Oh I do like that, thats proper evolution, thats is!
Next will be a clock work motor to advance it at the same rate it burns!
ATb
Tom
Next will be a clock work motor to advance it at the same rate it burns!
ATb
Tom
Rush dips
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How about a sand clock with sand driving a small bucket wheel with a worm gear or just filling a bucket with a wire and pulley system. 
cheers Danny
cheers Danny
Well I was thinking of a team of highly trained ants pushing from the bottom but I keep dropping the tiny tiny chair and bull whip....
I suppose a split in a bit of wood stuck in the ground would do just as well.
But not near so much fun to make!
ATB
Tom
I suppose a split in a bit of wood stuck in the ground would do just as well.
But not near so much fun to make!
ATB
Tom
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Just when you are getting a bit jaundiced with the world someone comes along and does something so nice and for no ulterior reason at all...
This morning I had to pick up a parcel from the local P.O. that they tried to deliver yesterday. I recognised it as from a friend in America but had no idea what was in it.
Anyroad, when I opened it (everyone on the back of the bus was fascinated) it was this.
I was absolutely gobsmacked. I know my friend had been following my trials and tribulations with mutton fat and bending pliers and had been very encouraging but I wasn't expecting this.
So I'm one happy bear !
ATB
Tom
This morning I had to pick up a parcel from the local P.O. that they tried to deliver yesterday. I recognised it as from a friend in America but had no idea what was in it.
Anyroad, when I opened it (everyone on the back of the bus was fascinated) it was this.
I was absolutely gobsmacked. I know my friend had been following my trials and tribulations with mutton fat and bending pliers and had been very encouraging but I wasn't expecting this.
So I'm one happy bear !
ATB
Tom
Well he did say it was for Christmas, I'm glad he didn't wrap it with instructions not to open until the day itself!
It looks right anyway.
I'm chuffed to bits with it, all the more so for it being so unexpected.
ATB
Tom
PS I am now told it came out of a small museum in Nantucket (I feel a limerick coming on) and was attributed to about 1830....
It looks right anyway.
I'm chuffed to bits with it, all the more so for it being so unexpected.
ATB
Tom
PS I am now told it came out of a small museum in Nantucket (I feel a limerick coming on) and was attributed to about 1830....
Hi Folks. Just picked up something from a charity shop that should make a OK gresset if someone can weld 4 legs and a handle to it for me.
Its 15 inches long so just the right size. Don't know what I'll do with the two smaller ones...
ATB
Tom
Its 15 inches long so just the right size. Don't know what I'll do with the two smaller ones...
ATB
Tom
Hi folks
on the second attempt the beeswax dipped candles and they fit like a treat!
We'll save them for special occasions as they are two dear to waste, especially when we have loads of dips.
Last week I picked up another, what I thought was suitable for converting into nips, pair of old pliers for a few pence.
However when I had a closer look they were obviously hand made, forged and filed rather than machined so I am keeping them as is.
My question is although I know that many skilled folk still make pliers by hand roughly when did it stop being a common practice?
ATB
Tom
on the second attempt the beeswax dipped candles and they fit like a treat!
We'll save them for special occasions as they are two dear to waste, especially when we have loads of dips.
Last week I picked up another, what I thought was suitable for converting into nips, pair of old pliers for a few pence.
However when I had a closer look they were obviously hand made, forged and filed rather than machined so I am keeping them as is.
My question is although I know that many skilled folk still make pliers by hand roughly when did it stop being a common practice?
ATB
Tom
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i would imagine it stopped around the time machines were improved to make them quicker and with more precision.Maybe handmade examples were more common in the villages and the like,made by the local blacksmith.Not the easiest things to make..and as for box joints!...
just a few I've found :-
Marcus Aurelius 161 - 180 BC ( over 2000 years ago ! )
In the life of a man, his time is but a moment.... his sense, a dim rushlight. All that is body is as coursing waters.... all that is of the soul, as dreams, and vapors.
Kidnapped-Robert Louis Stevenson
chap 29
set him down in a chair beside the hearth, where the fire was out and only a rush-light burning.
