What Size Wooden Wick Should I Use
Wood Wicks For Beginners
Forest wicks are easier to get started with than you think, even if y'all're a complete beginner.
Their elusive and unique characteristics appear as a challenge for novice candle makers compared to traditional cotton wool wicks, but they really aren't one time you empathise them.
Edifice wood wick candles is not terribly dissimilar from normal candles. In both cases, you cook and combust wax with a wick in the middle – the merely difference being the wick'south design.
Not that choosing a wick is easy, only incorporating wooden wicks follows the same process as earlier.
Most people crave wooden wicks for their crackling properties and considering they're neat.
Candle makers using them in their product line easily differentiate themselves in the market by offering a trendy and attracting design compared to traditional cotton wicks.
In this guide, nosotros'll embrace the following:
- Overview of types
- Wood wicks vs cotton fiber wicks
- Recommended wax types
- How to selection the right wick size
- Why wooden wicks crackle
Permit's dive in!
Wood Wicks Overview
Woods wicks aren't much different than cotton wicks, but they are unique and relatively new.
In the last five years or and then, their popularity has grown, specially as more than and more people are making candles.
Odds are expert that if you're using them, they come from The Wooden Wick Co. because of patents making information technology difficult for other companies to compete.
Technically Lumetique, Inc owns the patents, however it'due south tricky to enter the market as a manufacturer without confronting U.S. patent constabulary.
When y'all hear candle makers talk about wood wicks, they're referring to commercially available wicks of the same brand, not just wicks fabricated from woods.
Making your ain wicks is possible, but hard to calibration and control quality.
Wicks come from ruby, oak, birch, maple, balsa, rosewood, or some combination (according to the patent'south description), available every bit i of the following types.
Single Ply Wick (Apartment Wick)
The single-ply wick is the de facto wooden wick most people think of.
A single strip of forest characterized past three factors:
- Crackle type – Whisper (quieter) or Crackling (louder)
- Thickness – the thinnest dimension. Ranges from 0.02″ to 0.04″ unremarkably.
- Width – the flat side of the wick. Ranges from 0.375″ to 0.75″ unremarkably.
The Wooden Wick Co. offers custom sizes, but the master factors pretty much remain.
Single-ply wicks perform all-time in non-natural candle waxes, like paraffin, parasoy, or blends that comprise palm or kokosnoot wax. Most natural waxes struggle to maintain consistent functioning without a booster strip.
Booster Wick
Booster wicks function a lot like single-ply (apartment) except they accept an additional strip of wood downwards the middle.
That'due south information technology.
They have their own patents, and function with a little more oomph than the non-boosted wicks. If you lot're trying to integrate wood wicks with natural waxes, boosted wicks offer the capacity and strength required to handle them.
Just like single-ply, you tin characterize booster wicks by their crackle type, thickness, and width. Ignore the extra strip and yous'll be fine.
Screw Wick
The spiral wick is kind of like a core-less cotton wick fabricated from forest.
Shipped in a tube to hold the shape, spiral wicks are essentially just a canvas of wood wrapped into a… spiral. The primary differentiator between them is thickness. Thicker wicks burn hotter, so use them in larger diameter containers.
Equally far as recommendations, these are fairly difficult to consistently design effectually and aren't recommended for any serious candle products unless you're okay with frequent changes in behavior and test results.
Forest Wicks vs Cotton fiber Wicks
Blueprint
Past design, wood wicks operate the same as cotton. Larger cantankerous sectional areas offer greater throughput of wax fluid plus higher thermal energy output by the flame.
The primary difference with wood wicks is yous don't need to cull a type of wood… you simply use the woods wick designed with a booster strip or non (unless you become fancy with a screw or tube wick).
Cotton wicks exist in many different thread designs and core types – CD, ECO, CSN, HTP, etc.
This offers a lot of flexibility in candle pattern, because you can manipulate the relative size AND type of wick during testing.
Forest leaves you with… wood.
Some candle makers say it's easier to select wooden wick while others struggle for whatsoever consistency at all. Your mileage may vary. Nearly corrections to wick size are a change in width or thickness, which limits you considering there are then few thicknesses.
You can pretty much test about fifteen-20 wicks in the cotton fiber world for a single candle whereas wood wicks end up existence merely virtually 12-15.
Cotton fiber wicks offering more flexibility, only this doesn't always interpret as "ease".
The only similarity is that some cotton wick types are improve for soy than others, similar to how booster wicks play nicer with natural waxes compared to single-ply.
Building amazing candles that burn safely and perform at world-course levels tin happen with wood or cotton – it's all up to your testing.
Manufacturing
Today, Atkins & Pearce distributes products on behalf of The Wooden Wick Co.
Whatever suppliers in America, such as Lone Star Candle Supply, selling wood wicks are well-nigh likely distributing the same product as Atkins & Pearce (which they probably bought directly from to brainstorm with).
Companies making and selling wicks marked equally "wooden wicks" are often tied up in legal battles with Lumetique, Inc, given the strict and specific patents.
For this reason, if you're buying wooden wicks with an intention to build a reliable consistent product line, you probably desire to purchase from The Wooden Wick Co. If your favorite supplier gets shut down past Lumetique in a battle over patents yous'll need to thrash in order to recover from a supplier snafu.
Price
Ignoring economy of scale and aircraft, wood wicks cost more than cotton wicks.
| Wick Type | Boilerplate Price per Wick |
| Cotton | $0.10 |
| Wood | $0.50 |
If you bought about 100 and a wick clip for each, wooden wicks are well-nigh $0.50 each. Cotton wicks typically run less than $0.x each at the aforementioned scale, making cotton fiber a far more economic selection from cost alone.
