Candle Wax

Knowledge about candle wax is vitally important if you are to make a success in the art of candle making. There are a number of types of wax to choose from when you first start making candles, and they all have their individual pro's and con's.

There are two basic categories of candle wax, synthetic wax, and natural wax, the most popular of which is undoubtedly paraffin wax. Most commercially produced candles are made from this type of wax although natural candle wax is becoming more and more popular of late due to concerns that the smoke from paraffin wax candles are toxic, similar to motor car emissions on a much smaller scale (after all they all come from the same source - oil). There has been a lot of debate around this issue to date, with the pro-paraffin lobby denying that any harm could be done by the emissions.

The next most popular natural wax is soy wax. Soy wax was developed by Michael Richards as an alternative to beeswax in 1992 because of the high cost of beeswax. Most of the world's soy crops are grown in the USA and consequently Americans (who make up a large portion of the candle making fraternity) being patriotic, prefer this natural wax to others.

Other natural candle wax types are beeswax, expensive and reasonably scarce, ( there are only so many bee hives, and they can not be robbed to often) it also has a natural pleasing scent to it when burning. You also have bayberry wax, which was used by American forefathers because there was a shortage of tallow (predominantly used at the time for candle making). The production of bayberry wax is a tedious process and consequently it lost its popularity when other waxes became available. Next is palm wax, this wax is a very versatile wax and reasonably easy to work with.

Another synthetic candle wax that is becoming very popular is gel wax due to its aesthetic qualities, it is see-through and consequently you can suspend small ornaments in the candle which can be seen, making gel candles is very labour intensive. The process needs to be monitored all the time during making, temperatures required are higher than that required by other waxes and this poses the problem of fire hazards, hence the constant monitoring required. The process also needs to be precisely carried out to get a good finish.

Read More About:

Related Articles: