Wicks

Every candle we sell uses cotton. The tumbler has one braid. The 12 oz jar has two. The beeswax pillar has a square braid sized for a 3 inch column. We do not put a wood wick in the jars. The crackle is a sound, not a cleaner burn, and the tabs are fussier in this wax.

A cotton wick should end in a short, even tip about 6 mm above the wax. That is a quarter inch. It is the length we cut to in the room, and it is the length written on the tape. The trim page is the counter version of the same rule.

The carbon cap

After a few hours, cotton can grow a small black knuckle at the tip. That knuckle is carbon, not a second wick and not a sign that the candle is “doing its job.” The braid has mushroomed. The flame widens, the edge of the flame cools, and carbon that should have burned leaves as soot.

You will see it first on the inside of the glass, as a gray film above the melt pool. In a shut room you will see it later on the ceiling, often as a soft oval above the candle. January on Market Street makes this ordinary. Heat cycles, windows stay latched, and people leave wicks long because the evening is long. The note on ceiling soot is one of those conversations at the desk.

Cut the cap off before the next lighting. If the flame is already smoking, put it out, let the wax set enough to handle, and trim. Do not trim a wick while it is lit.

Draft and lean

A wick in moving air behaves like a wick that is too long. The flame lies down, one side of the braid stands up in the heat, and that side smokes. Our own door does this. There is a gap at the latch, and a harbor wind will lean the counter flame toward the street. We keep the lit jar back from the swing and we still put it out when the tip draws a thread of smoke.

At home, the same thing happens under a ceiling vent, beside a baseboard, or on a sill that whistles. Move the candle until the flame stands up. If it will not stand, the room is the problem and another jar will not fix it.

Two wicks

On the 12 oz jar the wicks are set so the pools meet and reach the glass. If you trim only the tall one, the short one drowns and the tall one soots. Trim them together, to the same 6 mm. Relight only when the wax is quiet, not while a pool is still liquid enough to spill.

We do not sell loose wick packs for other people’s wax. Wick size has to match the wax and the diameter, and a guess soots. If a Cinder Moss wick has fallen out or broken, bring the jar in. If the glass is sound and the candle is ours, we will set a new braid of the same kind.