Rush dips

[tombear]

Well, I finally got to dip the thin nasty rushes we set drying after peeling about 10 days ago. Many were too scrawny to stand up to the weight of the mutton suet tallow and I don't think more than half of those selected as about worth peeling actually made it to be finished dips. The bigger broken bits I've put in a whiskey bottle tin as they will still burn for a few minutes. For convenience of storage most are about 15-16 inches long although I've left a small bundle at 24 to 30 something long to test the viability of using the full length of the rushes. I suspect that a large proportion will snap under their own weight once in the nips.

At the mo they are in a open drawer to let them dry out/cure some. Once they have hardened as much as they will I'll seal them in airtight containers until I use them.

i used two completely peeled piths as wicks in a pair of mould made tallow candles that are currently cooling. I dipped and let cool the pith wicks first. As any protruding part would have snapped off I will have to cut the candles back a bit onece they are out of the moulds to expose the wicks.

For drying out the freshly dipped rushes I strung a strong thread line over the work bench. 30+ rushes were just folded in half over the line while for shorter lengths I sacrificed some of the thin end to wind it around the line a few times. Once sufficiently cool / cured to handle ( and not stick together) I cut the dips off the line with some scissors. This has produced straighter, neater and less broken dips than previous sessions were they were laid down on various surfaces such as newspaper, bubble wrap and Teflon baking sheets.

i tried out some of the broken bits and they burned well, nice clean flames, almost no smell and no more smoke than a parafin candle when extinguished. In a few days I will see how well they have hardened.

ATB

Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Sounds like quite a production line Tom. Be interested to hear and see (pics please) them in action once they're done.
The last batch I made were mainly with rendered lamb/mutton fat and the smell/smoke wasn't bad. In fact it was like I'd cooked a lamb chop when I was burning them.
The light was pretty good from them. Had a polished brass Sierra cup behind as a reflector which helped. Though I'm looking around for little glass bulbs to fill.with water to act as a magnifing lens like the museum pieces you see that were used by ladies when doing needle work.
Cheers for keeping us imformed of your progress.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[tombear]

Yeah but this year the wastage was horrendous and of course the thin ones burn faster so have to be moved along more often.

So here's me last twilight dipping and hanging the rushes

and here's all the vaguely usable ones curing in a draw.

Unfortunately there's not enough light for the camera to work so the inuse pics not very atmosperic!

It occurs to me I now have enough oak to make a proper version of the wooden nips to the left in the pic. The arm on the scrap pine prototype isn't heavy enough without a weight added to grip the dips.

And finally the two mutton suet tallow candles with pith wicks. After a night in the freezer they popped out of the tin mould lovely!

Those are spare dipped all peeled pith wicks on the plate nearest the camera.

I must go and check the older batches to see how rancid they have got. I think the earliest I still have are from summer of 2007. Perhaps I should dump them on a reenactor who wants some smelly atmosphere! Reinforcing the myth that all rushlights smoked and stank!

There's still 40+ tallow candles slowly going off in a draw. After 3+ years I couldn't merit them space in the Shed fridge when there was more current stuff to go in. They are too drippy to use in a draft and I don't really have a suitable enclosed lantern yet. All very well if you want the dribbly Unseen University look but a bit of a pain if you have to scrape them off your prized copies of medieval lamps! Oops! My apologies once again to those who tested them!

ATB

Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Haha, in that top picture I can imagine you beavering away in your lab at the Unseen University. (Now where are my dried frog pills?)
Great pictures by the way. Nice collection of rush holders and the candles have turned out a treat.
Like you say they don't smell too bad. Maybe it's down to rendering the fat properly?
Great seeing your work, you always have interesting projects on the go.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[tombear]

Ha! I should have lowered the chandelier and done it by candle light ( a Goth at a car boot, desperate to not have to drag it home, forced it on me for a quid, well thats my excuse ).

The eldest son does quite a good igor impression nut had the sense to go to bed at midnight. It was one of those jobs you dont want to come back to although I did leave the washing up to this morning.

Cheers! one of the iron holders is the real thing, a suprise present from a American friend who thought he owed me a thank you for a bit of research i did for him. 'came out of some private collection in Mathas Vineyard or some such place on the East Coast (I tracked it down to the auction site which was a bit looking the gift horse in the mouth but I couldnt help myself, I whish I had kept the link or at least made a note of the provanance, not that it matters.). The other one they make at St Fagans. The sad thing is I have to really think about which one is which.

How much salt do you use when rendering? I'm on about a heaped table spoon for every pound of raw fat. I also boil it up in clean resalted water twice more, as a rule.

I'm pretty sure the bad rep comes from poorly rendered fat as you said and the use of pig fat in really poor/urban areas were mutton and beef fat was relatively expensive/hard to get in volume. Also it panders to the modern urge to portray the past as inferior / hard to survive in every way possible.

Back to Packing, off to Hadrans wall early tomorrow.

ATB

Tom