How to Make Wood Wicks for Candles?

When burned, wooden wicks generate a crackling campfire glow and are noted for their natural burning quality and adaptability with different types of wax.. The best part is that they’re simple to make and can save you money at the craft store, which means more money for wax and other supplies.

How to Make Wood Wicks for Candles

Step 1: Cut the Balsa Wood

With a pair of regular scissors, snip the balsa wood stick to the appropriate wick length. If you’re producing wicks for a specific candle project, make sure to cut the wood approximately an inch longer than the container’s height.

Tip

Wood wicks can be made from both hard and soft woods, but balsa wood sticks are the simplest and most cost-effective option. Long, lightweight wooden craft sticks are readily available at most hobby shops. They are available in a variety of sizes and can be turned into wood wicks in the same way.

Step 2: Coat and Soak the Wood

Pour olive oil over the sticks of wood in a shallow dish, making sure that each piece is well-coated. After 20 minutes, take the sticks from the oil and wipe them clean with a paper towel. Use olive oil instead of expensive cooking oil for this project. Because oil covers and soaks into the wood, it enhances the quality of the candle’s burn when it is lit.

Step 3: Place Wood in Wick Tabs

When you’ve got the wood wick tabs, insert the oil-treated parts. The tabs created for cotton/hemp wicks will not work here, so be sure to obtain those built for wood wicks.

Tip

Mason jars, jelly jars, and baby food jars can all be used to produce candles because they are recyclable. Make a lot of candles at once by purchasing a large number of mason jars.

Step 4: Prepare Wax for Melting

A spouted heat-resistant glass or metal container is ideal for measuring your wax. It is dependent on the size of the container that you are filling on how much wax you will use. There are some candle producers who choose to melt and cut pieces from paraffin blocks rather than using soy wax chips.

Step 5: Heat and Melt Wax

By suspending the wax container over a simmering pot of water, the double boiler method can be used to heat the wax to the desired melting point. You can use a wooden stick to stir the wax to make it clearer. Avoid touching the heated glass at all costs. A few drops of your preferred fragrance oil or tinted wax chips can be added at this point if you choose.

Step 6: Warm the Jars

It’s best to warm the glass jars just before adding the liquid wax to prevent the candle from having jump lines. Remove the jars from the boiling water with tongs when you are ready to pour the wax. Completely dry the insides of the animals.

Step 7: Adhere Tabs to Bottom of the Jars

Wick tabs can be glued to the bottom of a glass jar using candle adhesive. After the wax has been poured, using wax dots should help keep the wick and wick tab in the center. Because the candle’s flame could get too close to the edge of the container if the wick moves out of the middle of the jar while you’re pouring the wax, this is a necessity for your own safety.

Step 8: Pour Wax Into Jars

A hot pad or oven mitt can be used to protect your hands while you carefully drizzle a little amount of hot liquid wax into an empty jar, coating the wooden wick and filling the jar up to the rim with no more than 1 inch of wax remaining. Ensure that the wax has cooled and hardened before using it.

Step 9: Trim the Wicks

Trim the wooden wick to 1/3 of an inch above the wax when the candle is cool, and they’re ready to use. When handling glass containers that have previously housed a burning candle, take care to avoid spilling wax all over your hands.

How Do You Make A Wood Wick Candle?

Make Your Wax Choices. You must ensure that the wax is suitable for use in containers. If you plan to utilize your wax in a container or pillar candle, this information should be included in the product description. Many people insist on using just soy products. 100 percent soy wax, on the other hand, has a few drawbacks that are more difficult to regulate. Especially for those who are just starting out. One of the most important is the ability to hold a large amount of fragrance since it tends to sweat or “leach” scent. The amount of fragrance you use in your wax blend is known as the fragrance load (or the scent load). In other words, how much of the entire blend is perfumed. Sinkholes, icing, and wet areas are much more difficult to deal with when using 100% soy products. ‘

A sink hole is created when trapped air bubbles in a candle melt away, leaving behind craters and pits beneath the wax’s surface. It’s not just the sweet topping on your birthday cake that’s called “frosting.” Frosting is the process of forming white crystals on the wax’s surface during the candle-making process. Even while it doesn’t impact your candle’s performance like a sink hole, frosting is a natural result of utilizing soy wax. Finally, we have our old friend, the moist area. When paraffin or soy wax peels away from the glass in particular places, it might leave “spotted” marks on the surface of the glass. Although they don’t harm the performance, wet patches on your glass certainly look bad! Many of these problems can be avoided simply by following a few simple steps, such as:

