Cracking wax on Jar candles

[tnttommy]

I am new at this candle thing. I read somewhere that the simplest candle is to pour the beeswax into a clean jar w/ a wick. We figured theywould be great Christmas presents. only problem is the tops of the candles cracked. We tried re-melting the wax in a hot water bath and letting it cool in the water to slow down the cooling process but it still cracked badly. And now we're only 2 days away from Christmas!

[Michael Bush]

Have you tried filling the crack with some molten wax?

[demerl51]

Hi Guys,

When the wax cracks in a container candle, it was too hot when poured. Let the wax start to solidify around the edges of the pouring container before pouring it into the container.

Shorter containers can take slightly hotter wax than taller ones. But it's best to pour wax when it's as cool as possible.

If there is room pour additional cooler wax into the containers to fill the cracks and top off the candle.

Regards
Dennis

[BjornBee]

It will not help with glass jars, but with the metal candle molds this is something to consider.
I will pour the metal type molds with the wick sticking out the bottom of the mold, this being the end that the wick sticks through the little hole. This will end up being the top of the candle when i'm finished. I will overfill the mold by an amount that will let me then use my table saw to cut off the excess and have a perfect bottom. This eliminates any cracks or impressions left by the cooling wax. At least with the metal molds you can do this.

I also will say that for the wieght and cost of the wax, its much more profitable to hand dipp the candles. Most tapers are less than 2 ounzes, and compared to the wax for cylinders, jars and other molds, it can't be beat. You use alot of wax for the cylinder type candles and its hard to get people to pay for the capatable charge to tapers, on a wieght basis.