Rush dips

[tombear]

Aye, you can also get it from the folk who supply the home soap/cosmetic makers. I believe it's a mix of best white beef and mutton fat. The local hardware shop has it but it was 7 quid for a small tub which is a bit excessive!

I mentioned wanting a few pounds of mutton tallow in passing to a mate in NZ who is sourcing me a Svord Peasant Knife (as a swap for a Bren sling) and he said the smallest container he'd seen of it is a 55 gallon drum! What with 13 sheep for every person in NZ there's a lot of it about, mainly going into the cosmetics industry and for candles he said. I had thought it was no longer used for that and asked him to clarify if they still made candles out of the pure stuff or as a ingrediant because if it is I may ask him to ship a few over and use them as a raw material for making other stuff.

Rendering is definately something to do out doors, It's taken two baths to get the smell off me although strangely my hands are wonderfully soft...

Off to make some dips now!

ATB

T

 

[Cobweb]

This blow-by-blow and picture tutorial/lesson thingy is fantastic, thank you for taking the time to do this. I'm off up to the local woods to get some rushes to try. I think mutton fat will have to wait, I'm planning on using lard (I don't mind the smell) and when I'm feeling a bit more flush, I'll nip down the butchers

 

[tombear]

Cheers! I'm just going to write up the last stage once the dips have cured and I can test a couple. I did a small batch with "Britannia Finest Beef Dripping, Additive free" from either Asda or I think Morrisons. It melted quicker than the mutton stuff and soaked in just the same.

More soon!

Tom

 

[tombear]

Having got the required materials and equipment together

(and made sure the fire blanket etc was to hand) I used a pocket rocket set on a low flame to melt about 5 oz of the mutton tallow in the corner of a frying pan.

I had locked this into a hand vice set at the angle which would leave a pool of liquid when I put it down on the work surface. I heated the fat until it had just started to bubble

and then used a pair of wooden tongs from the chinese supermarket to dip one end of the rush into the liquid and then slowly draw the whole thing through.

The pith quickly absorbs the tallow which sets rapidly and I soon got through all the fat with the occasional reheat.

The dips in the photo above took about 45 minutes to make, possibly less.

Having some peeled rushes left I sent a minion for some beef dripping from the kitchen and made a dozen or so with that.

It melted faster than the mutton tallow but otherwise was identical to work with.

After a hour or so to set I cut lengths of both types of dip , endevouring to make them as identical as I could in regards to diameter and clamped them into a stripped down fly tying "helping hand".

The two samples burned in a remarkably similar manner and gave off very little smoke or smell until they were snuffed out by burning down to the clamps.

The 7 inches of mutton tallow dip burned for 17 minutes 15 seconds and the beef dripping for 14 minutes 15 seconds, quite a respectable time. A 24 inch dip would therefore provide a hours light.

I intend to freeze and refrigerate most of the dips but will store samples of both in a drawer to see how they degrade over time. The dripping dips do seem to melt in your hand if held for any lenght of time and I suspect that the supposed superiority of mutton over beef tallow will make itself apparent in how well the dips survive storage/going rancid.

When making your own tallow and then melting it over a heat source beware pockets of trapped water within the block as this can cause alarming fountains of hot fat. If you have a mesh pan guard I would use it.

I have greatly enjoyed this little project and would like to thank those who have assisted me during the process, notably my eldest son, also Tom (10), who took most of the photos.

ATB

Tom

 

[Tengu]

That was great.

I tried rendering suet once, hardly any fat.

but I just had big lumps in a pan...things may have been different if I had minced it fine.

 

[Tengu]

BTW, whats the difference between dripping and lard?

 

[Toddy]

Dripping is generally beef fat and it's hard. It contains the waxy fat from around the kidneys, etc, (suet).

Lard is processed pig fat and it's soft and kind of oily.

Nice one Tom (and young Tom ) Nicely done gentlemen

cheers,
Toddy

 

[jenifier]

thanks for these information

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks, just back from 8 days on the side of Sugarloaf in the Breacon Beacons and I failed miserably to find a nip or a gresset despite looking in inumerable antique shops. The nearest I got was some (not for sale) copies in the restored cottages at the Blaenavon Ironworks.

I forgot to put the two types of dips away before I went (oops) and after a week in a warm house neither have gone off or started to stink.

The wifes made me a goodly length of that flat plainted flax braid so I'll do a couple of small dipped candles next.

At the Roman army museum at Caerlon we saw a digital display thingie of some one dipping tallow candles using a rush (it looked like pith only?!).