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
chap 5
day had not yet begun to dawn, and a rushlight or two burned in the room.
chap 6
The next day commenced as before, getting up and dressing by rushlight
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall-Anne Bronte
chap 33
lighting my candle by the rushlight that was still burning
Adam Bede-George Eliot
chap 14
“Get me the matches down, Hetty, for I must have the rushlight burning i' my room
Aurora Leigh-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
book 5
To hollow out our weary hands to keep
Your intermittent rushlight of the past
From draughts in lobbies?
The Nations of Today-JOHN BUCHAN
History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness.
The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it.
there's got to be loads more ?
cheers all Danny
Marcus Aurelius 161 - 180 BC ( over 2000 years ago ! )
In the life of a man, his time is but a moment.... his sense, a dim rushlight. All that is body is as coursing waters.... all that is of the soul, as dreams, and vapors.
Kidnapped-Robert Louis Stevenson
chap 29
set him down in a chair beside the hearth, where the fire was out and only a rush-light burning.
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
chap 5
day had not yet begun to dawn, and a rushlight or two burned in the room.
chap 6
The next day commenced as before, getting up and dressing by rushlight
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall-Anne Bronte
chap 33
lighting my candle by the rushlight that was still burning
Adam Bede-George Eliot
chap 14
“Get me the matches down, Hetty, for I must have the rushlight burning i' my room
Aurora Leigh-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
book 5
To hollow out our weary hands to keep
Your intermittent rushlight of the past
From draughts in lobbies?
The Nations of Today-JOHN BUCHAN
History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness.
The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it.
there's got to be loads more ?
cheers all Danny
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Well today was one of them funny anniversary days the other half are so fond of. Brenda came back to bed with coffee and a card for me and I'd put a "fake" fur Rat in here side of the bed 
after the shriek :yikes: I said it was an anniversary Rat from Teddy. A few weeks ago a friend had told me about some really large rushes growing in the gravel quarries a couple of miles outside Masham. I'll take you out to dinner was my saving. How about the Kings Head at Masham ? that met with approval. So having scrubbed up it was Skipton, Bolton Abbey, Blubberhouses, Ripon, Masham with a great dinner and the Black Sheep Ale as apposed to bitter was on fine form. We'll go back via the Layburn, Hawes road Oh! look some gravel quarries we'll just have a quick look
from post #47
Brenda made tea and got a bottle of Champagne out of the fridge I guess I'm lucky.
just thought I'd share and open the thread again as July is the best month to pick Rushes ! I'll post updates as to peeling and waxing to Rush Lights, cheers all Danny
after the shriek :yikes: I said it was an anniversary Rat from Teddy. A few weeks ago a friend had told me about some really large rushes growing in the gravel quarries a couple of miles outside Masham. I'll take you out to dinner was my saving. How about the Kings Head at Masham ? that met with approval. So having scrubbed up it was Skipton, Bolton Abbey, Blubberhouses, Ripon, Masham with a great dinner and the Black Sheep Ale as apposed to bitter was on fine form. We'll go back via the Layburn, Hawes road Oh! look some gravel quarries we'll just have a quick look
from post #47
Not here they really were 8 ft. tall and as thick as your thumb. socks off it was in for a paddle and I could feel Brenda's eyes on my back. We came back via Hawes and Ribble Head and down the Ingleton road passed the Adopted tree http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54023 Well seen as were passing I'll just stop and water it. I think this was one coincidence too much. Has all this been planned "you bu**er" Err no sweetheart. Back home while I lit the fire with my new Dave Budd steel works a treat and cut them into lengths to soak
Brenda made tea and got a bottle of Champagne out of the fridge I guess I'm lucky.
just thought I'd share and open the thread again as July is the best month to pick Rushes ! I'll post updates as to peeling and waxing to Rush Lights, cheers all Danny
Just to hi-jack the cast Dog grate in the above photo was a casting re-ject from the Ouzledale Foundry Barnoldswick (Esse stoves) there used to be a scrap pile of them, but now the foundry is in Mongolia, I think, and they're just assembled here. We use it to burn the "wax logs" which at the moment are 99p in Home Bargains at Nelson and Burnley.
