old fashioned burning torches

[bert333]

Does anyone know what was used in these old burning torches?
I have found references to cloth wrapped on a stick with with pine resin but wondered if anyone here had any knowledge they could share on this?

 

[RobertRogers]

A mixture of melted pitch (pine resin, for example) and charcoal works well. Adding a binder can help too, such as deer or rabbit droppings

 

[NatG]

when i went to the peak district with my mate, we found out that a tewa towel soaked in cooking oil and tied very tightly to a stick with some wire will burn quite brightly for a while, very smoky though

 

[gregorach]

I believe the traditional "torch-wielding mob" torch is a bundle of reeds soaked in pitch.

 

[Wayland]

The problem with most methods is dripping, which at best is a fire risk at worst causes very nasty burns to your hand.

I have a pottery flambeaux that Jim the Pot made that I just use wax and a bit of rope for a wick in. Much safer.

 

[Tadpole]

Does anyone know what was used in these old burning torches?
I have found references to cloth wrapped on a stick with with pine resin but wondered if anyone here had any knowledge they could share on this?

Soak some half inch thick old-fashioned hemp rope in pitch (you can use oakum or flax), nail one end to a thick’ish green stick using a fence/barbed wire staple, wind it round about 6 inches staple every turn or two. Dip in warm/melted pitch or oil. That is your torch. Light it by heating in a fire.
In olden days it was the job of young boys called 'Link boys' to light the way for rich gentry

 

[IntrepidStu]

The problem with most methods is dripping, which at best is a fire risk at worst causes very nasty burns to your hand.

I have a pottery Rochambeaux that Jim the Pot made that I just use wax and a bit of rope for a wick in. Much safer.

Go on then......I know you want us to ask....just WHAT is a Rochambeaux???

Google says its another name for the "paper/scissors/rock" game.
Stu.

 

[Wallenstein]

Go on then......I know you want us to ask....just WHAT is a Rochambeaux???

Google says its another name for the "paper/scissors/rock" game.
Stu.

More importantly, does it meet the aesthetic and practical requirements of yer basic "torch-wielding angry mob"?

 

[jackmcmanus21]

i never knew there was an aesthetic requirement for a torch wielding angry mod

 

[Wayland]

A Rochambeaux is a product of an over active spell checker.

A pottery flambeaux, which is what I actually typed, is a pottery cup with a handle instead of a base which holds a wick and some wax or oil if you're feeling brave and can be carried like a torch.

 

[bert333]

thanks everybody
Wayland - funny one!! but that pot can't give out much light if it's inside a pottery item- was thinking more of the 'peasants going on a lynching up a Transylvanian castle at night' type of torch!! if you get my drift!


flambeau, nom masculin
Sens 1 Torche, chandelle. Synonyme chandelle Anglais torch Sens 2 Lumière qui guide [Figuré]. Synonyme guide Anglais flame

 

[crazydave]

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-torch-for-less-than-a-dollar-:-/

similar principle - pitch or oil and grass - beech nut oil would probably work along with pine resins

 

[Twoflower]

was thinking more of the 'peasants going on a lynching up a Transylvanian castle at night' type of torch!!

Night out in Bromley coming up? :BlueTeamE

 

[Mike Ameling]

I've made a few torches in the past. I took strips of heavy cotton feedsack, and wrapped it around the end of a green stick. I then took a couple wraps around all that with light wire to hold it all in place. I then soaked it in Coal Oil (kerosene).

They burn very well with good light for around 20 or 30 minutes, and then with usable light for around another 15 minutes. The cotton clothe held the oil and acted as a wick. Once the oil had mostly burned away, the clothe started to burn up just like Charclothe does.

And you can also make a usable torch by wrapping birch bark around the end of a green stick also. And then put a couple wraps of wire around that to hold things together.

Note I said GREEN STICK. Otherwise the burning end will burn through the stick holding it. And then everything could fall into your lap.

The other common "lighting" device was a Cresset. It is an iron cage suspended from a pole. In that iron cage, you put Pine Knots and burn them for light.

Hope this helps.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[bert333]

Night out in Bromley coming up? :BlueTeamE

yep!!

 

[robin wood]

Isn't the whole thing a product of the film industry? has anyone seen this sort of thing in contemporary paintings or anything?

 

[Tadpole]

Isn't the whole thing a product of the film industry? has anyone seen this sort of thing in contemporary paintings or anything?

Torch sellers in the 14th century
Such torches were still common in Shakespears time (1564 to 1616)
"Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern." (Henry IV Act III, scene III)

link, being a torch of 'cotton tow and pitch'. There were link boys who were paid to light the way for rich folk, in the time of Samuel Pepys ( 1630 to 1700s)
link torch

 

[Mike Ameling]

There are many drawings/paintings of people using torches in the 1700's on back to Medieval times. Although the "details" of construction tend to be ... lost to hisoty.

Yes, hollyweird has left its stamp on peoples' ideas of what a torch should look like and work. One of the better interpretations was in the original Rambo movie - where he tore strips of an old tarp, dipped them in waste oil, and wrapped them around the end of a piece of pipe to use as a torch inside the mine. Simple, basic, functional.

There was also a good representation of a birch bark torch in the movie Grey Owl with Pierce Frosnan.

In Gladiator, they showed hand-held iron cage type Cressets for light, but probably used some modern alternative to burn in them instead of pine knots. (Short sections of a "duraflame" type fireplace/camping log work amazingly well in a Cresset.)

Once you play around a bit with those historical crafts/devices, you learn a lot - in a World Lit Only By Fire! (That's also a the title of a good book about the ideas/philosophy that developed before modern times with artificial light.)

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[sharp88]

Iv done it with an old t-shirt soaked in cooking oil on a lump of hazel. Smokey and expenisve stuff to burn. Better off using an electronic torch.

 

[mazeman]

i never knew there was an aesthetic requirement for a torch wielding angry mod

Mods are reknowned for their sense of aesthetics, and scooters of course.