• Before pouring, thoroughly clean your glass with warm water.
• Using a heated oven (100-110 degrees F (38-43 degrees C) to keep the wax from cooling too quickly
• Pouring your candles in a room with a higher temperature will help them burn more evenly (70-75 degrees F 21-24 C)

This is a challenge, especially if you’re creating candles during the colder months! When it comes to container candles, we favor veggie blends like our Wooden Wick Co. Virgin Coconut Soy and Coco Apricot Creme waxes since they’re great for holding a lot of fragrance and are a lot easier to work with than 100 percent soy wax.

Pick Your Favorite Scent. When selecting a scent, be careful to look for one that has been specifically developed for use in candlemaking. If you buy your perfume from a retailer, they should provide you with this information. If you’re unsure, feel free to inquire! It should also have a pleasant aroma. We recommend utilizing our Wooden Wick Co. fragrances if you want to make a high-quality candle using the best components.

You’re sure to find a scent you adore among our carefully picked collection of the best in today’s hottest trends. A scent load of 8-12 percent of your final mix is a good place to start. This will help to ensure a strong cold and hot throw, as well as a safe and effective candle.

Cold Throw vs. Hot Throw: a comparison of the two. In terms of scent, the cold throw is the quantity emitted when the candle is not burning, while its hot throw is the amount emitted when the candle is burning. You may have a problem with your hot throw if you’ve ever purchased a candle that smelled amazing at first but didn’t do anything once it started burning. When it comes to dispersing aroma, wood wicks are among the best available. We recommend using our wooden wicks or boosting your fragrance load by up to 12 percent if you are experiencing troubles with your hot throw or lack thereof.

Pick Your Boat. Make sure the container you choose is safe for a burning candle. You can’t use that adorable paper mâché bowl here! Numerous candle-making websites provide a variety of safe vessels for manufacturing a wood wick candle. There are many. Glass, concrete, stone, and ceramic are all popular alternatives. A vessel with a diameter of 2.5–3 inches and a height of 3–4 inches would be an excellent starting point. If you want to leave a lasting impression, Wooden Wick Co. has an incredible assortment of elegant and unusual vessels!

Decide on a Wick. Choosing a wick is the next step in the process. Wooden wicks are unquestionably the best, as you might expect. If you’re not sure what size to get, check out our Wick Selection Guide.

Depending on the type of wax and the size of the vessel, the Wick Selection Guide will recommend many different types of wood wicks for you to try out. Choosing the proper wick for your candle wax blend and container is one of the most critical steps in the process of manufacturing a candle. Several variables affect the way a candle burns, including:

• a combination of waxes
• Fragrance and type of scent
• if you want to make your candle more colorful, you can use dye instead of the food coloring.
• Additives
• The vessel’s diameter
• Heat the wax to this temperature and then pour it out
• “Wick-sized”
• Temperature in the room at a given time of day
• Burning in a windy environment is a bad idea.
• …and this is only a small sample.

A Burn Test should be performed. The best way to determine which wick is best for your candle project is to experiment with many different wicks and conduct a burn test. The burn can be affected by even the slightest alteration (such as using a different fragrance, even with the same amount of fuel). It can have a significant impact at times, and it can have a minor one at other times. Let’s Build a Candle with a Wood Wick!

The following items will be required for this project:

• Wax
• Container/vessel
• The scent of a lighted candle
• In order to keep it all in place, you’ll need the following items:
• Making a stream of liquid
• An ordinary kitchen thermometer will do the trick just fine as a substitute.
• Thermometer (optional)
• A positive outlook!

Directions:

• In the event of a spill or other calamity, make sure the area you’ll be working in is protected. As an alternative to utilizing a drop cloth, an old towel or sheet can be used.
• Remove the wick clip from the bottom of the vessel and attach a wick sticker on it. Insert the wick clip into the wooden wick. Afterwards, press the whole thing into place in the vessel’s central bottom. Wooden wicks are sturdy and can be used on their own. While pouring your wax, you won’t need any other instruments to maintain your wick in place.

