Peerman
- Thread starter tombear
- Start date
Uw, my thats a big one! Very nice! Evidently there were huge industrial sized ones for lighting workshops. I've only seen pictures of those. If I can photograph and measure a real one I'd like to make one, one day.
RE rush lights I've not found them to be that smokey, possibly as I over do the rendering of the mutton fat, boiling it up in salt water at least twice. How thick are the rushes you're using as I'm getting quite a lot of light off of the thicker ones, the main down is how fast they burn down.
I'm having trouble finding images of how they were stored. In the reserve collection at St Fagans I found a tin candle holder which still had desicated, broken up rushes in it, much to mine and the curators surprise, I've also seen a photo of odd vertical wooden box with a fireplace like hole at one end. I assume you stood the lights on their ends and pulled them out as required. There's mention of them being tied up in bundles but that would leave them open to mice and insect attack.
ATB
Tom
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Tom
RE rush lights I've not found them to be that smokey, possibly as I over do the rendering of the mutton fat, boiling it up in salt water at least twice. How thick are the rushes you're using as I'm getting quite a lot of light off of the thicker ones, the main down is how fast they burn down.
I'm having trouble finding images of how they were stored. In the reserve collection at St Fagans I found a tin candle holder which still had desicated, broken up rushes in it, much to mine and the curators surprise, I've also seen a photo of odd vertical wooden box with a fireplace like hole at one end. I assume you stood the lights on their ends and pulled them out as required. There's mention of them being tied up in bundles but that would leave them open to mice and insect attack.
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Tom
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Tom
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Very interesting, I'll have to try any make some of these rush lights; perhaps they'd be a nice addition to a night in the woods and like before still 'cheaper than candles'!
Due to the kindness of a certain member of the parish I now have a goodly supply of resinous wood to play with and have split some off to use as peerman
At some point Id like to experiment at storing the splints up in a chimney where resinous wood is burned as I've read that this was done to improve them. At the moment, with only a short while playing with them I can only get them to burn usefully if they angled down, rather than up like rushlights, The flame slowly creeps up the wood leaving quite a lot of matter behind where as a dip would flare up and be gone in a very short period of time if angled down.
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Tom
At some point Id like to experiment at storing the splints up in a chimney where resinous wood is burned as I've read that this was done to improve them. At the moment, with only a short while playing with them I can only get them to burn usefully if they angled down, rather than up like rushlights, The flame slowly creeps up the wood leaving quite a lot of matter behind where as a dip would flare up and be gone in a very short period of time if angled down.
ATB
Tom
Not resinous enough for more upright burning I guess 
. That's a good test for suitability...I get through a lot of wood so will keep my eyes open - there must be better fatwood around. If I was back in the damper woodland areas kicking a pine stump to bits would sometimes yield true fatwood.....still, at least it seems to stay alight!
. That's a good test for suitability...I get through a lot of wood so will keep my eyes open - there must be better fatwood around. If I was back in the damper woodland areas kicking a pine stump to bits would sometimes yield true fatwood.....still, at least it seems to stay alight!
It still most definately works, a "dry" stick goes out very quickly at any angle and you can smell the resin on these lovely when they burn.
Cheers!
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Tom
Cheers!
ATB
Tom
