Some of you may have already seen the process of my woodwick candles` test on my facebook page. Sometimes it is easier for me to post my pictures and notes to the facebook page and then compile it into one post for the website here afterwards.
I have been fascinated with wood candle wicks since I first found out about them a couple years ago, but I had never ordered any to try until now. I had heard good things about them and how people love the crackling sound that they make. They have a rustic feel that I personally enjoy.
There are different kinds of wood wicks, so I decided to try my first ones from Natures Garden Candle and Soap Making Supplies. I bought the Medium and Large wood wicks to test out in my 8oz square mason jars. This way I could test both in case the medium wick didn’t burn hot enough to get a good melt pool and fragrance throw.
How I Test My Candles
First, if I’m testing two different wicks in the same size jar, I make sure to make the candles exactly the same, except for the wick. So for these wood wick candles, this is what I used:
- 8oz square mason jars
- 1/2oz in each of Christmas Cabin fragrance oil from Natures Garden Candle & Soap Supplies
- 8oz of Enchanted Lites 100% soy container wax from Candlesoylutions.com
- No dye or coloring
Then I like to test each one separately so I can be sure of the fragrance throw. I try to burn in blocks of 4-5 hours and then after each burn, take down some notes about the flame, melt pool, fragrance throw, any abnormalities.
So here is the first candle using the Medium woodwick:
I love the look of these woodwicks and that they stay up nice and straight, unlike regular wicks. I just used a wick sticker to stick the metal wick stand to the bottom of the jar and then you just slide the woodwick right in.
I will warn you that these woodwicks are hard to trim with just scissors so you should get an actual wick trimmer
So here is the medium wood wick shortly after lighting it for the first time.
You can see that I have my paper with my first notes on it. I love that it smells like wood burning (of course) when first lit. I did neglect to put the type and amount of fragrance oil and dye, if any and type and size of jar. I usually include that and you should too so you can keep your notes and look back at them later if need be.
I entered my start time, which was 3pm and then after burning for around 4-5 hours I record the time when I extinguish the candle. I then let the candle cool completely so the wax is hardened before lighting it up again for another burn session and do it this way until the candle is burned out.
I like to take notes during each burn session if there are any significant things to note, like if the wick mushroomed, if there was any smoking, if the melt pool was good or not so good, fragrance throw, etc…….
The first picture above is probably a couple minutes after lighting. I like the charred look on these woodwicks and I think they go really well with the rustic looking square Mason jars.
The second picture was taken about an hour into the first burn. The flame is a bit lower than I would like and I’m wondering if it will end up going out. But I do like that the melt pool is almost to the edge. At this point I was thinking I may need to go up to a large wood wick, but it was still too early to tell for sure.
And, I had thought that maybe I could get away with not trimming these woodwicks, but apparently they burn much nicer if you trim them. The flame was higher on the 3rd burn session when I finally decided to trim the wick.
So, in the pictures above, the first picture is the medium wood wick candle after the first 5 hours of burn time. It did end up burning all the way to the edge. The melt pool didn’t get to 1/4″ all the way around, but that’s ok because it’ll burn hotter as it gets deeper in the jar. A cool thing I noticed is that when I blew it out, there wasn’t near as much smoke and smell as a regular wick. We’ll see how the next burns do, but so far this looks very promising.
The second and third picture above are the medium wick right at the end of the final burn session for a total burn time of 60hrs 30min. .
I took these pictures at 11pm and it had been burning for 12 hours straight that day! I had forgot about it and didn’t think it would burn that long because it was so close to the metal wick holder earlier in the day, but it kept burning and burning. So anyway, as you can see, the medium wick kind of petered out on burning all the way to the edge toward the bottom of the jar and left quite a bit of wax on the sides. It did burn down a lot farther than I thought it would, so that was good. I thought that the metal wick holder might be a bit tall and keep it from burning down far enough. I think the Large wood wick is probably right for this size jar though.
So, speaking of the large woodwick candle………
So next I tested the large woodwick candle. I started this one part way into my test of the medium woodwick and rotated burning them. When one was done with a burn session, then I’d light up the other one.
Here is the large wood wick at the beginning of the first test burn:
One thing I noticed different with the large woodwick is that I could hear the crackling sound more, which I’ve heard is one of the things people like about the woodwicks. There were also a few sparks the first time I lit it, but it didn’t spark any more after that first time.
Above is the large wood wick after almost 3 hours on the first burn. Seems to be burning too hot already. Flame is a bit high and I thought that it might be too large for this size container.
And this is the large wick on the second burn session at 4 hours. I went ahead and put it out because it was burning too hot at this time, so I didn’t burn it the full 5 hours. But, on the next burn sessions, it actually burned really nicely as it got deeper into the jar.
Ok, and here is the final results for the Large woodwick candle. You can see that it burned more of the wax off the sides of the jar than the medium wood wick. It also ended up burning longer as well! About 63.5 hours is what the final accumulated burn time was. So the large woodwick wins for these 8oz square mason jars!
But how much more do woodwicks cost?
Well, these particular wicks are $.44 each if you buy the pack of 10. You do get a bit of a discount for buying more than 30 packs of 10. As comparison, regular fiber wicks are around $.07-$.09 a piece if you buy the 100 pack, depending on where you buy them from. So the woodwicks are more expensive, but if you are selling your soy candles, you can definitely up the price since it would be more of a specialty candle.
I hope being able to see these wicks tested helps you in picking the right wicks for your soy candles, and also helps you see how to start testing your candles. I will be buying more woodwicks from other companies to test, as well as regular wicks.
Again, these woodwicks are from Natures Garden Candle and Soap Making Supplies.