[Sca-cooks] braided vs. twisted candle wicks

[Stefan li Rous]

Flip gave some useful info on making your own wicks:
> nope... have never bought a wick... nor have i bothered to look.
> always have made my own. :)
>
> Get some all cotton utility twine, untwist it to get the single plys,
> then braid three groups of 2 plys, or 3 plys for a larger wick.
>
> If you want to cord/twist i'd go with 2 groups of 4.

But would was the braided wick get invented? Maybe the braided
wick wouldn't be a good choice for a candle meant to immitate one from
before 1600.

Here is what I was thinking of (from my candles-msg file):
> The first thing to remember is that you had to trim wicks to keep them
> burning brightly -- modern wicks are a post-period (I think) invention in
> which one of the strands of wick is pulled tighter than the other strands
> when they're plaited together, so that when it burns it pulls the top of the
> wick into the flame where it is burnt away.  Cunning invention, since before
> it was developed the wicks would just get longer and longer and the flame got
> floppier and smokier and less efficient.  (Have you ever played with the
> settings on a bunsen burner?  It's that sort of principle.)

>   Payn
> --
>  ==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==/==\==
>   Jennifer Geard                         bloodthorn at sloth.equinox.gen.nz
>   Christchurch, New Zealand

But maybe Payn has her dates off. Or maybe there were both braided
and twisted wicks before 1600 and the real improvement was having a
braided wick where one strand was pulled much tighter than the others.

If anyone can shed some "light" on this subject, I'd like to hear
from them. This can be off list if this is getting too far from food.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****