Preparing wax for candles

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I'd like to make candles this year and wonder if I got it right. First off I assume I need to wash the honey off or will it not matter when melted?

Also what is a normal time to allow a candle to dry? I've read larger ones can take longer then a day and holes need to be poked in them, then refilled with more wax.

[nattybear]

I would like to find more information about this too, partiucularly the best ways to get candle quality wax in a double boiler. 

I recently tried melting some old capping material that had been fermenting in a bucket for over a year. I sprayed out most of the honey from the cappings with a regular honey strainer and then wrapped it in cheesecloth, then weighted that down with rocks in the top pan and 3/4 full of water.  After simmering 6 hours it had all collected to the top.  The resulting circular slab smelled nice but it still had this dull brownish tint to it, and there were a lot of impurities and air bubbles.  I tried melting it down again and globs of nice creamy light-yellow wax would seep to the top and solidify, but after it heats up and collects more the wax ends up brown again.

[tillie]

You should try the cool solar wax melter (and cheap) I found on the Internet.  The wax comes out gorgeous with no impurities (all on the paper towel) and it's a "green" way to melt the wax:

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=10152.0

Linda T using the solar wax melter as we speak

[Kathyp]

i made some taper candles from last years wax and the stuff i took from a cut out.  some of the wax was quite dirty, but i melted it in water and strained it.  after that, i melted it again in water with a little lemon juice in it.  i let it cool on the water then removed the cool block and washed it.  it was not perfectly clean, but fine for my purposes. 

study wicks and molds before you spend the money.  make sure you get the right wicks for beeswax candles and the right molds for what you want.  mold release helps, but also removing candles before they are cold.  i got some old metal taper molds and played with them a bit.  the candles slid right out without a problem if i removed them before they were cold. 

lindas solar wax melter looks great.  don't know if i get enough sun, but i already  have what i need to make it so i'll give it a go.

[JordanM]

Can you use any string as a wick for the candles or does it have to be a certain kind.

[budhanes]

I tried Lindas solar melter last year. It works great!

[Moonshae]

Can you use any string as a wick for the candles or does it have to be a certain kind.

Try to use lead-free wick. The trick is to use the right thickness based on the size of your candle. You could use cotton twine, but that limits you to one particular thickness of candle.

[Amanda]

You can get candle wicks at most craft stores.  If you use another kind of string, it could burn too fast or too slow.  Also, if your wick is the wrong size, it could drown in a puddle of wax in the middle of your candle when you burn it.  I've never made bees wax candles, but other waxes shrink when they cool and leave a little dip in the top of your candle.  I usually just turn them over when I take them out of the mold and call the bottom the top because it's nice and smooth.  Then you don't have to worry about refilling it.

[KONASDAD]

Will a solar melter "bleach" the wax? I would obviously like the lightest color wax i can get. I now seperate my wax as i collect it in 3 diff colors buckets. Brood and burr in one, old non-brood in 2nd, and new fresh-white in 3rd along w. cappings. I thought if i kep sending it through a solar melter, the color would continue to lighten as much as it could.

[derrick1p1]

I used the solar wax melter recommended by Linda last year.  And will do so again this year.  I lost my styrofoam cooler, but have all the other parts.  This super cheap and fun to do!

Have fun!
Derrick