wood wick candle won’t stay lit?

nothing compares to the soft crackling and distinctive dance of light from a wood wick candle, but wood wicks’ unique properties can sometimes require a bit more knowledge in how they work to help your candle perform its best.

here’s a few of our expert tips and tricks for getting and exceptional wood wick experience and long-lasting, clean burns.

the first burn is the most important.

The first time you light your candle, allow enough time to burn that a melted wax pool forms and reach the container's edges during its first use. Depending on the size of the candle, this could take a few hours so plan your first burn with enough time to spare that you can monitor it without leaving it unattended.

Candles wax has “memory,” and once a melt pattern has been established, it can be hard to change if you cut the initial burn short before a full melt pool can form. A short initial burn can cause “tunneling”, where the heat from the wick only melts the surrounding wax, causing it to tunnel lower into a wax pocket and reduces air flow to the flame, often resulting in a wick that won’t stay lit.

Letting your candle have a proper first burn is good practice for all candles, not just wooden wicks.

trim your wood wick short and free of charred

Often a wood wick can be too long or have too much burned material on it to stay lit. Fun fact: the wood isn’t fueling your candle’s flame, it’s the wax. The flame draws the wax upwards via the wick, so if the wick is not trimmed short and clean, the wax can’t make it to the flame.

Keep your wood wick trimmed to about ⅛”.

You’ll also want to clean off any charred bits prior to each burn. You can use nail trimmers, wire cutters, or even specially made wick trimmers to keep your wick at its optimal length.

Make sure your candle is cool and resolidified before trimming: you don’t want wick pieces or soot to fall into the melted wax which is much harder to keep clean than cooled wax.

lighting your wood wick properly

Wood wicks require a slightly different lighting method than cloth wicks: the best technique is to tilt the candle on an angle and let the flame draw across the length of the wick. You can hold the flame there a little longer once it catches to help give the wax a bit of extra time to melt and get drawn up the wick. This can sometimes take a few lighting attempts before enough melted wax is available to stay lit; give it a few attempts if it keeps extinguishing.