beeswax candles crackle when burning

[DC Bees]

What causes bees wax candles to crackle when they are burning? I use a candle dish and also noticed some small splatter marks in the candle dish. I was thinking that it could be pollen in the wax.

[Ian]

ya it comes from impurities in the wax. Some of its nice though, because it adds a nice aroma but too much will cause smoking and like you mentioned, spattering

[MichaelShantz]

Mine don't crackle at all.

[Vance G]

Clean wax and the correct wicking.

[jesseakc]

I know this is old but did you ever figure it out ?

I've had this before and it left wax splattered everywhere . I agree the problem is probably caused by the wick.

Were you using any fragrance or dyes ? Did you prime the wick ? We will prime wicks twice before we use them.

[GaSteve]

When I first started making candles they would crackle and splatter for a while then stop. I finally figured that it was water trapped in the wax from boiling the wax to clean it. The top of the candle is at the bottom of the mold where the water will settle. Once I raised my wax melt temperature up to about 225F, that would drive off the water and no more splatter. It did require a different heat method since you can't get the temp that high in a double boiler.

On the other hand some folks like a crackling candle. I bought some Woodwick wooden wicks from a craft store. In a conventional candle they burn nice and sound like a crackling fire and are quite popular. I'm curious to see how they work with beeswax.

[bwdenen]

I finally figured that it was water trapped in the wax from boiling the wax to clean it.

I attended a beeswax processing session at a bee meeting this Spring. The speaker was major wax producer, and said the same thing bout water being trapped and causing crackling.