Home made hemp wick?

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louiet

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Last fall I found a four foot long, half inch diameter, broken off section of twined rope. It had been in water for a few years. It's so weak i can bust it by hand I think.

Anyway, I hung it up next to the wood stove and basically forgot about it. For laughs I put a match to the end the other day. Ooops! Hey, that burns! I made a pile of hemp fuzz and that was cool in flames.

So, I find out that hemp was a traditional wick material the other day. it's sitting over a nail in a shed waiting for wick instructions. How do I prepare it? Do I dip it in tallow? Stretch out the curls? My kingdom for a wick! Well? Light my fire.
 
Louiet,

How about coating the fibres/ thread with melted beeswax?
 
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I found some info

I found a mention that the most important part of the candle is the wick. It makes sense. Experiments that I've done with alcohol over the years and trying to replace lantern wicks have gone nowhere.

What may or may not have the greatest bearing on performance might lie in the orientation of the fibers. It can't be random. Simply having an absorbent material isn't enough as it would seem. I've tried cotton, cut up blue jeans, cardboard and whatever I figured would burn. Nope. The stuff has to be stretched straight too.

Real wicks are much like trees pulling up from below. That's my take on this.

My rope is still hanging waiting for me to get to it. I need to get some wax cheap. Craft stores are a bit out of the way for me. I like to scrounge when possible. If I do make any real progress I'll pass it on.
 

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