Wicks Used in Candle Making

Video Transcript

"For Expert Village.com this is Matt Freedman, owner of Blue Creek Candle Company. In this clip we’ll be talking about candlewicks. To find out more about my candles, please visit my web site. To begin with, there is a flat braided wick, which is made out of cotton, and these types of wicks are well suited for use in tapered candles, non-symmetrical candles and novelty type candles. This type of wick tends to fold in on itself and this will aid in the burning of the candle. Make sure though that you do trim the wick occasionally, to keep it from drowning itself out. Now what we also will have is a square braided wick, now this is a tighter woven wick than the flat braid. These tend to stand up nice and straight and create an even burn in the candle and these are good for all purposes and they are generally sized from 1 to 6, with one equaling a smaller type wick and six equals a larger type wick. And the last thing, we have a core wick; these are squared braided wicks, with either a zinc, paper or cotton core wick and these burn well and come in all sorts of various sizes, for candles from votive size up to a three wick type. Make sure that you don’t confuse zinc with lead, a zinc core has not been proven to have any adverse health effects when burned properly, lead wicks, as far as I know at this point are not available in the United States. So there you have it, we have a flat braid, a square braid and a core wick. Those are the three main types of wicks that you’ll be using in your candles. "