Wooden wick candles provide a comfortable and warm atmosphere with their illumination and crackling sounds. Wooden wicks are quite tricky and need a little care and attention compared to cotton wicks. When you choose wood wicks you simply add a bit of life and happiness to your candle.
Wooden wicks throw fragrance wider, as they can diffuse heat more rapidly into the wax, helping to achieve a more even burn over time compared to the cotton wick. Also, wooden wicks are able to create wider melt pools that are clean and even burn due to their wide base compared to the traditional cotton wicks but there are steps that are needed to consider and put into practice for you to enjoy your wooden wick candle’s lovely scent and flame consistently.
At Lynk Artisan, The wooden wicks we use in our candles are grown from native sappy trees from sustainable plantations certified by FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), hand-crafted, and made in the USA, ensuring responsible global practice. The FSC certification is considered the "gold standard" designation for wood harvested from forests that are responsibly managed, socially beneficial, environmentally conscious, and economically viable. When you purchase a wooden wick candle from Lynk Artisan, know that you are consuming your wooden wick candles responsibly.
Here are some guides on how to properly maintain your wooden wick candles:
Trimming the wick
To start with, make sure your wooden wick is about 0.3cm – 0.5cm tall because it is especially important to prevent the flame from getting too big because it can consume your candle faster and blacken your jar. In addition, the flame is drawing the wax upwards through the wick, so if it's not trimmed short and clean, the wax can't make it to the flame.
Once lit, it’s very important to let your candle burn until the pool of melted wax reaches the edges of the jar. As a rule of thumb, burn your candle for 1-2 hours the first time you light it. This is called the “memory" burn and usually takes about 1-2 hours. Doing a proper memory burn ensures you will get the longest life and cleanest burn out of your candle.
Take note: Wooden wicks are organic so some parts might be harder to light up.
Do not overburn your candles because as the wax is being consumed, the wick gets longer thus the flame gets bigger. If the wick is too long, the balance of heat and fuel will be off. This throws off the chemical reaction and can produce excess soot and smoke.
After the melted wax has reached the edges, do not blow out your candle, instead, use a candle snuffer or lid cover to extinguish the flame and let it cool.
It is very important that once cooled, you gently pinch or pluck the carbon from the wick, either with wick trimmers or between your fingers, and shorten the wick back to about 0.3 – 0.6cm. When it reaches the bottom when it's hard to reach you can use nail clippers. In order for optimal burning, the wick must always be trimmed.
Take note: If you don’t trim your wick, black bits will fall into the melt pool making it less aesthetically pleasing.
When burning the candle for a long period of time you notice the flame height getting too low, it may be necessary to tap off any excess ash or burnt wood along the top of the wick. The flame will then return to its proper optimal height.
Additional Guide
Please do take note that the candle maker (chandler) can control widthness and thickness of the wick, but wick height is controlled by the user itself because, after each burn, the level of wax is decreased due to consumption, but the wick is not, so the wick’s height increases after each burn.
When the Wick’s height increases → flame height increases → more heat is generated → which leads to issues like a candle being too hot, black soot, or even broken glass.
So in all candle guides, they always mention trimming the wick before each burn.
→ Keep the wood wick at 3mm-4mm at all times.
→ if the flame is higher than 15mm, extinguish, let it cool, trim the wick even shorter
→ if while burning you notice soot, extinguish it, let it cool, trim the wick even shorter
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You are all set to enjoy your Lynk Artisan’s wooden wick candles. We really do hope that you love our wooden wick candles as much as we do.