Burning a three wick beeswax natural pillar isn’t much different than burning a regular beeswax pillar. Like all pillars you need to burn it at least three hours to get a wax pool that extends to the edge but leaves a mantle. By burning three hours you are preventing a tunnel from forming around the wick. One difference of course is that you have three wicks to trim rather than one. It also means three times as much light; three times as much warmth and three times as much of the sweet natural aroma of honey. Each wick still burns ‘round’ so there are rounds burned around each wick. As you can see in the photo the center is where the common wax pool forms. One of our customers described this as a Mickey Mouse effect – two ears and a chin is what she saw. As the pillar burns deeper the three rounds melt together and join into one pool of wax. The photo was taken after 1½ hours of burning.
As with all pillars, trim the wick if the flame is flickering. You can dunk the wick in the wax to extinguish the flame and then straighten. Then trim it to about a ¼ inch and relight. Or if you are able you can just trim the wick as it burns. This isn’t always possible, but sometimes doable. Trim the wick as well if it develops a carbon cap.
It is very important to burn your three wick pillar on a wide, open pillar plate. There is a great deal of heat produced when burning beeswax pillars. Three wick pillars have the potential to produce even more. Especially DO NOT consider putting a three wick pillar in a hurricane lamp with sides. You will enclose the heat and may create a situation where the three wick pillar will start to melt. I have heard of someone putting a three wick into a large glass container. The story made it sound like it became one great big hot votive with three wicks. This is NOT a situation that you want. NEVER LEAVE BURNING CANDLES UNATTENDED.
You also want to keep your three wick pillar clean. DO NOT leave trimmed wick or spent matches in the wax pool. Each of these pieces of ‘junk’, acts like another wick and can conduct the fire to the mantle on the outside resulting in a ‘blowout’. This is really important and I suggest you read more about that.
I have to mention, our three wick pillars are the ideal wedding candle. If you are thinking about this may we suggest that the bride's family light a wick, the groom's family light a wick and the bride and groom light one together. This beeswax candle burns 90 -100 hours per wick so the married couple can bring the three wick pillar out on each anniversary to light and enjoy for many years to come!
Honey Candles® Three Wick Pillars have gained a lot of popularity in the last six months. We have sold probably ten times more than previous years. I think more people see that they are special and are using them more at Christmas and New Year’s. With some thought and care they will absolutely delight your family and friends at your gatherings. For information on dunking the wicks to extinguish the flame and general beeswax pillar care please link to these sites.
