Old Fart Candle-Scented Candles

Handmade By The Old Fart

Welcome To The Old Fart's Candle Class

Making Scented Candles

Old Fart Scented Candles, let's make some. To start let's find out what type of materials we will need. ( If you want to make a safe scented candle, use quality products.) Wax Melter, there are a few ways you can melt the candle wax. Starting out you probably don't want to go out and spend $1,000.00 on a 60 lb. electric melter to make a Texas candle, but you do want to make the candle safely. Am I correct? Well, it can be done a little less expensively as long as you use a little common sense and exercise safety. Before we go any farther, let the Old Fart remind you making candles can be hazardous if you do not practice safety. Make sure you have a fire extingusher handy where you will be making your candles. Read and follow all warning labels on the products you purchase to make your candles. Candle making is fun and can be a great hobby or business but as with anything again, use common sense. If you don't have any, don't make candles. Ok, enough.

Next, use a jar that will be able to handle the heat of the scented candle. You are also going to need candle fragrance oil, wicks, wick stickums to make the wick stay in place, a mixing pot, pouring pot, a thermometer to measure the temperature of the wax, a mixing spoon, a good sturdy table, and did I mention a fire extingusher. Dye can be used if you want to color your candles.

Now where can we make our candles without messing up our beautiful floors and countertops in our beautiful house that we worked so hard to have and keep nice? Well, we better think about this a minute. How about the garage? That's good but what about the summer and winter. Is it heated or have AC, an electric plug to plug stuff in like the melter? Do we have a small bulding out in the back yard ? If not, you can do this in your house. Just remember you will drip fragrance oil and wax on the countertop and floor. When I started making candles, I covered the floor where I worked in the kitchen and covered the countertops where I poured the wax into the jars. It worked just fine to start out. But, also remember if you walk to another part of the house, and what you dripped on the floor cover will now be tracked all over your house. Good thing to remember, right? Man, this candle making is fun, but just a little work.

You also need to decide what type of scented candle you would like to make-- Parrafin, Soy, A blended wax, Soy -Vegetable, and Parrafin Soy. There is a difference in the wax in that the temperature you heat the wax to, the pour temperature, and also what wick to use and how much fragrance you can use.You will find that knowing what wick to use with what wax and what container is the hardest part because if this is not correct, you will not make a good safe candle.It is up to you to test the candles you make to make sure that they are the best they can be. The supplier that you buy your supplies from will be able to help with the wick selection.

It is always best to tell them that you are just starting out. Also Taylored Concepts has a good little wax melter for starting out. Make sure you go to their website and check it out. It's a 6qt. and holds about 8 lbs. of wax and I think it sells for $50.00.Find a good blend of wax and stick with it.

The lesson I am teaching you will be with the wax I use for the container candles I make. It is a blended wax of soy, palm, and parrafin. Later in the months ahead, I will have classes on 100% soy candles, votives, pillars, and if you want to learn how to make soap, I will also have a class for soap making.

Start small. Make some candles; use the instructions but create your own style. Believe me; we all started in our garage. I can prove it; just come look at the floor. Man, I need to paint that soon!

Let me go ahead and touch on this a minute, candle supplies. I do sell some supplies and we are trying to grow, but I might not have everthing you want. My starter kit should be a good start for you. It contains a little more then other kits, but it's what I think is a good kit. You can check out my candle supply site at www.rangercreekcandlesupplies.com If you live in or around San Antonio, I can save you some money mainly because of shipping, but you really need to buy your supplies from a company as close to you as possible. Let me go ahead and give you my picks for Texas.

My number one pick is Taylored Concepts located in Dallas, Texas, www.tayloredconcepts.com Robert is a fragrance master and produces the highest quality products. They are honest and the staff will bend over upsidedown to help you. Really good people: 972-671-5662. I usually speak to David, but they all can help you. Give them a try first.

Also try Texas Candle Supply located in Houston, Texas. They will also help you in anyway they can www.texascandlesupply.net

Ok as a red neck friend of mine would say ( he would be so proud ) Let's git'er done. Man, a redneck and an Old Fart what more could you want? P.S. no pictures with this class; I aint got time right now; kinda close your eyes and dream what it might look like.

Ok, one or two photos. I am going to assume that we are in your garage and you have a portable burner. Above, you will see a photo with three pots, I put three pots in my starter kit. The pot in the left rear has measuring marks and for this class we will be using the 8oz. jelly jar. Each mark on that pot will fill 4- 8oz jars. There are three lines on the pot so we could make 4-8 oz. or 12- 8oz. candles with the same fragrance, correct? Starting out, I think making a few different kinds is more fun and will really help you get used to measuring.

The little pot in the front with the tape on the handle (Can anybody tell me why the tape is there?) has three lines also. Each line on this pot will fill 1- 8oz. jelly jar so if we fill this pot to the rim, we could pour 4 -8oz. jelly jars with the same fragrance, correct?

