Wick calculator → 4 oz Travel Tin
Coconut-Soy Blend in a 4 oz Travel Tin
A 4 oz travel tin runs about 2.5″ across the inside. Here is where to start for wick size, wax weight and fragrance — and what tends to go wrong with this particular pairing.
Wick charts are starting points for burn testing, never a final answer. Wick performance changes with your specific wax lot, fragrance oil, dye, vessel material and room conditions. Always burn-test a finished candle before selling or gifting it.
Wick sizes to test
At 2.5″ in Coconut-Soy, at an 8% fragrance load with no dye. Highlighted size is the computed starting point; test it against its neighbours.
CD has a coarse ladder at this end, so the published "size up for soy" instruction lands on a wick charted for 3.25"–3.5" — well above your 2.5" vessel. That is what the source prescribes, but finer ladders like CD and LX will give you a closer starting point. Cross-check against those before buying.
LX has a coarse ladder at this end, so the published "size up for soy" instruction lands on a wick charted for 3.25"–3.5" — well above your 2.5" vessel. That is what the source prescribes, but finer ladders like CD and LX will give you a closer starting point. Cross-check against those before buying.
Wax and fragrance for one candle
Wax and oil together fill the vessel — the fragrance is inside that total, not added on top of it. Scale this up for a full batch.
What to watch for with this combination
- Metal conducts heat far better than glass, so a tin runs hotter at the same diameter and wick size. Start from the smaller end of the candidate range and check the outside of the tin is comfortable to hold.
- Narrow containers punish over-wicking quickly: the flame has nowhere to shed heat, so the vessel gets hot before the melt pool looks wrong. Judge this one by touch as much as by eye.
- Coconut-soy blends vary a lot between suppliers. Whatever the calculator returns, buy one size above it as well — some blends run cooler than the soy baseline they are charted against.
Vessel diameters here are typical for the size class, not guarantees. Nominal capacity describes volume, not width, and the same "8 oz" jar varies between suppliers. Measure the inner diameter of your own container before you buy wicks.
Adjust for your own candle
Prefilled for this vessel and wax. Change the fragrance load, add dye, or enter the diameter you actually measured.
Wick charts are starting points for burn testing, never a final answer. Wick performance changes with your specific wax lot, fragrance oil, dye, vessel material and room conditions. Always burn-test a finished candle before selling or gifting it.
Candidates for 2.5" in Coconut-Soy
The highlighted size is the computed starting point. Buy all the sizes shown for that series and burn-test them side by side — the spread is there because published guidance gives a range, not a single answer.
Self-trimming.
CD has a coarse ladder at this end, so the published "size up for soy" instruction lands on a wick charted for 3.25"–3.5" — well above your 2.5" vessel. That is what the source prescribes, but finer ladders like CD and LX will give you a closer starting point. Cross-check against those before buying.
Self-trimming.
Self-trimming.
LX has a coarse ladder at this end, so the published "size up for soy" instruction lands on a wick charted for 3.25"–3.5" — well above your 2.5" vessel. That is what the source prescribes, but finer ladders like CD and LX will give you a closer starting point. Cross-check against those before buying.
Self-trimming.
No published size covers this diameter. Several zinc sizes exist in this span (36-24-18Z, 44-32-18Z) but no source in our set publishes their diameter ranges. Omitted rather than interpolated.
Zinc-core wicks are published against paraffin and are rarely used in natural waxes. CD or ECO are the conventional choices for soy.
Wooden wicks
Single-ply wooden wicks often fail to hold a full melt pool in 100% soy. Consider a thicker ply or a booster wick.
Why these sizes
Starting from the published chart position for 2.5", the following adjustments were applied:
| Factor | Adjustment | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut-Soy | no change | Sits at the soy baseline that published charts use. |
Series published against a paraffin baseline (CD, LX, HTP, zinc) carry an additional two-step shift when you are pouring soy. ECO is published against soy already, so it takes no shift.
How to test the candidates
The calculator narrows you to two or three wicks. The burn test is what chooses between them — there is no way to skip it.
- Step 1Cure before you test
Let the candles sit at least 24 hours, and ideally a week for soy, before the first burn. Testing a candle that has not cured tells you about a candle nobody will ever light.
- Step 2Make one candle per candidate wick
Same wax, same fragrance, same vessel, same pour temperature. The wick has to be the only thing that differs, or you learn nothing about the wick. Label the bottom of each vessel.
- Step 3Trim to 1/4 inch
Trim before every burn, including the first. An untrimmed wick mushrooms, soots, and will make a correctly sized wick look over-sized.
- Step 4Burn 3 to 4 hours and watch the melt pool
The melt pool should reach the container wall within two to four hours and sit roughly 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep. Reaching the wall much faster means the wick is too large; not reaching it at all means too small.
- Step 5Check the vessel temperature
The outside of the container should be warm but safe to pick up. If you cannot hold it comfortably, the wick is too large regardless of how good the melt pool looks.
- Step 6Repeat for the full burn
Wick behaviour changes as the wax level drops and the flame sits deeper in the vessel. A wick that is perfect on burn one can drown or overheat on burn five. Test the candle all the way down.
Reading the results
| What you see | Verdict | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Melt pool never reaches the wall; a ring of unmelted wax remains | Too small | Size up. This is tunnelling, and it only gets worse as the candle burns down. |
| Flame drowns in its own melt pool and self-extinguishes | Too small | Size up. The wick cannot draw enough fuel to sustain itself. |
| Little or no scent when burning | Too small | Size up. Hot throw depends on melt pool surface area, so a small pool throws weakly even at a high fragrance load. |
| Tall, flickering, or dancing flame | Too large | Size down. An unstable flame is drawing more fuel than it can cleanly burn. |
| Visible soot, or black marks up the inside of the vessel | Too large | Size down — but first confirm you trimmed to 1/4 inch, since an untrimmed wick soots at any size. |
| Container too hot to hold comfortably | Too large | Size down. This is a safety failure even if the melt pool looks correct. |
| Melt pool deeper than about 1/2 inch | Too large | Size down. Deep pools overheat the vessel and burn the candle down faster than it should. |
About this vessel
Metal conducts heat, so tins run warmer than glass at the same diameter. Err toward the smaller candidate in your test batch.
About Coconut-Soy Blend
Treated as the soy baseline. Blends vary between manufacturers — some run cooler and want one size up, so test a size above your result as well.
Related combinations
Where these numbers come from
CD, LX, HTP and zinc ranges are published against a paraffin baseline; ECO is published against soy. The engine converts between the two using the documented one-to-three-step soy offset, and both source datasets agree at the overlap.
- Lone Star Candle Supply — Guide to WickingPer-size diameter ranges for the CD, ECO, LX, HTP and zinc-core series, plus wooden wick maxima by wax type.
- Tools for Makers — Candle Wick Size ChartSoy-calibrated cross-checks for CD/ECO/LX, fragrance-load and dye adjustment rules, beeswax and coconut-soy offsets, double-wick threshold.
- Armatage Candle Company — How To Choose A Candle WickSoy-calibrated CD sizing by wax grade (464 / 444), double-wicking guidance, wick-failure symptoms.
- The Flaming Candle — Wick GuideWick series construction and composition, full size rosters, wax-type suitability notes.