Candle making Info

[Stonefly7]

Hi folks,

Tried to do a search for info, but no results. I am looking for info, books, etc on candle making from beeswax. I do gleen from your posts, but mostly seem for an advanced candlemaker.

Where would someone start out? I have plenty of wax, but where from here? Tea cups, votives? Is that a good place to start?

Also companies you purchase molds, etc, from?

Thank you for your time and patience.

[honeyshack]

Google is a candle makers friend. google is anybodies friend. lol
Start with Mann Lake and better bee for molds and such.
Take some of your wax and practice with it and see what you like to make. Start small. Maybe a mold or two, and a votive mold. You will need to test your wick with your candles. Your wax needs to be clean. If your wax is in a block form, take an axe to it and split it down the center. How does it look? Does it look a bit shiny? Or is it a matt finish? Shiny is not good, there would still be honey in the wax. Even after making candles for 5 years, i split some of the wax i render, just to make sure the quailty is there. You are also going to want to make sure the straining cloth is catching the pollen. Pollen clogs the wicks making it difficult for the candle to burn.

beeswax is a higher temp melting point so the wicks that are used for parrafin are not the same size for beeswax. Go at least 1-2 sizes higher. Squarre braided is the only way to go.
Remember that each extraction of honey produces a variant on the wax. So the wick might not be the same...test test test

good luck. There are alot of candle makers on here and we all have a wee bit of different ways of doing things. I think alot of that has to do with the location of the wax produced

[Stonefly7]

Thanks Honeyshack,

How do you render your cappings? Do you have a heated seperator, then strain through a cloth into blocks?
Or is there another way without buying a seperator? Once you have it in blocks, then what do you melt it down in? I see the pour pots they sell, but thats as far as they go.

Any "good" books" you may recommend? I need to get the product from the cappings stage, minus most of the honey to the block stage first. Then I can order a couple of molds and practice as you noted.

[honeyshack]

my good book is reading on line. Googleing beeswax candles and reading what i can. Most candle books are geared towards parrafin and there are many differences between the two waxes

To render my cappings, i bought a piece of equipment last year. This is because of the increased amount of cappings to do.

Before that i used a roaster in the oven with water, or o bought an old pot from the good will...not aluminum.. and boiled for a short amount of time in water then strained. For smaller amounts of wax, I used pantyhose to put the cappings in, and then tossed the hose and slum gum from the pot.

Now is see the big thing is to let the water and the wax settle on low heat after boiling. The settling helps the wax and pollen and honey separate. The water works well to separate the honey from the wax.

Recently i bought a cappings melter from Maxant. It is not water jacketed, and the element is in water with everything else. It has 3 spigots for draining. Again the key is to let the wax sit with heat on it after the short boil. This alows the particles to layer. Once it settles, I use the top spigot to drain the wax into a rubber maid wash bin with boiling water in the bottom. This again give the wax added time to settle and allow the water to separate any pollen that got left behind. When the wax come out of the cappings melter i have a strainer and a few layers of 100 mesh straining cloth (used for honey filtering) to catch anything that got missed.
I think that the first wax melt is the most important because the more the impurities are removed here, the better the end product.

Then i went to princess auto and bought a few stainless steel jugs to melt the wax inthe oven when ready to make candles. Or use as a double boil method with an old pot on the stove. You also need a couple of candy thermometers to keep an eye on the temp.
I used an axe to break apart the wax and put in the jugs, melted and poured.

Clear as mudd...or wax:)?

[Chef Isaac]

why squarre braided honey?

[honeyshack]

To quote Can wax:

Square Braided Wick - open construction & the chemical treatment makes them an excellent wick for highly viscous waxes (like beeswax and vegetable waxes)
- designed to give a curl when burned to minimize carbon buildup
- 100% natural fibres

I have tried the flat in a candle or two with not great results. In my experience the squarre braided offers more for the high density wax. The beeswax needs a stronger flame to burn the wax. Something a flat can not do. As for cored wicks, I do not think they can properly burn a candle.

I have had very good results with squarre braided.

that and everything i have read has stated squarre braided for beeswax

[Chef Isaac]

who offers this to buy?

[honeyshack]

who sells? you mean?

[beedeetee]

We use square braid in our beeswax candles also. Candlewic and Betterbee both sell it.

[berkshire bee]

square braided here too.It gives a nice burn. I pm'd you more info.

[beekeeper_sd]

Also use square braided wicks on everything but my pillars where I use a 60 ply flat braided wick. Just make sure to test. Even after making candles for more than 8 years, I still find myself changing wicks on the same candles I had working fine with another. I think a lot of that has to do with the properties of your wax, i.e. pollen, water and honey content. You just can't get the exact same wax with every batch you render.