Great stuff. I grew up knowing these rushes as "Candle Grass" and I've made a few over the years but this has made a real science of it.
Bloody hell, they make the ones we collected this year at Clough Bottom Resevoir look pathetic, the best have only produced 18" usable lenghts which are currently bleaching on a window sill.
I've a fair few left from the batch made just about a year ago, they have been kept in a open box on a shelf and do not seem to have gone off/rancid at all which rather suprised me. I'll light one in a moment and see if they are any smokier than when fresh.
I really think that the bad rep they have for stinking and smoking is due to those outside of sheep farming areas being made with pork fat, pigs being by far the most common animal kept by the main users of rushlights. I'll get some pork dripping, or save the stuff that come off the good old George Forman when I do bacon and make a few pork ones to do a comparison.
ATB
Tom
I've a fair few left from the batch made just about a year ago, they have been kept in a open box on a shelf and do not seem to have gone off/rancid at all which rather suprised me. I'll light one in a moment and see if they are any smokier than when fresh.
I really think that the bad rep they have for stinking and smoking is due to those outside of sheep farming areas being made with pork fat, pigs being by far the most common animal kept by the main users of rushlights. I'll get some pork dripping, or save the stuff that come off the good old George Forman when I do bacon and make a few pork ones to do a comparison.
ATB
Tom
From post #59
The first batch I left out in the morning dew then dried and bleached ? in the sun but it seemed such a faff the second batch above I soaked for a week peeled bundled up tied with string and dried them out on the stove over night and if anything they were better !
cheers Rushlights-R-Us
Danny
The first batch I left out in the morning dew then dried and bleached ? in the sun but it seemed such a faff the second batch above I soaked for a week peeled bundled up tied with string and dried them out on the stove over night and if anything they were better !
cheers Rushlights-R-Us
DannyFascinating thread! I made some Rushlights to go with my Firelighting Displays a couple of years ago and had all the same teething problems as mentioned here.
For a brighter light,turn the Rush to the horizontal position in the Nip and light both ends.Then you are quite literally as the saying goes "burning the candle at both ends"
Oggie.
For a brighter light,turn the Rush to the horizontal position in the Nip and light both ends.Then you are quite literally as the saying goes "burning the candle at both ends"
Oggie.
Shall I make a few comedy ones? Soak them in the pottasium nitrate solution I treat the char cloth with so they cough, spit and fart like the match cord?!
ATB
Tom
ATB
Tom
Hi Tom I'll put this here then anyone thinking of getting some of these gets put off. I hope you have more luck at peeling off the outer green skin than me, I've had them soaking and kept trying them every other day, but the internal pith is allot more of a large cellular structure and doesn't soak up and swell (stiff) like the field ones and the skin just doesn't want to pull off over the thumb nail certainly not zip zip zip done like the field ones, anyway with a final try today they were beginning to go a bit slimy so they've gone into the compost. I did try splitting them longwise into quarters and even cutting the skin off but gave it up as a "Fail" I did see some really big tall clumps on a couple of expeditions late last year so that's the next Teddy Tour sorted.
How did you get on ?
cheers Danny
Hi Danny
I've had them soaking in the bath all the time and have had no joy with peeling them at all, having a go every day or so so I think I'll compost mine as well.
I suppose its possible its just a similar looking species?
ATB
Tom
I've had them soaking in the bath all the time and have had no joy with peeling them at all, having a go every day or so so I think I'll compost mine as well.
I suppose its possible its just a similar looking species?
ATB
Tom
To carry on the hi-jack
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33398&page=1
Brenda is out with the Girls tonight and I don't do scrubed up, so as it got dark I lit a Fire log in the grate post #71 above. I find if you follow the instructions and light the paper to light the log it makes a mess and takes longer to get going I take it out of the paper and no more than a spoon of meths or panel wipe (20ml) and its away.
looking out the front room window
certainly burn well
scenic flames
and you can feel the heat, certainly kept the chill off
and at 99p from Home Bargains rather than the same brand at £3.99 at Booths Teddy was pleased
after 1 1/2 hours with the wine gone I shoveled the burning remains into the house stove
just thought I'd share cheers all Danny
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