How to make candle wick stiffer?

Question

I had a large candle and when the wick ran out there was a small hole with still a lot of wax around it. So I melted it down to make other little candles. I purchased a wick but am having trouble making it stiff.

This is the procedure I followed:

1. I poured a little melted wax on the bottom of the glass to fix one end of the wick

2. with some iron wire I tied the other end to the center of the upper part of the glass, in order to keep it taut

3. I poured the rest of the wax

The wick has therefore remained perfectly vertical in the center of the wax, but when I light the candle and the top becomes liquid, the wick becomes floppy and falls into the liquid and goes out.

This is the wick I used.

How do you make it stiff like in commercial candles?

Answer 1

The choice of wick is determined by many factors. Two are the diameter of the candle and melting temperature of the wax. If the candle is wide, or made of low melting point wax, the melt pool becomes deeper as enough heat cannot radiate outwards or burn enough wax causing the wick to become unsupported for too much of its height.

Modern wicks are specifically designed to bend over to be self-snuffing and in your case using regular natural yarn could solve the drooping problem but unless carefully matched, introduce a smoking problem.

The relationships of these, and the many other, variables is complex and I suspect you will need to experiment to confirm a suitable combination.