What is the charred portion of a candlewick called?

I am currently doing a crossWord and one of the clues is "blackened candle wick." The answer is a Word of 5 letters - by solving other adjoining clues I have I have the first,second and fourth letters of this answer,viz. S N - F -. The dictionaries I am currently using don't provide any answers so somebody please HELP by emailing me at shirleyandnigel@optusnet.com.au, Thanks.

The correct Word is SNUFF