How do I center my Candle Wicks?Updated 3 months ago

We asked our Facebook Friends what creative ways they use to center their wicks for candle making. The responses were very effective, unique suggestions, many of which involved household items they had at their disposal.

Best Ways to Center Candle Wicks

Obviously at this point in your candle making, you have dedicated a lot of time and money learning, testing, and researching everything there is to know about making candles. All this is accomplished by you with one end goal in mind crafting the greatest candle you can!

For all the sacrifices made and devotion set forth in crafting candles, one thing is for sure; you do not want one simple little thing as an off centered wick to prevent you from that perfect candle. In a candle, an improperly centered wick directly affects the burn, your melt pool, and your hot scent throw. So, needless to say, ensuring that you have a centered wick should be a top priority.

There are many different options you have to center your wick. Sure, you can buy a wick centering tool, wick bar, or self centering wicks, but since we have such wonderfully talented customers, we thought we would ask them how they do it. We turned to our Facebook Fans to share any input or suggestions that they had for centering candle wicks. The responses were super creative, and many of their ideas had little to no cost.

The first step in centering your wick is to find the center.

Tips for finding the center:

Since many of the candle jars that are used are transparent, one customer suggests using a printed dart target to get that perfect bulls eye center each time with their wick tabs. You will of course want to tape these bulls eyes to your work space so that they are consistent every time. Then, it is just a matter of placing your jars on top to find the center.

Because most crafters have a continuous standard with their jar sizes, one of our customers traces the bottom of the jar onto cardstock. Then, using a tape measure they calculate the exact center and mark it on the cardstock. This cardstock then becomes a template for centering the wick each time that jar size is used. The result is a perfectly centered wick.

So, now that you know where the center of your jars is. The next step is securing your wick to the bottom. Here are some of the great methods provided by our Fabulous Facebook Fans for this step:

Hot Glue Gun:

By placing a dap of hot glue in the center of the candle jar, and then gently pushing the wick tab over the glue before it hardens; you can secure your centered wick tab and pull the wick straight.

Glue Dots/ Sticky Wickums/ Sticky Tack:

The same concept as a hot glue gun, you simply remove the glue dot from the backing and place it on the bottom of the wick tab. Then, press the wick tab in the center of the bottom of the candle jar and secure. Pull the wick straight.

Empty Pen Tube/Drinking Straw:

Using an empty pen tube that the wick is threaded through you can press the tab right on the glue dot/hot glue at the bottom of the candle jars. This is a great option for those of you who can't necessarily reach the bottom of your jars to secure the tabs to the bottom.

Tips for keeping your wick centered:

Pencils:

Using a pencil wrap the excess wick around it and lay this across the opening of the candle jar. This will keep the wick straight and tight while the wax is cooling.

Cardboard/Cardstock:

Using cardboard or cardstock to cut a thick stick that can lay across the top of your candle jar is a perfect solution to keeping your wick straight. By making a small slit in the cardboard stick, you can easily slide your extra wick in place and hold it there. Nicole Streeter even takes it a bit further by adding that she uses the cardstock with the slit in the middle but also writes the scent of each candle on the cardstock. This is the perfect solution when doing multiple fragranced candles.

Chopsticks/Coffee Stirrers/ Popsicle sticks (aka craft sticks)/ Kabob Sticks (aka Bamboo Skewers):

This is essentially the same idea of the pencil with the excess wick wrapped around it. But, how this differs is you use this method if you do not have a lot of excess wick available for wrapping. By placing 2 of the same items together; secured at each end with rubber bands/strings/hemp, you are now able to simply slide the excess wick through the middle. These items secured together will allow for a nice taunt hold of the wick. With the popsicle sticks you also have the option of drilling a small hole into the center of your craft sticks with a dremel. If there is any extra wick, this can be easily wrapped around the craft stick once it is secured through the hole.