Best Practices for Caring for Wood Wick Candles

Keep Your Wood Wick Trimmed

Keep in mind - it's not the wood that is fueling your burn - it's actually the wax. Keeping your wick trimmed to 1/8" means that the flame is kept nice and low to the wax allowing it to bring the wax up through the wick. A wick that is too long will not stay lit because it can't effectively reach it's waxy fuel source. 

Trim your candle when the wax is cooled - it's much easier to keep your wax free from debris.

For trimming, you can use a pair of scissors, nail clippers or wire cutters  In a pinch you can use your index nail and thumb.

1. Clean Your Wood Wick Free of Charred Bits
   

   Once you've burned your candle at least once (hopefully until you've gotten a good edge-to-edge melt pool!), you'll see that your wick is coated in a black soot and some char. It's important to clean any charred bits from your wood wick so the flame can use the wax and draw it through the wood. Too much charred bits means the flame can't pull the wax up through the wood wick and won't stay fueled.
   
   You can use the scissors, nail clippers, or wire cutters you use to trim you wick to also scrape off any charred bits. Use the edge of your tool to gently scrape the top and sides of the wood wick to remove charred bits. This is easiest and cleaner to do when the wax is cooled, plus it prevents charred bits falling into your wax pool and drying. 
   
   
   

2. Let your candle burn to full melt pool.

   Jar candles form memories quickly so make sure the first time you're burning your candle allow yourself about 1-2 hours to form a full, edge-to-edge melt pool. This is important because once a burning pattern has been established it can be hard to change. 
   
   If you don't allow your candle to form this edge-to-edge melt pool, you may notice wax build-up along the edges that can make your candle start to tunnel. This makes it much more difficult for oxygen to reach your flame the deeper the tunnel gets. Eventually the candle won't stay lit at all which is a bummer because it means a lot of wax is getting wasted. 
   
   If you start to see tunneling, give your candle a good long burn to try and even it out and reset the candle's memory. Just like people, sometimes it can get in a rut and needs a little love before it can get back to normal. 

3.  Caution

Never leave a burning candle unattended.  Make sure the area is clear of fabrics (curtains, etc!)  And always place your candles on heat-resistant surfaces.  Keep out of reach of pets and children.  Also keep away from drafts.