PARA-1275
PARA-1275 paraffin: 55/58 for pillars
The hottest fully refined paraffin here, clearing at 59.0 C. It is the grade that made the modern pillar candle possible: hard enough to stand 180 mm tall without a support, and opaque enough that the wick well never shows through.
Melt band 20–90 °C — every live specimen pinned at its own interval
20 °C55 °C90 °C
| First softening | 54.5 °C | Surface yields to light finger pressure. |
|---|---|---|
| Slab stage | 56.5 °C | Pourable but still slushy at the edges. |
| Clear point | 59.0 °C | Fully liquid, no seed crystals left. |
| Congeal point | 53.5 °C | Surface skins over on cooling. |
| Phase width | 4.5 °C | Clear point minus first softening. |
| DSC peaks | 55.9 °C · 58.2 °C | Calorimetry peak temperatures, 2 °C/min ramp. |
| Crystal β | 50.5 °C | 8 nm · 72° |
A 59 C clear point means the pool stays narrow: the flame has to deliver more heat to spread the melt. Pool diameter after four hours is typically 38 mm, against 52 mm for PARA-4625 in the same 76 mm vessel. A narrow pool is a long burn, and it is also why a hard pillar keeps its shape to the last third.
The cost is a hollow core. Hard paraffin shrinks away from the wick as it cools, and the void that forms runs from the top down about a third of the height. It is invisible on the outside and it is the reason a hard pillar sounds hollow when tapped, which is normal and not a fault.
Crystal forms
| Form | Transition | Layer | Tilt |
|---|---|---|---|
| beta β | 50.5 °C | 8 nm | 72° |
Same-family shrinkage comparison
Shrink — the filled bar is this grade, the hollow bars are its family siblings
Known failure modes
| Trigger | Threshold | Known failure modes |
|---|---|---|
| PAR-FLARE | wick length → above 8 mm | An untrimmed wick flares and the wall above the pool reaches 90 C. Trim to 6 mm before every light. |
| PAR-WELL | hollow core → shrinkage over 12 % | The hollow core is normal, but if it reaches the bottom the pillar burns down unevenly and collapses. Keep the burn under four hours. |
| PAR-SCALLOP | pour temperature → below 62 C | Cool wax drags scalloped rings down the outside of a pillar. Pour at 68-70 C in one motion. |
Burn records for this grade
| Date | Burn report | Hour | Pool ⌀ mm | Soot 0–10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-11 | PARA-1275 pillar, 36 hours | 36 | 40.0 | 5.9 |
Protocol
- P-06 four-hour burn sessionCapped multi-session burn with hourly dimensional readings
Other live specimens
- BEE-9400 Beeswax 11.5% · 88
- COCO-8300 Coconut wax 6.8% · 12
- PARA-2281 same family 16.8% · 9
- PARA-4625 same family 14.2% · 15
- PARA-4780 same family 13.5% · 17
- SOY-415 Soy wax 9.6% · 34
- SOY-4641 Soy wax 8.4% · 22
- SOY-P22 Soy wax 10.8% · 29