Candle Making Instructions

Making your own candles is a wonderful hobby that is gaining in popularity. At one time, making your candles was a household necessity. That is no longer the case, but people still enjoy candles for their beauty and the gentle light they add to a home. If you're a beginner to this craft, here are some general candle making instructions get you started.

There are a lot of different candle making possibilities. Making rolled beeswax candles is probably the simplest way to produce a candle and well worth trying. If you want to find out more about this you can read about it here: How to Make Beeswax Candles

However, most people associate candle making with using melted wax. I'm assuming that true for you and that's what I'm going to describe here.

Two good types of candles for this basic project are either a molded candle or a container candle.

 With molded candles at the melted wax is poured into a mold, allow to harden and the mold is then removed. With container candles, you pour the wax into the container and that's it. The finished candle is burned within the container.

A good mold for your first attempt is a clean 1 quart milk carton. Cut the carton a little bit taller than the height of the candle you want.

For your first container candle, I suggest using a an 8 ounce canning jar.

The next choice is what kind of wax you're going to use. As you'll see on the page Candle Making Wax      there are a lot of different choices available. To keep things simple, use paraffin wax, at least get started.  This is widely available, inexpensive and suitable for a variety of applications. It's a good place to start.

The second component of a candle is a wick. As simple as they wick may look, they actually a pretty sophisticated. For this reason, I don't recommend that you use a piece of string that's lying around the house. Rather, get your wick from a craft store or other candle making supply source.

There's a bit of an art to selecting the right wick for a given project, but that comes with experience. The most important determining factor is the diameter of the finished candle. The recommended candle size is usually noted on the wicks, or you can get advice from the people at the craft store.

It's simplest if you get a “primed” wick, which means the wick comes already impregnated with wax. This helps assure that the candle will burn well.

Another option is whether or not the wick is tabbed. A tab is merely a piece of thin metal attached to the end of the wick to make it easier to secure the wick to the bottom of a container or a mold.

If you want to make a candle of a specific color, you'll also need a coloring agent. Some people recommend using old crayons to color candles but I generally recommend against it. It works okay, but crayons generally have particulate matter in them that can interfere with the way the candle burns. Instead of crayons use a dye made specifically for candle making. Your finished product will both look and burn better.

Naturally, you need to melt the wax. Never ever, ever do this over an open flame - the risk of fire is just too great. Candle making is very safe if you use common sense and pay attention to some safety precautions.

Melted wax has a flashpoint. If it reaches that temperature, it bursts immediately, completely and often explosively into flames. Picture gobs of liquid burning wax lobbing all over your kitchen and anyone in it. Not good.

The flashpoint of most wax is somewhere around 390°. When you're making candles, you usually want the wax between 170° and, at the most, 210°. As you can see, this is well below the flashpoint so if you stay in the working range you won't have a problem. For this reason, always use a double boiler to melt your wax.

The boiling point of water is 212°l  If you have wax in a container within a pot of boiling water, the wax will never get any hotter than 212°. For your beginning project, you can use an old saucepan to hold the water and a large can, such as a coffee can, to hold the wax. If you want, you can put holes in the sides of the candle to allow you to attach wire handle. In any case, be sure to use pot holders and handle the melted wax very carefully.

The candle making process itself is very simple. At first prepare either the mold or container that you going to use. Do this by attaching the wick to the center of the bottom using either the tab or a small bit of masking tape. Then tie the other end to a pencil or some other stick placed across the top of the container to hold the wick upright.

Then melt the wax in a double boiler. I highly recommend using a thermometer. You will find them souls specifically for candle making, but a candy thermometer works well.

Heat the wax to about 190°. If you want to color the candle, add dye at this point, mixing in a little at a time.

Now pour the wax into the mold or the container. Obviously be a little careful as you do this. Save a little of the wax for what we call the second pour.

As the wax cools, it will tend to sink in at the top. When it has a skim of hard wax a little less than a quarter inch thick, poke through it at several points about halfway between the wick and the edge of the mold or the container. Then let the wax hardens for several hours or overnight.

Now that the wax is hardened, you'll probably notice that it is concave across the top. That's where the second pour comes in. Remelt the wax and pour it onto the top of the candle until it is even.

Let this harden and the candle is done. With container candle, you simply need to trim the wick to about 1/4 inch. If you used a milk carton mold, strip it away from the candle (this is a one-time mold) and trim the wick.

As you can see, the basic technique is pretty straightforward. If you had several molds or containers, you can make multiple candles about as quickly and easily as you can make one. I hope the instructions you received here encourage you to give candle making a try.