The pot in the rear on the right you will see has no measuring marks. If you only wanted to make 1 candle, it would be difficult to really estimate how much wax you would need. Starting out with fewer problems is better. I use this pot for a pouring pot. On bigger batches, it will also make 12- 8oz. candles filled to the top rivet.

Ok, we are almost really ready to start to make the candles, but let me give you a little fact about wax. Let's say you want to make 2- 8 oz. candles. You would need 16 ozs. wax. When the wax is in the solid form and you cut a chunk that weighs 16 ozs., when it melts and becomes liquid, it will now become 22 ozs. in the liquid form. Don't worry about this starting out. You will have a little left after filling your 2- 8 oz. jars, but if you are a perfectionist, this will work out to your benefit.

Ok, let's start out and make 1-8oz candle. In the second photo what you see is wick stickums and a wick. What we do is take the wick; stick the metal tab on one of the little stickum dots and press and remove. The glue stickum should now be stuck to the bottom of the wick. Next take 1- 8 oz. jar . You can do this step two ways.

Way 1-stick the wick in the jar making it centered by eyeballing it. Now take two screwdrivers and press down lightly on each side of the metal tab. Now your wick should be stuck in the bottom center of the jar.

Way-2- top right photo is a wick centering tool (not in my kit), but I do stock this item.. Take the wick; slide the top of the wick ( by the way that's the cotton end) into the hole on the bottom of the metal rod; push all the way in; the magnet will now hold the wick in place. Put the centering tool on top of the jar. Use two fingers one on each side of the tool touching both the glass and the tool; this is to make sure it is centered on the jar (sometimes there is a little movement from side to side and might put the wick off center a little and if you are a perfectionist, this just will not do-- it must be centered, right? Now trim the wick so it sticks above the jar about 1/2 inch. You want to keep the wick centered and to do this there are 2 ways.

Way 1-cut you a piece of coat hanger a little bit longer then the width of the jar; lay the coat hanger across the jar and slightly bend the wick over the hanger and position in the middle; it will stay there while the wax dries.

Way 2- you can use a plastic tool that sits on top of the jar and holds the wick in place; you can see this on my website. Ok, we have our jar wicked and ready for the wax unless you got the melter I told you to look at on Taylored Concepts website.

Take the little pot and put a chunk of wax in it (try to melt enough to make it to the first mark). Set the pot on the burner on low heat. Wait a minute; remember I asked you why the tape was on the handle of the little pot? Well, the handle is not insulated so what I do is wrap a few paper towels around the handle then wrap duct tape around the paper towels. Now it is insulated and will not burn your hand causing you to drop the pot and say oh#@.

Ok, now with the wax in the pot; place the pot on the burner on low heat (never add fragrance to the wax while the pot is on the burner) and melt the wax until it reaches 175-180 degrees; use the thermometer in the kit. When it reaches this temperature, remove the pot from the burner.

Now we can add our fragrance oil and dye. Depending on what wax you choose to use, you will add fragrance at 6-10% whatever the wax will hold. We are using my wax so we will use 10% fragrance oil. How you figure this is 8x.10=.8 so we will measure .8oz fragrance oil and mix it in the wax along with any dye. Stir really well. We want the fragrance oil and dye to mix with the wax really well. Let cool to 150 degrees and pour into the jar.

Let the candle cool. Now the wax we used is a one pour wax and if we poured it at 150 degrees, when it dries, it should be pretty smoothe. Now remember when I explained that when the wax is solid and when you melt it, you will have a little more liquid. Well, when the candle dries, if it is not perfect and you are a perfectionist, we now can fix the look of this candle 2 ways.

Way 1: turn the burner on low; set the pot back on the burner and let the wax just barely melt. Now do a repour just to cover the top of the candle. Let dry about 4 hours before using.

Way 2 is to use a heat gun. Heat the top of the wax on the candle until it melts enough to cover the top of the candle, stop, and let dry. It should be fixed.

Remember to trim the wick to 1/4 inch each time before using the candle. Bingo you have made your first scented candle!!

Now another thing if you do reheat the wax to do a repour, remember that the wax and fragrance oil are flammable and they have a flash point. Do not leave the pot sitting on the burner and go answer the phone or the door or whatever because if you let the wax heat to the flash point, 280 - 370 degrees, it will catch on fire in the pot. If this should happen to you DO NOT TRY TO PUT OUT THE FIRE BY POURING WATER ON IT; IT WILL EXPLODE INTO A BALL OF FIRE. Turn the heat off; open the windows;place something that will not burn over the top. Or guess what, DID I MENTION THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER? Worth every penny; your choice.The safest way to reheat wax and fragrance oil is to use a double boiler.

Plan ahead; think what could happen. Then have that plan ready before you start. Remember the common sense statement. Have fun and I hope this was helpful.

Please e-mail your comments about the class to: oldfart@rccnsupply.com

If you need to ask another question you can e-mail the Old Fart or just call me at 210-488-6456. I will answer the phone 7 days a week between the hours of 8 AM til 8PM. If I should miss answering, leave a message and I will return your call shortly.