A Complete Guide To Choosing The Correct Wick Type And Size

Making your candles may be a fun but difficult undertaking. When it comes to DIY candles, it’s easy to get caught up in the unlimited variety of aromas, brilliant colours, and candle kinds.

The wick is an important part of making your candles that many novices miss. As a result, most individuals will select their wick without considering certain critical factors. This is a significant error since it can lead to your beautifully crafted candle not burning correctly, or worse, not burning at all.

What Exactly Are Candle Wicks?

Candle wicks are the most important part of a candle. Without the right wick, your candle will be ineffective since the flame will not burn properly.

Wicks are the centre of a candle, used to carry fuel (wax) to the flame. When you light a candle, the heat from the flame melts the wax surrounding the wick. The wick then acts as a fuel pump, drawing the melted wax up into the flame to burn. This is referred to as capillary action. Various wick diameters allow for varying quantities of fuel to be pulled into the flame. Too much fuel causes the flame to flare and soot; too little fuel causes the flame to splutter.

When it comes to colours, perfumes, containers, moulds, and wicks, the choices are endless. When selecting the correct wick for your candle, you must examine all of these factors.

The type of candle wick you choose influences the appearance and mechanics of your candle’s flame, such as heat, duration, smell throw, and combustion.

Candle Wax Varieties

The type of wick you use will also be influenced by the type of wax you use. Varied waxes have different densities and melting points, therefore they will require a different degree of heat from your wick to burn properly.

Cotton Braid wicking, for example, is suitable for candles manufactured from beeswax because of its firm and sticky quality. Cotton Braid wicks are an ideal alternative for waxes that are particularly vicious when melting due to their unique manufacturing and treatment techniques. It is designed to curl while burning, reducing carbon buildup.

Zinc wicks are another example. When manufacturing a paraffin candle, they are an ideal choice. However, if you put a zinc core wick in a soy candle, it will almost certainly drown. As a result, you must ensure that the wick you have chosen is appropriate for the type of wax you are dealing with.

Colour And Fragrance

When selecting a wick, you should also consider the sort of fragrance oil and/or colour you are using, as well as how much you are using.

Using perfumes and colours that are not designed for candle production can have an impact on how well your candle burns. Only perfumes and dyes derived from oils should be utilized. Alcohol-based fragrances, food colouring, crayons, mica, and even some essential oils might disrupt the capillary action and combustion of your candle.

Too much smell and/or dye might also affect how your candle burns. To guarantee optimal burning, it is critical to do a test burn for each candle recipe you create. You may discover that the ideal wick for one recipe does not perform as well in a candle prepared with a different one.

Reasons To Select The Best Candle Wick

The wick of your candle is the simplest yet most important aspect of it. Essentially, it is the engine of your candle and determines how long it will burn.

As a result, you must select the proper wick for your candle. A lack of test burning and miseducation may cause you to choose the incorrect wick.

Every wick has its pair of candle wax wicks. The inappropriate wick can reduce smell throw, create faulty combustion, and cause your candle to burn too slowly or too quickly.