Dip Your Wick
Actually, a dipped candle is nothing more than a wick that has been primed — that is, a wick that has been first dipped into hot wax to eliminate air bubbles — and then re-dipped into the wax several times so that the wax forms a thick coating around the wick. As the wax drips off the dipped candlewick, it naturally forms a tapered shape. Dipped candles can be made any diameter the candlemaker chooses, although commercial dipped-type candles are made in standard sizes (with which we are familiar) to fit into standardized candleholders. Tapers are generally made ½″ or ⅞″ in diameter at the base because most purchased candleholders come in these sizes. Exceptions are birthday candles (to be stuck in the cake icing or fitted on special holders with points), and Danish tapers, which are only ¼″ in diameter.
What is a dipped candle?
Dipped candles are made a pair at a time by repeatedly dipping a double loop of wick into molten wax. Dipped candles have a pleasing tapered shape. When done by hand they are uniquely beautiful. No factory-made taper can match them.
The simple process of building up wax in layers on a wick creates the lovely tapered shape — without any effort on the part of the candlemaker! However, you can manually effect the dipped candle's shape while the candle is still warm. (We'll discuss that in detail later.)
From Labor to LoveAt today's popular Renaissance Fairs, candle dipping is a big attraction, as it is at the town of Colonial Williamsburg. There, you can watch — and it's fascinating to see — the women methodically dipping racks of wicks that will become tapered candles. If you visit Williamsburg, you'll learn that Colonial women dipped candles as part of their domestic work. Every Colonial home was the producer of all things needful to life, including candles. Candlemaking was not a
For a long time, candles were made only of animal fat, and housewives collected every scrap after butchering and cooking of meats was completed. These precious fats were hoarded carefully, protected in covered crocks. At candlemaking time, the fat was melted down and the dipping process began.
Fortunately for early American women with the wherewithal to get them, there were other candlemaking materials available to them, besides ones available in Europe. New England gave them bayberries, which have a heavenly scent — quite a change from the stinky animal-fat candles. Bayberries were introduced to the Colonial women by their Native American neighbors, who also showed them how to get the wax out of the berries.
As you realize by now, another source of candle wax was beeswax, and many farm families raised bees, primarily for their honey and their pollination work, but also to get the sweet-smelling beeswax. Lucky was the Colonial farmer with a hive or two of bees! (Always think twice before you swat a bee — they are beneficial insects!)
In all probability, the technique of dipping was developed from the earliest form of candlelight we know, the “rush dip.” This was made by dipping long stalks of dried grass repeatedly in melted tallow (animal fat). These were then lit and used for light both outdoors and indoors.
Today, most dipped candles are made of paraffin, which is sometimes mixed with various additives, like stearic acid. The more expensive tapers available commercially may be a blend of paraffin and beeswax. Pure beeswax tapers are rarely available, but recently I have noticed some upscale mail-order catalogs are offering pure beeswax pillar candles. Beeswax needs no scent. It gives off a delightful fragrance of honey; depending on what diet the bees have had, the honeyed scent will vary slightly, from clover to wildflower.
