The hardest of the waxes

Of the three waxes candle makers commonly use, beeswax is the hardest and the highest melting: it turns liquid between sixty-two and sixty-five degrees Celsius, higher than paraffin or soy. That hardness is why it holds fine mould detail better than either of the others, and it is also why beeswax candles burn more slowly than a paraffin or soy candle of the same size: a denser, higher-melting fuel needs more heat to keep a full pool melted, so it consumes itself more slowly to produce that heat.

The same density means a beeswax candle needs a markedly larger wick than the same mould would take in soy or paraffin, because a thinner wick cannot deliver enough heat to a denser wax to keep the pool the flame draws from properly liquid.

Every wick chart for beeswax accounts for this density; a soy chart on its own does not.