Consumers purchase candles for many different reasons, they may like the particular fragrance, color, shape/design, but, I am not sure anyone has ever identified that they purchased there first candle because of the wick. They may have commented how past candles tunneled, smoked, burn to hot and other flaws that can occur without the proper wick. And when they purchased candles that they had that type of experience they will not come back a second time.

Picking out a fragrance can be fun and exciting, choosing a unique piece of glassware can be rewarding, but selecting the proper wick can be time consuming and tedious task. There is not a perfect science to selecting the proper wick, and in fact, there is not a right or wrong wick if the end result is a safe burning candle that achieves the scent throw you desire. This article will introduce the various choices available for the different types of candles to be made.

It seems that all informative articles have to begin with some type of definition, so we figured we better follow that protocol. In that spirit, Webster’s defines “wick” in the following manner:

"A bundle of fibers or a loosely twisted, braided, or woven cord, tape, or tube usually of soft spun cotton threads that by capillary attraction draws up to be burned a steady supply of the oil in lamps or the melted tallow or wax in candles."

When you apply this definition to the candle world, it actually becomes much more than that. There are many different types of wicks including braided (both square and flat), cored (paper, cotton , zinc), round and other specialty types. It is not surprising that selecting the proper wick for a beginner can be overwhelming.