If you lot purchase directly from The Wooden Wick Co., you lot'll typically end up with a better toll than from a primary supplier in the United states of america.
Which Wax Works All-time With Wooden Wicks?
Wooden wicks are capable of working with most every wax. Utilize the following nautical chart to discover out how compatible your wax is with each blazon of wooden wick.
| Wax | Compatible Wood Wicks |
| Paraffin | Single Ply (Flat) |
| Soy | Booster Wick |
| Parasoy | Single Ply (Flat) |
| Beeswax | Booster |
| Coco Apricot Creme | Booster |
| Virgin Coconut Soy | Booster |
| Beeswax Coco Creme | Booster |
| Natural Blends with Palm, Coconut, or Apricot Oils | Unmarried Ply (Flat), Booster |
Below are the recommended wick sizes for wooden wicks based on your wax blazon and container diameter:
Employ this table as a starting point for sizing your wicks. There's always exceptions to the tabular array, as at that place is with every wick chart.
How To Size Wood Wicks for Candle Making
Selecting An Initial Wick
Selecting the right wick for a wood wick candle is a multi-step process:
- Find the recommended wick size and type for your wax and container diameter
- Set and Label your container with the wick from step 1, plus containers for wicks one size larger and one size smaller.
- For example, if you're using paraffin wax in a 3" container, your recommended wick is a 0.02 x 0.5″ Crackling Flat wick (single-ply).
- You should also prep a container for one size up (0.02 x 0.625″) and i size downwards (0.02 x 0.375″)
- Create a batch with your wax and fragrance oil and pour into prepared containers
- After curing them an appropriate amount of time (depends on wax), conduct a burn test.
Conducting A Burn Test
A burn examination, or wick test, makes certain the wick meets two criteria:
- Rubber
- Performance (scent throw)
Typically you don't formally test performance until you lock downwards a safe wick, which may require several rounds of testing.
Testing wooden wick candles is the same procedure as testing normal cotton wool wicks with 1 exception: trim your wick lower than 1/4″ earlier each burn.
This isn't a requirement, and it'south technically not in line with ASTM 2417, but if yous go out wooden wicks longer they tend to fire too bright and hot. The ideal flame is roughly 1/2" tall.
Repeat the following steps until the candle FAILS or is completely used upwards:
- Place all candles you're testing on a apartment surface in a room with no cakewalk spaced 8" apart. Brand certain the temperature is between 68°F and 86°F (twenty°C to 30°C).
- Trim each wick to nearly 1/8″ in meridian.
- Light the candles and start a timer for four hours. The test should run for exactly four hours.
- Every hour during the test, if any of the following things happen the candle is considered unsafe and you'll demand a new wick:
- Outer container temperature is more than than 150°F
- The container cracks or breaks
- Candle tips or spills
- Yous run across more than i flame per wick (this is called secondary ignition)
- Wick emits black smoke constantly or in backlog of what you're comfortable with
- Flame exceeds 3" height
- If you make it iv hours without whatsoever of the higher up happening, blow out the flame and let the candle sit for 5 to 6 hours to cool back to room temperature before starting a new examination.
Wood wick candle wick designs should not be considered complete until it reaches the terminate of life without declining.
Why Do Wood Wicks Crackle?
The natural attribute of a wood wick means it has a agglomeration of plant material in information technology.
If your wooden wick isn't crackling, information technology'southward probably non legit! Kind of like a campfire, they accept cellulose trapped in the construction of the wick.
While it's called-for, cellulose transforms into a gas and tries to escape the forest pores.
But it tin't!
Eventually, the gas expands enough to explode from the pore, completely disrupting the cell walls and causing a crackling sound.
So many people desire this unique aspect of wooden wicked candles, so understanding the science behind information technology allows you to explain information technology to customers (or yourself) if you lot want.
Obtaining a potent crepitation depends on a few other factors besides just the wick. You tin can increase or decrease the impact by paying attending to:
- Wax type. Soy and college-density waxes tend to mute the effect more than than alkane series and palm.
- Fragrance oil. Depending on the oil, college fragrance loads tin increase crackle, but the contrary effect occasionally happens too. Any you're trying to achieve, testing will atomic number 82 you in the right direction.
Determination
Honestly, wood wicks are cool. If cipher else, they appear to be a pocket-size disruption to classic cotton wick candles.
One more than drawback is they seem somewhat inconsistent.
In the candle making community, many people note their inability to produce consistent results from the wicks, citing the textile and quality equally the main reasons.
Nonetheless, they work just fine about of the time.
The best recommendation for starting with them is to buy the sample kit from The Wooden Wick Co. and brand a agglomeration of candles with them! They really label each size per the ruler-based measurement.
Some suppliers classify them as small, medium, or large, which complicates identifying the bodily wick you're using. Yous can always measure with a ruler, just who has fourth dimension for that, really?
If you're interested in building a product line with them, proceed in listen that you want to trust whatever you lot're creating will behave the way you lot need information technology to.
Don't be hasty in your attempt to "have a wood wick candle" in your store – condom, operation, and customer satisfaction are incredibly important for your brand.
If you're making candles from non-The Wooden Wick Co. supplies, everything hither applies likewise.
Wood wicks are a absurd disruption to the candle manufacture and don't show many signs of slowing down every bit need and candle making skills increase!
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What Size Wooden Wick Should I Use,
Source: https://armatagecandlecompany.com/blog/wood-wicks-for-beginners/
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