Candle Mould - Cylinder 8,5cm

01 · THE WICK

The supplier's number is a starting point

The guidance is a size 5 wick, but the numbering is not universal and beeswax asks for more wick than paraffin: it is where the trial starts, not a specification. Burn a finished candle made with your own wax and watch that the melt pool reaches the edge without flooding and that the flame holds without smoking. Below 24 mm across almost any sensible wick works; at 45 mm, getting it right matters.

02 · THE FIRST BURN

Close to two hours, and it is not a whim

Wax has a memory: the candle burns out to wherever the pool reached on day one, and that diameter repeats from then on. The reference is one hour per 2.5 cm of diameter, so this one wants close to two hours in one go the first time. Put it out sooner and it burns down the centre leaving the wall standing, and that cannot be undone afterwards.

03 · THE POUR

Melt it just enough, pour slowly, keep some back

Beeswax melts fully between 60 and 70 °C and gains nothing above that: overheating darkens it. Pour slowly with the mould upright and the wick centred, and keep a little wax back: as it cools it shrinks and sinks around the wick, and that hollow wants a short second pour. If a whitish film appears after some weeks, that is bloom, the wax itself, not mould.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The 120 g is indicative: fill level and temperature change the weight. Weigh the first candle before costing a run.