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Candle Conundrum

oldflame

oldflame

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I've been successfully making candles for 50 years but, lately, I've been getting them at thrift stores because they can be cheaper, easier, and so much quicker than home-made.

Have you noticed that with all types, from slim tapers to big pillars, even some normally expensive brand-name candles are junk, while some cheapos burn perfectly? The two typical problems I've run into are tapers that burn too hot and quickly self-destruct, or big pillars with teeny-weeny wicks that barely keep a flame.

There's no hope for repairing tapers so I just save them for remelting. The pillars with weak flames can be fixed by drilling them through and inserting a larger wick. Some candles should never have made it to market. BTW, I've begun augmenting my wet-wood bonfires with wax from a 40 gallon garbage can full of old wax. The paraffin gets the fire going hot enough to sustain the less-than-dry logs.

What's your experience or ideas?
 
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Quality is out there. You just have to pay the price for it, or make it yourself.

Our saying we live by is, “buy once, cry once”.
 
Never experienced such a thing. The candles in our home just burn, but candles are not a hobby of mine, so I never paid attention to quality.
 
Most things are made as inexpensive as possible. It is how companies maximize their profits. Sometimes this works out okay, others not so much.

And if the buying public does not care about the best quality products, they may never notice the difference. Take coffee as an example. A lot of people are happy with a Keurig, yuck!
 
I agree about the quality of candles, it can be hit and miss. Same goes for scented candles, they are often overly pungent, at least to my nose.
As to the starting a fire in less than ideal conditions: I have used discarded wax coated cardboard boxes that are often used to ship fresh produce. As far as I know those boxes cannot be recycled with regular cardboard and are often discarded.
 
Every fuel is up and I've no doubt that goes for paraffin and other waxes. High costs tend to force quality down.

I remember growing up in Vermont. We used to visit the Candle Mill in East Arlington, now an antique shop. Back then they made all sorts of candles, and the place was a sensory joy to visit. Also photogenic, with a stream and water wheel, though I can't remember if the wheel was working at the time.
 
ConradH said:
Every fuel is up and I've no doubt that goes for paraffin and other waxes. High costs tend to force quality down.
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Quality products are still available, if you are willing to pay the price.

I am tired of cheap appliances and other stuff I like to use.

Case in point: my dewalt drill crapped out. Took it to a tool dealer and service shop. I was informed that dewalt no longer services older equipment.

So I bypassed dewalt and all the other cheap lines, ryobi, Milwaukee, et al, and paid the the money for a Festool cordless drill. It is much better quality than the usual suspects. :D
 
I've been surprised at the number of candles that just don't work at all. Considering how old the craft is, it should be simple to make even cheap candles burn properly. As I mentioned: some of the once-expensive ones are failures while some thrift brands are perfect.
 
Even as a kid my grandmom had big pillar candles that didn't burn well. Not a clue where they came from but they had small wicks that would only melt a small puddle in the middle. Eventually it would look like a volcano, tall sides with a deep crater down in the center where the wick was. She would usually chop the high sides off at some point so they didn't look so silly or just throw them away.
 
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