Palm wax

[Jenn2980]

Hello. Does anyone have experience working with palm wax? I made my first few and they are burning a big hole right down the middle (different sized wicks in the same size jar are all doing the same thing). I did discover that there were pretty big air pockets under the top layer (which looked so perfect before I lit them lol). So, I now know that I'm supposed to poke holes in the top layer once it starts to harden to release the air bubbles. Anyone with experience willing to share how you go about doing that? Do you just make small holes, like with a tooth pick, or do you actually sort of mix up the top layer into sort of a slushy with the wax that's still liquid underneith? I'm thinking the later, but will that make the top re-harden un-smoothly? I REALLY want to use palm wax, but it's very hard to find info about working with it.

Oh - one more question - do you let your candles cure for a month before you wick test? And do you use a bigger/hotter wick than the size container would normally call for is using a different wax?
Thanks in advance for any tips! :-o

 

[Val-11]

Hi Jenn. I have only been experimenting with palm wax for only a couple of weeks but I'll share what I found so far. Your right, info on this wax is scarce! My biggest problem is the same as yours... a wick that will work with this wax. I've tried the cotton, the zinc core in different sizes and now I'm on a medium wood wick which I've had the best result out of all of them. The wood wick gave me the best wax pool so far. Like any other wick you must keep it trimmed to about 1/8" or you will have what I call a wild fire. My first burn on this candle lasted just over 4 hours. Last night I lit it for the second time and the wick looked short enough but i got that wild fire look again. I blew it out and this time trimmed the wood wick down to 1/8" and also cut it into the shape of a TP or upside down V. I did get the wax pool again but not as well as with the first burn as you can see on the side of the glass in the one picture. This container is 3" at its widest point.

Since patience is not my middle name I only waited a couple of days to light this candle after pouring. Plus I was so curious to how the wood wick would do. I actually poured two of these so I will wait another week or two to light the other.

I added Fresh Mango FO scent and the throw was not there at all unless I stuck my nose into the candle It's probably because I didn't give it time to cure though. I have read online that with palm wax you only need to wait 4 days for it to be cured due to the hardness of this wax. Also, I have read comments that with the palm wax it's okay if they burn a tunnel down the center of the candle because that show's the beauty of this wax - the snowflake or crystal look and the wax will glow. During my testing, I have found this to be true. It's actually beautiful, at least in the yellow color. It makes me wonder how darker colors would look.

About those air pockets… I use wood skewer and poke down into the candle as far as it will go without any great force. I found one that was close to an inch wide in this one pictured. I kept poking around the area breaking up the top layer of wax over it and let that wax fall down into the air pocket. I usually keep a little left over wax just for this purpose or if a candle should need a second pour. I heated the left over wax to 205 (original wax was heated to 200) and slowly poured it into the air pocket and the rest over the top of the candle. After it cooled, you would never know that candle had a problem.


This is what I found in my testing and I hope it helps you in one way or another.
If anyone else has been experimenting or can offer some advice on palm wax and wicking, please post it and let us know?

 

[lsg]

Your candles are very pretty. I would be interested to hear more about your experiment.

 

[Val-11]

Your candles are very pretty. I would be interested to hear more about your experiment.

Thank you, lsg. I will post what I learn or find.

 

[Jenn2980]

Thank you VERY much for sharing! Funny you should mention the wooden wicks because that's actually what I was planning on trying next.

I'm still having a hard time with the air pockets. When I poke down into the wax as it's cooling/hardening, it tends to just make the candle a big ol' mess and really disrupts the crystaling pattern. I haven't tried a second pour though, was trying to avoid that hastle of that LOL, but I will try it.

One thing I have noticed in my test burns though, even if there is a pretty big air pocket and tunneling, by the second or third burn, after it's been burning for a good 2 hours or so, all that residual wax around the jar does eventually melt down and then it burn fine the rest of the way. The only bit of trouble with this though is that I'm leaving these candles burn for a good 4 hours and I think that a lot of people buying them won't burn for that long, not every time anyway, so the candle jar may not get hot enough to correct itself.

Still LOTS of experimenting to do lol, but I am going to try the wooden wicks. Do you use the biggest/hottest ones possible or do you go by the distributors recommendations for jar width?

Also, I have started letting mine cure for 4 weeks before test burning and I can tell you, it makes a BIG difference. Same size wick burned after a few days compared to the full 3-4 week cure and you can definatly tell that the wax as slowly gotten harder over time.

Thanks again

 

[osso]

No advice, but I am appreciating this thread.

 

[Dennis]

Perhaps there is some help in the detail of venting from this tutorial - scroll down to step 7. http://www.candletech.com/candle-making/how-to-make-pillar-candles/

 

[Val-11]

Jenn, If you do try the wood wicks I have to tell you to be very, very cautious and do not leave the room when testing! You know that candle I was telling you about? The one where I had to trim the wick and then trim the wick into a point? Well… when I lit it again a couple of days later, it had burned for roughly 2.5 hours. I had it sitting on my stove burning while I was sitting at the table doing some work on the lap top I heard lots of crackling going on and looked at the candle and the whole wax pool was on fire. And I’m not talking a little fire! Black smoke coming out like crazy! I jumped up and put my notebook on it and then went to grab the flour but the note book extinguished it quickly. I am just so happy my husband wasn’t around for that!!! roblem:


I still have the second candle I made but I can’t take a chance of having the same thing happen again even though it’s been curing for over a month now. Or maybe when the weather warms up I’ll put it in the middle of my backyard on the grass but I really don’t think the outcome will be any different. If anything it should make a nice little bonfire


The wood wick I used was a size medium from the Flaming Candle Co. I love their wood wicks… they light up so easy and crackle nice.


I have been pondering on what to do next and since I have already tried the small wood wicks in the same size jar but that only tunneled through the center. I have some other medium size wood wicks that come with a “pump strip”. I’m going to see if they have a small wick that comes with a pump stick and test that with the palm wax next. The wicks with the pump strip come from woodcandlewick.com


Keep us posted on your testing. Maybe we’ll come up with a wick that will actually behave like it should.


Here is a picture of the wick and pump strip. The pump is probably half as thick as the wick itself.

 

[Eddie2]

Nice post!

 

[EagleRockScents]

I've been making palm wax candles for a few years now. They do have a tendency to form air pockets so I always do a second pour whether they need it or not and just use a toothpick to create a couple of holes for the new wax to displace the air. With regard to wicks, I always use the ones specifically for natural waxes. The ones from Peak Candles and Candlescience both work well and are accurate with regard to container size, though naturally you should do your own testing. I believe they both offer sample packs so you can try different sizes. Once you get the hang of it, they really are great candles with excellent hot and cold throw.