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The Complete Handbook of Wick Tabs
A practical reference for selecting, installing, and maintaining wick tabs across candle, oil lamp, and specialty applications
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: Understanding Wick Tabs
Wick tabs are a small metal cup that holds the base of a candle wick in place while the candle burns. They are also called wick sustainers, wick holders, or wick base clips. A wick tab's job is simple: hold a wick upright in the center of a container before, during, and after the wax is poured. But that simple job becomes complicated when you consider the materials involved, the heat of a flame, the movement of liquid wax, and the dimensional tolerances of both the tab and the vessel it sits in.
If you have ever made a candle that burned unevenly, or produced a wick that drowned in melted wax an hour into the burn, you have already encountered a wick tab problem. If you have ever wondered why one batch of pre-tabbed wicks works flawlessly while the next identical-looking batch sheds flakes of rust into the wax, you are dealing with a quality-control issue that this book will help you understand and solve. This opening chapter defines what a wick tab is, explains how it functions within the larger system of a burning candle, and outlines the specification decisions that matter.
The anatomy of a wick tab
A wick tab is a small, cup-shaped piece of metal, typically between 10 mm and 30 mm in diameter and 4 mm to 10 mm tall. The exact shape varies by application, but the basic structure is consistent. The tab has a flat bottom, a