• Pour the melted wax into a wax pouring pitcher or wax heater and allow it to cool before using. Do not surpass a temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 C). A wax pouring pitcher is recommended if you don’t have one on hand, but be careful if you use a saucepan to pour wax. We usually recommend using a candle-specific pouring pitcher.
• You can begin pouring your wax when it reaches the Mix Temperature (the recommended pouring temperature for your wax kind). To ensure the safety of your candle, follow the wax manufacturer’s recommendations to the letter.
• It’s now time to add the finishing touch: perfume. Be sure to vigorously swirl the scent into the wax for a few minutes before using. You can use a kitchen whisk or any other instrument in the house to mix the wax. Depending on the type of fragrance, wax type, and ability to store fragrance as well as desired strength in both cold and warm throw, your fragrance load (%) will vary.
• Pour the wax-and-fragrance mixture into your container slowly. Pour the wax up to the top of the jar, leaving about 12″ exposed. Waxing is going to be a breeze from here!

• Before handling your scented candle, allow it to cool for at least 24 hours to ensure that it is safe. You must trim your wick if it rises higher than 3/16″ above the wax surface. The wick can be trimmed down with a pair of sharp scissors if you don’t have any candle wick trimmers on hand. To ensure that your candle burns correctly, the wick should be at least 3/16″ above the wax.
• Once your candle has cooled for 24 hours, you can now light and enjoy it. Give it to a friend as a present if you like. Make your own wood wick candles today and you can boast about it! Relax and take in the ambiance of the roaring fire.

You may need to poke relief holes in the candle when it cools if you’re using 100 percent soy. In some cases, you may need to re-pour some of the wax into the candle once it has cooled completely (do not refrigerate). We recommend using a heat gun, but be very careful not to burn the wick if you don’t want to re-pour. For a flawlessly smooth finish, quickly wave the heat gun above the surface of the candle. There is no need to use a hairdryer because it will melt and blow away the wax. Candle manufacturing supplies, kits, and wholesale supplies are constantly being added to our website. Now that you’ve learned how to construct a wood wick candle, you may start playing around with Wooden Wicks! Start with a Wooden Wick Starter Kit.

FAQs

Do you need wick stickers for wooden wicks?

In contrast to cotton wicks, wooden ones have a wider base, which allows for larger melt pools, resulting in a cleaner, more even burning flame. When pouring wax, it’s a good idea to secure the wick and clip with a wick sticker.

Can you make your own candle wicks?

Three cotton thread strands should be cut, with each strand being at least eight inches longer than the candle jar. The braided string should be fed through a wick tab at the bottom. Pinch the wick tab’s top with pliers, then tie a knot in the string. In order to use the wick, the cotton must be pre-soaked.

How do I make my wooden wick crackle?

The degree of crackle depends on the type of wax used. All of our candles are made with 100% Soy Wax, which is well suited to wooden wick. Each candle has a different amount and type of fragrance oil. It’s the sound of your candle’s chemical compounds reaching their flashpoints that causes the crackle you hear.

Do wood wicks crackle?

Instead of the cotton string commonly seen in other types of candles, the wicks in WoodWick candles are woven from hardwoods. Consequently, it makes a sound that is reminiscent of the cracking of wood logs in a roaring fireplace.

Do you trim wood wicks?

Keep your wick in good shape by trimming it regularly. Before lighting the first wick, reduce its diameter to a quarter inch. The wood wick should be trimmed to 1/4-inch length before re-lighting your candle for the next time. It’s impossible to burn correctly if the wick is too long.

How do you stick two wooden wicks together?

A wick clip is all that is needed to hold the two wicks together (facing each other). That’s exactly how it works. To see how this is done, take a look at our video, HOW TO COMBINE WICKS. Your wick set-up may require a paperclip to hold the wicks together at the top.

What is the best material for candle wicks?

Although butcher’s twine is a fantastic starting point for candle wicks, almost any thick cotton rope would do. You can use embroidery cotton, torn pieces of cotton cloth, or a clean shoelace with the plastic cap removed. The best results can be achieved by soaking the twine for 24 hours.

What can I use to make a homemade candle wick?

Although butcher’s twine is a fantastic starting point for candle wicks, almost any thick cotton rope would do. You can use embroidery cotton, torn pieces of cotton cloth, or a clean shoelace with the plastic cap removed. The best results can be achieved by soaking the twine for 24 hours.

Conclusion

Candle wicks can be made using butcher’s twine, but any thick cotton cord can be used. If you don’t have access to embroidery floss or torn cotton material, a shoelace with the plastic cap removed works just fine. To get the greatest results, soak the twine for 24 hours before using it.