The secret of making candles is to get real candle wicking - which has a 
short thread in it that causes the burnt wick to bend out of the way of the 
flame as it burns.

I agree with several commentators that present day embedding waxes, 
particularly after contamination with solvents, are most unsuitable for 
candles. The simpler days of Gulfwax embedding are gone, to no one's regret I 
think. I strongly suspect that the improvements in slide quality that 
pathologists of my generation (sixty years old) have seen are in considerable 
part the result of improvement in embedding waxes, which in my opinion are 
the real Rodney Dangerfield of the histology laboratory.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN