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...whose innards have melted out, but there is a lot of the candle left all around?
I have had this awesomely fragrant, ball-shaped candle (about 3" dia.) that I have been saving and saving because it smells so wickedly good/seductive...I finally decided to burn it and enjoy the fragrance. AHHHHH...
Well--it has burnt and burnt and now the middle is almost burnt/melted to the bottom and the wick is also. I want to, somehow, use up the rest of the candle walls so I can keep enjoying the fragrance.
I started cutting the rims down with a knife and letting the pieces melt in the "pit"...but, of course, it drowned out the wick with all the hot wax in the bottom. Now what???????
Do I have to melt down the whole candle and re-pour it, adding a new wick, so I can enjoy this to the last drip? What else can i do? Don't we all have this problem with any kind of a FAT candle?
I also have many hollow fat candles, hanging around waiting for me to find out what to do with them...they smell so good and there is so much left I don't want to throw them out!!
I used an old metal coffee can that i had washed out and put the pieces of wax in there and put it in a pan of water and heated it until it was melted then just poured it in the jar with the wick. Most wicks you can buy with the metal piece and you can attach it to the bottom of the jar with a little melted wax then wrap the top of the wick around a pencil across the top of the jar so it doesn't fall in. You could probably google candlemaking tutorial and get good step by step directions with pictures.
Have you seen those tart burners in the candle stores? I have several jar candles that burned through without melting the sides. I broke the glass container and just chipped up the wax. I keep them in a ziploc bag. I then throw the chips in the tart burner with the unscented tea light underneath. It did great job of using all the left over wax, and I got to enjoy the scents that I loved. The only bad part was breaking the original container. I guess if you could chip it out some other way it would be safer. My jar was all sooty and yucky by that time so I didn't mind sacrificing it. :)
what is a tart burner? please forgive my ignorance and explain...
As for left-over candles, half-used or whatever, I must say a few words, as I have made a mess of wax-and-candle laboratory/workshop many times over the years. My conclusions:
1) There is a lot of left over wax from halfburnt candles, so reclaim it:
To remove it from glass containers, put a frying pan on low heat, add in it an inch of water, and place inside it a couple of all-metal knives or gravel or whatever will not melt or deform, so you can rest the glass wax containers on the stuff and not directly on the bottom of the pan. If there are no glass containers, just half-used candles, take a big empty dry clean can, put it in the warm water bath and add the candles in that. The water ideally should not boil, but even so just make sure to keep the heat low. Give plenty of time and the wax will melt. Take a plastic bowl and pour all the wax in there. Put the bowl aside, let it cool. To facilitate removing the block of wax from the bowl, you can put it in the fridge after it has cooled (do not ruin your fridge to make candles...). Now you have ablock of raw material - I will not get into more details with candle material. Just use the leftovers.
2) The most important factor for successful candle making, is the calculation of what wick fits which candle; a lot has been written, and my experience boils down to that: if you pay for a 2" thick candle 10 euros in a respectable shop, chances are it will burn completely and it will be a very happy and successful experience. If you buy the same candle for 3euros across the street, it will keep dripping down on the oak candleholder, spill all over the tablecloth, and burn in the middle only and leave you with the outer walls. This is where you came in, yes?. Wicks: their structure is a professional secret, you have to use what you find, (ALWAYS natural fibers never plastics) and you can only do that much. Experiment may lead you to success. Best wishes.
3) Molds: instead of fighting with plastic tubes, and trying to juggle the wick into central position along the cylinder, do something simple instead: take a clay/porcelain wide rather than deep pot, pour the wax in there, and add the wick when it is about to harden. the wick can be made hard by dipping it in the wax and hanging it vertical to dry in advance. You wil have a nice and safe from dripping candle, at least for the first hour of burning. When this is half-used, you can put it in the warm bath again to melt etc.
4) Alternative uses: Carpenters use wax to lubricate several things, like e.g. the band saw, the worksurface when sliding a big board, the screws to get into wood easier etc. Try your old wooden drawers: pull them out and roll a used candle along the friction surfaces - you will notice the drawers move much easier afterwards. Another alternative is to use the wax for making fire-starting sticks: take a 1/2" thick dry branch, about 5 - 7 " long, tie around it some natural thick string, leave 2" long string ends, and dip it in melted wax. Let it dry, and when lighting up the fireplace, light this with a match and see it work its way.
5) If you do not burn a lot of candles, perhaps it is better to buy good reliable candles and give the leftovers for recycling - or wreck your nerves with messy experiments like I have been doing for years - I enjoyed it, I learned a lot from it, I still can't beat a good professional candle.
Any help I can offer, please just ask - it makes me feel useful.
Thanks Dimitri for all the info, a tart burner is ceramic or glass. It has a well in the top to melt wax, and it has an area under the well to put a tea light candle. The tea light candle heats the wax above and the wax releases it's scent just as if the candle was melting from it's own wick. After 2-8 hours of melting most candles have released all of their scent and the wax can just be discarded. But I mentioned it above as a way to use the scented wax from a candle and enjoy the fragrance after the wick has burned to the bottom.
I have a bunch of empty candle jars and votive cups that I put on those candle warmer hotplate things you can find at Walmart for about $5 or so. They melt the candle without burning it away which still releases the scent. I have various fragrance oils and droppers to refresh them with too.
I started buying the Yankee votives when they have their tart and votive $1 sales. For the money you get more from the votive and I just remove the wick and melt it for the fragrance.