ATB

Tom

 

[ForgeCorvus]

I've done a search for 'Rush Nip' and 'Gresset'
I've found out that I've made Nips before (I wasn't sure what they were at the time)
But I can't find what a Gresset looks like, any links ?

 

[Toddy]

Here you go

http://pilgrim.ceredigion.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1784

and this link is from one of Tom's earlier posts
http://www.lamptrader.com/496p_rush.html


cheers,
Toddy

 

[tombear]

There was two varriations on replica nips at Blaenavon, these,

and the same but with a forged inverted cone to hold the candle insted.

I've read of wall mounted boxes to hold the supply of dips but I haven't seen one yet.

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Just a note to say, if I could nominate a thread for "most fascinating thread of the year", this would be it!

Informative, fascinating...it has it all

Great stuff Tom - thanks

Red

 

[tombear]

Cheers :-{D)

I've found it engrossing myself! I'm now wondering if there were definate regional varriations in the design of nips, like you get with billhooks, gates or spades etc.

If I've inspired anyone to scald themselves, stink out their houses or set fire to their clothing then my time has been well spent!

Back to work on Monday so my pottering will be restricted to the wee small hours until half term...


ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Hi Folks
I finally got around to making some leather dressing using the mutton tallow we made and it seems to work quite well, it rubs in fine and you can get a polish on the surface, which I like.

The receipt I used was
8 oz pure bees wax
5 oz mutton tallow
2 oz turpentine
1 oz neats foot oil
0.5 oz pine resin (tied in a little cloth bag to stop the bits of bark etc getting into the mix.

I dropped the lot into the top of a old Swann double boiler (I keep seeing these in charity shops for about £1.50) and melted it while stiring slowly. and poured it into a old stoneware pot that seemed the right size.

I know some folk don't care for neats foot oil but the amount was small and personally I've had no trouble with it. The pine resin will hopefully inhibit the growth of mould and the turpentine make it soft enough to spread, at least that's what I hope!

You can see the dull bits where I haven't rubbed it in with the remains of the Nikwax I've used in the pasts.

Took about 10 mins to mmake, most of which was collecting the bits together!

ATB

Tom

 

[QDanT]

Hi thanks to Tombear for starting this off for me. I've forged my "Nips" collected soaked and peeled my Rushes and am now waiting for them to bleach and dry in the Sun
Just playing about drying a couple on top of the stove and dipping in lard I was thinking that they just burnt too fast. Then I read this:- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E05EEDF123AE033A25757C2A9649C94689FD7CF
click blue square to read full article,Cooling between imersions and were dipped again and again untill of sufficient size. It doesn't say what this is but it answers the burnt too fast observation. I'll experiment and photos to follow
cheers all Danny

 

[tombear]

Great stuff! I'll be very interested to hear your results. The best I have had so far is 3 minutes a inch or thereabouts. I wonder what the best thickness of fat is before diminishing returns and you are getting no extra burn time.

I know the Romans just kept dipping thm until they ended up with full size candles.

Next year I think i may have to do a really big batch of tallow so i can experiment properly.

ATB

Tom

 

[QDanT]

Sat afternoons metal bashing turned a piece of 1/8" mild steel into a "Grisset" which is the traditional boat shaped pan for melting the grease in the ashes of the fire, though my idea is to put a couple of night lights under it.
For the Hammer geeks this is a Whitehouse 1 1/2 LB.

Here's the Rushlight holder and a glass of rush spills bleaching and drying in the sun

The village shop sells beeswax blocks and I've a trip to the butchers for some Mutton fat planned for Monday so it's all coming along.
cheers all Danny

 

[w00dsmoke]

I made some up with juncus for an event a few weeks back and tbh I just used ordinary lard at 40p a block. I melted it in the frying pan then just dragged the rushes through this and then put them on some old plastic and in the fridge to set.

the only problem I had was on sunny days the fat melted off them, so I ended up putting them in an empty flask to keep them cool.

They burn quite nicely and the aroma from them is rather nice...

 

[tombear]

Outstanding Danny, especially the gresset (Nice hammer too ;-{D) !

It is a hassle but I think the mutton tallow, especially if you are adding beeswax makes a worthwhile differance, depending on source of the information the melting point of mutton fat is 5 to 10 degress C more than that of beef so it should be a fair bit more stable.

If I can get out tomorrow I'm off to where they have been trimming the trees in the park to get a section of green wood to turn into a base for the nips.

ATB

Tom