Hello, Folks
 
  Having spent considerable time experimenting with beeswax and
candle-wicking ('cause it smells good, is relaxing in small doses, and
makes easy gifts), here's my two cents worth.  Lewiscraft (a Canadian craft
firm) sells two sizes of non metal-core wicking, 100% cotton, the smaller
size of which will support a 3/4 inch candle, and the larger of which will
support a 1&1/4 inch candle.  The candles need aging or tempering, which
allows them to burn with less smoke, and less dripping.  Aging can consist
of a year in a box, or several weeks in a freezer (beware of shattering),
and produces a whitish "bloom", the colour of which gives you some idea of
how well they will burn.  The bloom can be left on, or can be polished with
a cloth to give the candles sheen for decorative use (the bloom will
reappear over time, but much more slowly... my suspicion is that it has to
do with evaporation).
  For a rough idea of how large a candle a particular wicking will allow,
make some short squat cylinders from cardboard, coat the insides with
vegetable oil (for easier removal), set in a wick (toothpicks help,
sometimes), and fill them with wax almost too cool to pour (it will shrink
the least, this way).  Make sure the wick is sodden with wax, or it may not
start to draw wax from the candle before it burns out.  Let the candles
burn down until they start to drown; the hollows they create will be
approximately the maximum possible width of wax for that particular wick.
  If you want to dip rather than mold candles, my favourite dipping
containers so far are the tall narrow tins which beer-making kits put malt
syropes into.  They rest easily on a stove top (beware of gas stoves and
melted wax: a) it's hard to keep the temperature low enough to gain rather
than lose wax on the wicks, and b) the fire risk is substantial), and they
allow you to make more and taller candles with less hot wax to deal with
afterwards.
  For cleanup of tools or of candle-holders from candles burned too soon,
set an oven on its lowest heat, leave the door open, keep something for
smothering fires handy (it's not that risky, just a good idea), and set
your waxed utensils upside down on aluminum pie tins.  When the wax cools
it will be reusable, and the warmed utensils can be wiped dry, making
whatever you used to wipe them a volatile fire-starter.  To cool any
leftover hot wax, ladle into other aluminum pie tins.  After a few days it
should pop out easily, and the tins can be re-used.
  Mine is definitely a cottage operation, devised from repeated trips to
local libraries (which yielded no information specific to beeswax except
that it was too expensive to use undiluted, and that it burned at a higher
temperature), and a significant amount of experimentation.  Using molds for
small numbers of candles was, for me, impractical with beeswax because of
the high amount of shrinkage which must be accounted for (big air spaces
form along the wick), because of the subtantially increased cleanup time,
and because for less effort I could produce more dipped candles with none
of the surface marring common to molded ones.
  I realize that this is probably not the right venue for sharing this, but
having read the "flame goes out" chain, I thought it might be helpful.
 
Have fun!  Jackie ([log in to unmask])