour area or spout of the pot almost immediately. No big whoop. You won't have that problem in the Spring and Summer. HTH. Steve

Well, you know the public has an experience of poorly made candles that are underwicked. They don't trim the wick but rather dig wax out from around the wick to try and get the stupid thing to burn. Educating customers, means getting them to understand that your candle is an exception to that experience. Trimming the cinder block off of the wick leaves a mighty short piece and may scare some folks away from trimming. Frankly, the rest of them could care less. It burns. Thats all.

You can buy a digital oven thermometer which has a probe attached by long silver wire. This gives you a constant read out and also can be set up to time your stirring. You can buy them at Walmart for pretty cheap. HTH. Steve

It's always about the search for a better throw. J waxes were great until they changed formulations. I never went 100 % soy but settled for a parasoy blend that seems to be the best of both worlds. If a wax came along that offered a better throw and fewer quality issues; that would be my next wax. I don't think its ever been about natural or soot or any of those issues. Does it fragrance up the house on 6% of fo? I find that customers take little notice if the candle has color or a nice label or an unusual container. They take off the lid and put it in their face and buy it if it smells good. Take it home and come back and buy another if it fragranced up their house. Simple.

I love my Kelsei.

Well, I'm almost done for the year! All my jars are gone and my mugs are all but gone and I have a couple of orders and that's it! I passed on a booth for this Saturday. Just didn't have any stock and I don't think it's gonna be a big people drawer anyway. This season has been really good and I sold a ton of candles and soaps. Now to figure out what to do next year and get ready for tax/inventory. Happy Holidays guys! I hope everyone has a great season. Steve

Ok, one more idea. I poured some Christmas mugs and got tunneling around the wick. It occurred to me that the wick is pulled very tight and that in cooler weather temps, the wax is pulling away from the wick as it shrinks. I don't know how you fix your wicks but you might probe with a skewer and see if you have air pockets around your wick. That could explain the wick slowly drowning and you could try having a fairly loose wick assembly. HTH. Steve

I'm not sure what's going on but GL Candle Supply is up and running. They have the sticky additive to soften up soy wax and improve adhesion. Check it out and buy a pound or so and see if it doesn't help. HTH. http://www.glcandlesupply.com/GL-Sticky-Additive_p_278.html Steve

This is what I get from customers. 1. I burn your candles around the clock 2. Your candles always stay lit and burn real good 3. I had wax left over but that's ok as long as it burned real good and fragranced my whole house the backyard, or the Vatican.

We have high humidity in the South. I try not to pour soap during rain periods because usually the humidity just causes the soap fairies to come out and gack up the soap. I really can't explain a whole lot of what affects candles and soap. I just know that you can use the same exact methods and come out with different results on different days. Weather can affect almost anything one way or another.

Ok, the wax is setting up as usual? Not noticeably harder or softer? Crisco has palm in it now and that could possibly aggrevate your problem. The wick is sputtering and then drowning or tunneling and drowning? I would double wick those containers to get you through this bad batch of wax. Unless your distributor wants to help you out and pull from a different batch number; then you might as well do whatever it takes to make the things work. You might search mineral oil and see what you turn up. I can't see adding more soy/palm except if the soy in that batch is really poor quality. HTH. Steve

I would say yes to soap making but not to candles. Cold weather just makes my wax shrink more and I don't get great adhesion but that's about it for effect. Pour away and enjoy.

Well, I'd rather not say but the item stated temporarily out of stock and then had discontinued by mfg. I know the distributor can't e-mail you; although I get e-mails from other distributors that are having sales or want to sell me a new fo. This is not a jar that I would have thought to go under. Salsa? You kidding me? What are people gonna get their salsa in now....a mason jar? So it wasn't one of those hoidy toidy specialty jars that you expect to disappear. Sigh* The voice on the other end of the phone could have at least sounded sympathetic. I'm tired anyway from working every night so....Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I tried 1/2 tsp and 1 tsp pp in a 70/30 blend (soy/paraffin). Used cdn wicks and burned for about 3 hours. The wax set up very hard but adhered well to the wall of the container. I only tried several wicks (cdn and zincs) but was not pleased with the heavy sooting and the uneven burn. Maybe the pko is slightly denser than the palm oil. I never thought about lard but I did try beef tallow (ugh).

Jar lids can be called "lugs" if they screw on and usually have a mm size. Others may be called fitments if they have a plastic piece that fits down into the jar (like apothecary jar lids). Lids are not always universal in fit, even if you have the size or type. Get a sample and see how well it fits your container. HTH. Steve

Yup, the mfg has discontinued this container. My beef is with the supplier. A simple e-mail warning you that this item is being discontinued. It wouldn't have taken much effort for the supplier to say, "Sorry about this but you might try so and so to find some more jars". I mean, Christmas season and no jars. Well, that's enough about that subject.

Try mixing 3/4 oz of your favorite peppermint and 1/4 oz of Wildberry Mousse. Smells like the best candy cane ever! so droolworthy.

Word to the wise. This oil will settle to the bottom of the container if you aren't careful. Had to redo a bunch because the fo really didn't want to blend with the wax. Solution: shake the bottle real good and stir throughout the pour. One of the heaviest fos I have ever seen. Good fo but worriesome that a poorly blended candle might be a little fire hazard. Check the bottom to see if you have little amber bubbles. HTH. Steve

I just don't understand why the sudden decision to discontinue. My dw said, "maybe they were losing money". I said, "Doesn't everyone"? Gonna look at the hex jars.

I tried pko and it sooted like crazy and made wicking tough. Palm worked quite well at very small amounts (1/2 tsp pp) in my 70/30 soy/paraffin blend. I don't use additives unless my wax has problems due to the quality of the soy. Hard, brittle wax usually needs some help by adding petrolatum (I think that's what its called, real sticky gummy stuff) and if the soy is real soft then add coconut or palm. HTH Steve

Getting fos in the mail. It's just like Christmas all year long. My favorite thing is to go down to the lab and open the cooling box and see that all the candles are perfect with no wet spots or blemishes. That's a rare event to have 100% success. It gives me goose bumps just talking about it. Steve