Expert: Neecie - 1/15/2007

Question
Being new to making candles,Im still expermenting. The one thing Im having problems with is the wicks.When i put the wicks in I make sure they are centered and stright. When they start to burn down they go on an angle and burn on the side of the wax. I put a stick across the jar and loop the wick across it to hold it stright but it dosent help. Outside of that Im comming along O.K. Thanks for any help.

Answer
Hi Randy,
When wicking a candle there are a couple of things that you will need to do. I am going to make an assumption here and assume that you are using tabbed wicks. Tabbed meaning the wicks have a little metal tab on the bottom of them.  With that being said, what you need to do is to make sure the wick is secure in two places. Secure on the bottom of your container as well as it being secure and centered at the top. If your wicks are tabbed it's easy to do. Just take a dab of high temp hot glue and put it on the metal tab and secure to your glass container. Do not do this if you are making votives though.  Once your wick is secure in the bottom of your glass container, hold it place with a pencil or popsicle stick.  By doing this, you have your wick straight and taught from top to bottom.  What I believe happened to your wicks is that they were not secured on the bottom. When you poured hot wax in, your wick moved on you, even though your wick stayed centered on top.   Hope that has helped you.