Comments on: Beeswax Candles?

Question: Beeswax Candles?

QAF — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:46:46 -0800

My friends keep bees...they have a ton of beeswax lying around. How do you make candles out of raw beeswax?

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:24:22 -0800

Here is a quick introduction to it, to further links on to more indepth articles.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:42:46 -0800

That link is about how to make candles from prepared beeswax sheets, the kind you can buy at a craft store. If you're working from comb, you need to prepare the wax first, using this method.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:45:45 -0800

And this is a more detailed discussion of how to work with beeswax, from 1923!

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:02:13 -0800

Now, if you want to make those sheets, you might have to drop the bucks for one of these sheeters (interesting industrial photos inside). I haven't located a simple retail sheet press for that pattern so far. But I dunno why anybody would want that phony beesy-cheesy style anyway.

By: sculpin

sculpin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:23:47 -0800

Once your wax is nice and clean (as in Ambrosia Voyeur's detailed discussion) you dip candles with them. Oh, you can mold them too, but it's a pain; beeswax is sticky. If you must mold them, use a lot of mold release. I'd experiment with silicone baking cups or something, because getting a beeswax candle out of a stiff mold can be an exercise in frustration.

Some tips on dipping:

For heaven's sake, use real wicking. Some people tell you to use string, thinking that makes things simpler for you; ignore them. At best you'd be trimming a string wick constantly; real wicking is self-trimming.

A digital probe thermometer is a great tool. You want to keep your beeswax (in its water bath) at about 150F, barely higher than its melting temperature. Hotter and you'll melt the wax right off the wick; colder, and the wax will look lumpy and may not adhere well. Keep an eye on it and figure out what the right temperature is for your wax.

You can make a nice little dipping doohickey by bending stiff wire into a U shape about three inches wide. Turn up the ends into hooks and tie on your wicking at each hook. Now you can dip twice as many candles at once.

Some people dip the candles without it, but I like to use nuts from the hardware store as weights for my wicks. When the candle's almost done, I cut off the bottoms and then keep dipping for a few final coats. Gives it a nice shape that fits well in candleholders.

Old olive oil cans make excellent wax-melting canisters.

You can speed up the process a bit by using a water bath.The candle should be quite dry before you put it back in the wax, though. Of course, you don't want to use this in your first few dips, because you don't want to risk getting the wick wet.

So, all ready to go? Not so fast. The trick now is to size your candle to its wick. Take your wicking and dip yourself a candle that is about the size you're looking for. Wait until it is entirely cool and firm (I just leave it overnight) and light it. Watch. Is the flame drowning and going out in a pool of wax, or leaving a big moat of wax around the liquid wax pool? Then the wick is too small for the candle. Is the flame becoming too huge and smoking? Then it's too big. Don't invest hours of candlemaking before you're absolutely satisfied with the wick/wax ratio.

So you've just finished your test candle and have a whole pot of hot wax on the stove. This is a good time to prime the wicks. (Assuming you're definitely going to use that wick size.) Put your weights on them (or not) and dip them in wax a couple of times. Then gently pull the wicks very straight. Now your batch is all ready to go.

What makes a candle beautifully shaped is to dip it to exactly the same point on the wick every time. When you have that down, you will be making candles with lovely domed tops, not pointy ones.

Have fun!

By: Ookseer

Ookseer — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:13:52 -0800

I was going to post a fair amount of experience at keeping bees and dealing with beeswax. But sculpin did a better job that I could hope to. The only thing I can add to that is be careful with beeswax. If you get paraffin splashed on you, meh, no big deal. But beeswax has a higher melting point and will burn, possibly quite badly.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:27:29 -0800

Pictures if you follow through please!