Cotton - Oil Lamp/Candle Braided Rope Wick - Anyone?

[the4thpower3]

Anyone else consider using Lamp or Candle Wicks?

I was just looking at an oil lamp, seeing the wick just sitting vertically burning away and was wondering if the braiding would be better for capillary action.

I see people using cotton yarn, but not candle or oil lamp wicks.

Like Organic Cotton Braided lamp/candle wicks

Something like THIS
or maybe THIS

Something similar - not exactly that stuff.
I haven't done any real research or checked if anyone does use this - I was hoping someone else would do that for me
Obviously Organic Unbleached (maybe sterilized with H2O2...) would be best.
Does State O' Flux have like a Batman spotlight I can shine to get him to research?

 

[Aal_]

I think they put some kind of material on the wick so it doesn't burn. Just an assumption.

 

[SkvLTD]

Thing is, possible coating or whatever extra material is added to that mix might NOT be good for inhalation.

 

[UncleChuck]

It's possible that the amount of fluid the oil lamp wick is moving just isn't that much compared to requirements for vaping.

I haven't used an oil lamp in a long time but I remember they burned for a long time on a rather small amount of oil, regular cotton will wick eliquid vertical, just not super quickly. If you are confident you can find wick free of any contaminants it's definitely worth a shot

On the subject of braiding itself, what is everyone's experience? Because when comparing standard twisted silica to stuff like braided ekowool, it seems the twisted wicks faster. It makes sense as a more straight forward path for the juice would be easier to "climb" than jumping over the sideways fibers in braided material.

Cable vs mesh seems to be similar, cable wicks better in my experience, possibly because it's a relatively straight path for the juice, instead of a cross-hatch type pattern of mesh.

I'm just spitballing here, but if you do try it, make sure there are absolutely no coatings or anything on it.

 

[sumoman25]

I have some square braid #4/0 that I bought from amazon a while back. Have tried (and failed) to use it in builds. The problem is almost certainly that I don't have any experience using any cotton ever, not that the cotton wick material itself is bad.

I can tell you that the stuff I bought is 100% cotton, no extra material coating or otherwise. The reason it doesn't "burn" in candles or lamps is because it's a delivery system for wax or oil, which is what's actually burning.

The size I've got is comparable to 2mm silica, maybe a bit smaller. It's got a very tight braid and feels rather dense, I don't know if that's good or bad with cotton wicks. You can un-braid it but it's a huge PITA, but I have no idea how to make it work. I've seen a video of someone rebuilding a vivi nova head using it but I can't remember who. At any rate they loved it but when I tried the same thing I was very unimpressed, it wicked very well but my coil couldn't keep up with it, something I could rectify if I gave it a shot now.

If any of you could link me a tutorial on using cotton in the form of "strings" rather than rolled up cotton balls then I can give it a shot and tell you if it works well.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

There's been quite a bit of discussion in the threads...Hmm...2 years back or so. ...particularly the square cotton wick.