Collection: Candle Holders

The candle you burn decides the holder

Almost every candle holder problem starts as a candle problem. A 7/8 in (22 mm) taper dropped into a 1 in (25 mm) socket leans, and a leaning taper burns down one side and drips. A 3 in (7.6 cm) pillar on a plate sized for a votive overhangs the rim, and the wax runs onto the table instead of pooling where it should.

So settle the candle first. Decide whether you burn tapers at dinner, pillars on a mantel through winter, or tealights by the dozen when people come over, then buy for that candle. The other order is how you end up with three good candlesticks and a drawer of candles that fit none of them.

Candle types and what holds each one

The names get used loosely and the same wax cylinder is sold under two of them. What matters is the diameter at the base and whether the wax stays solid or goes fully liquid while it burns.

The socket is 7/8 in and your candle probably is not

The standard taper base in the US measures 7/8 in (22 mm). Sockets are not standardized at all. A turned wood candlestick is often bored at 3/4 in (19 mm), a cast brass cup runs closer to 1 in (25 mm), and a hand thrown ceramic one is whatever the potter felt like. Measure the socket before you buy the candles, or accept that half of them will need work.

Too tight is the easy failure. Hold the bottom inch of the candle in hot tap water for fifteen seconds and press it down, and the softened wax takes the shape of the cup. If it still will not seat, shave the base with a vegetable peeler, turning the candle as you go so it stays round.

Too loose is the failure that costs you a tablecloth, and there are three fixes in order of how long they hold. Wrap the bottom inch in masking tape until it grips, which takes ten seconds and stays hidden. Press a pea of candle adhesive into the base of the socket. Or drip melted wax from the same candle into the cup, push the taper in, and hold it thirty seconds while it sets. The last one holds best and comes out later with the rest of the wax.

How many, and how tall

Odd numbers, stepped heights. Three candlesticks at the same height read as a set that lost a member. Three that step down by 2 in (5 cm) or more read as a group, because the eye follows the descent instead of counting.

A dining table adds a constraint that has nothing to do with looks. The table sits 30 in (76 cm) off the floor and the eye line of a seated adult lands around 42 in (107 cm), so a flame standing 12 to 18 in above the table is exactly where the person opposite is trying to look. Keep the whole thing under 12 in (30 cm), or go past 18 in (46 cm). The middle is the only wrong answer.

Leave at least 3 in (7.6 cm) between two burning candles. Any closer and each one warms the other, both burn faster and crooked, and within the hour they are leaning apart like a bad photograph.

Brass, iron, wood, glass, ceramic

The material decides how hot the holder gets, how the wax comes off, and whether it stays upright when somebody knocks the table.

Getting dried wax out without scratching anything

Put the knife down. A blade takes the wax off and takes the lacquer off brass with it, and on glass it leaves scratches that catch the light forever after. Wax does not need force, it needs a change of temperature.

Cold first. An hour in the freezer and the wax contracts faster than the metal, glass or glazed ceramic around it, so the plug cracks loose and drops out when you turn the holder over. Lift the last flakes with a fingernail or a wood skewer. Heat second, for anything you cannot chill: run hot tap water over the outside of the cup until the plug softens, push it out, and wipe while the piece is still warm, because cold wax smears and warm wax wipes.

Two exceptions. Wood goes in neither the freezer nor the sink, since it takes on water and the joint between base and stem opens up. And melted wax never goes down the drain, because it sets again about 2 ft (60 cm) along the pipe from where you poured it.

The numbers that keep it a candle and not a fire

Twelve inches (30 cm) is the number worth remembering: the clearance between a burning candle and anything that can catch, meaning curtains, a bookshelf, dried stems, the paper napkin somebody folded into a fan. Most candle fires start with something that got moved next to a flame after the flame was lit.

Trim the wick to 1/4 in (6 mm) before every lighting, since a long wick makes a tall flame and a tall flame is what smokes and blackens glass. Burn for no more than four hours at a stretch, then put it out and let it cool for two. Stop a taper while 2 in (5 cm) is left above the socket, and stop a container candle while the wax is 1/2 in (13 mm) from the bottom.

Wood deserves its own line. A wood holder is fine under a taper you extinguish with 2 in left, and it is a genuine hazard under a pillar you let run down to the base. Burn pillars on wood only with a metal plate or a glass insert between the wax and the grain. A hurricane sleeve does not cancel that rule either. It stops the draft, nothing more, and it wants about 1 in (2.5 cm) of air all around the flame or the glass gets hot enough to crack.

What a candlestick is actually holding

Look at any candlestick and the part doing the work is the part that is not there: a hole about the width of your thumb, cut half an inch deep. Everything below it is a stand for that hole. A candelabra is the same hole five times over, spaced far enough apart that the flames do not cook each other.

Which is why the socket earns more of your attention than the finish. A beautiful holder with a sloppy bore holds a leaning candle, and a leaning candle drips on the table whatever the base is made of. Check the hole. The rest is decoration, and decoration is the easy part.