The Art of Candles: Handcrafting Light: Practical Techniques for Making Candles That Burn Bright, Fragrant, and Safe

The Art of Candles: Handcrafting Light — Practical Techniques for Making Candles That Burn Bright, Fragrant, and Safeby R. A. CalkinsA field manual for makers who demand consistent results.Whether you are a careful beginner or an experienced artisan, this book gives you the technical foundation and practical workflows required to design, test, and produce candles that perform. Grounded in measured data and repeatable methods, The Art of Candles explains why materials behave as they do and exactly how to control them: waxes, wicks, fragrances, dyes, and additives are treated as engineering variables, not guesswork. The emphasis is on reproducibility, safety, and predictable scent and burn performance.Inside you will find:• Clear theory and real-world practice — wick fundamentals, combustion behavior, hot-throw vs. burn time tradeoffs, and the physical chemistry that governs scent release.• Materials and specifications — typical melting points and densities for paraffin, soy, beeswax, coconut and palm blends, gel wax, and microcrystalline components, plus how to read and use supplier technical data sheets.• Exact, weight-based recipes — a step-by-step 1-lb soy container recipe with precise conversions and an explanation of how to scale reliably to larger batch sizes.• Measurement and calibration — the tools and procedures to make measurements repeatable: scales, thermometers, melt profiles, and batch documentation.• Standardized burn testing — reproducible test routines, pass criteria, data recording, and a test matrix so you can convert experiments into products.• Troubleshooting and remedies — concise symptom → probable cause → action guides for tunneling, mushrooming, soot, sinkholes, frosting, and other common problems.• Fragrance, safety, and regulation — fragrance loading guidelines, flash-point handling, IFRA considerations, SDS management, and practical ventilation and fire-safety measures.• Equipment, finishing, and production — how to choose and calibrate melting vessels, pouring procedures, curing and surface repair, packaging, labeling, and small-batch production rules for reproducible results.• Techniques for pillars, tapers, wooden wicks, gel embeds, and decorative finishes — including when to use additives such as stearic acid or vybar and how they change performance.The book is arranged as a workshop manual: concise procedures, checklists, math worked to practical precision, and repeatable protocols rather than vague suggestions. It teaches you to record every parameter, run controlled tests, and iterate with discipline so that your candles meet consistent quality and safety targets.