Candle making FAQ

Wax, a wick sized to your container's internal diameter, a container, a heat source, wick stickers and a thermometer. Fragrance oil and dye are optional on a first candle and worth leaving out while you learn the pour. See the supplies checklist for quantities that match each other.

A soy container blend such as Golden Wax 464. It publishes its full working sequence - heat to 170 to 180F, add fragrance at 170F, pour at 140F, maximum 10 percent fragrance load - and it is the wax most published wick charts are calibrated against.

It depends on the wax, which is the argument for buying a named one. Golden Wax 464 publishes 140F, after heating to 170 to 180F and adding fragrance at 170F. Never exceed 200F.

For soy, the US published charts point to ECO 10 or CD 14 to CD 16. Wedo's own metric chart is more conservative and puts the same jar at ECO 14. Buy two sizes and burn-test both - our wick size chart shows every published answer side by side.

Multiply your container's capacity in fluid ounces by about 0.8 to get the wax weight in ounces. An 8 fluid ounce jar takes roughly 6.4 ounces of soy wax.

Golden Wax 464 publishes 1 to 2 ounces per pound with a 10 percent maximum by weight. Most makers work at 6 to 8 percent, which for one pound of wax is 0.96 to 1.28 ounces.

One to two weeks for soy, two to three days for paraffin and beeswax. The candle is safe to burn within a day, but it will smell noticeably weaker than it eventually will.

Most often it has not cured long enough. After that: the fragrance load is too low, the melt pool does not reach the glass, or the oil was added at the wrong temperature. All but the melt pool are free to fix.

Either the wick is too small for the container diameter, or the first burn was cut short and set a memory ring. Burn the first session a full four hours, and size the wick from a published chart.

Soot on the glass, a flame over about two inches, a large carbon ball on the wick tip, a melt pool deeper than half an inch, or a container too hot to hold. Any one of those means go down a size.

No more than four hours. Beyond that the container heats up and the wick can migrate. Four hours is also long enough for a full melt pool to form in a correctly wicked candle.

For a first batch, yes, provided the kit includes a heat source. From the second batch onward, buying named wax and wicks sized to your actual containers produces better candles for less.

For a beginner, soy: a lower melt point and a much wider pour window. Paraffin throws scent harder and takes dye more cleanly, and it needs a wick one to three sizes smaller than soy at the same diameter.

You can, but expect a weaker throw. Essential oils are volatile plant distillates and much of the aromatic material leaves during the pour, the cure and the burn. The heavier oils - patchouli, cedarwood, clove - work best.

Frosting, which is soy recrystallizing at the surface. It is entirely cosmetic, no home process reliably prevents it, and frosted or colored glass hides it completely.

Wet spots, caused by the wax contracting away from the container as it cools. Warming the jars before pouring is the single most effective fix. They are cosmetic and do not affect the burn.

No. A stainless pouring pot standing in a pan of simmering water is a double boiler and reaches the published melt temperatures perfectly well. A melter buys unattended temperature holding, which matters at volume.

Past about 4 inches of internal container diameter. Below that a correctly sized single wick reaches the wall; two wicks in a narrow jar produce one overheated pool rather than two small ones.

Yes. Candles sold in the US are covered by fire safety and labeling standards including ASTM F2417 and ASTM F2058, and the National Candle Association publishes guidance on the warnings a label should carry.

About twelve 8-ounce candles or twenty-five 4-ounce ones. Multiply capacity in fluid ounces by 0.8 for wax weight per candle, then divide 80 ounces by that.