Wick Size and Type

[michaelb2296]

Hello,
I see everyone sells the 1/2'' cotton wick for the old E&J lamps but I have measured 7 burners and not one
of them has a 1/2'' opening. They range in size from .466 to .489 . The .489 is the nicest one I have and I have
about 3 of these that are .485, .487, .489 but, NONE are 1/2''....

I also see that 12mm cotton is .47'' which is closer to the size of the opening , without going over, than 1/2''...

I'm thinking 12mm cotton is the way to go... or are people just soaking them and then stretching them thin when they
load them up.

Just trying to stay away from bad chinese garbage and over stuffing the barrel.

Trying to stuff too much cotton into the shoot seems bad for the brass thumb screw tines. Two of these were full of
carbon and clogged and somebody had turned the thumb screws so hard that the brass started to give on the body of
the burner which would indicated the 1/2'' cotton wick is , indeed, too big for the hole! i.e. easy turn vs. hard as hell
turn.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Michael

[Susanne]

The realty is that cotton wicks are the same whether sourced from the USA or China... as long as they can wick Kerosene (K!) they will work. I've run both NOS wicks and repop chinese ones, as long as you know how to use an oil (eg Kerosene) lamp, they all work.

The ones in my single rivet round chamber sidelamps were trimmed down from commercial 5/8" wicks (equal on both sides) and they burned great. The originals werw commonly available (then) 1/2" wicks, as long as you follow the profilw of the burner hood (top of the burner) they work fine... but you CANNOT let the edge of the wick go above the edge of said burner hood, as your lamps will soot up and die. Like I said, for people 110 years after oil lamos were commonly in use, this may be counter-intuitive, but these lamps were designed to have the edge of the wick JUST BELOW the edge of said hood on the burner.

I've run K1 lamps (BTW I always run old school kerosene as it doesn't kill wicks like modern "lamp oil") on my car for decades and they work, and burn bright. The '15 taillights have a flaw that blows the flame out over 20 MPH (ask me how I found that out!!!), they rectified this late in 1915 production, and because of that I ran a 28V bulb and a lead from my headlight circuit to my taillamp... but if you don't know how to use a true "hurricane" kerosene lamp, you're fighting a losing battle.

Anyway, the actual wicks were (believe it or not) 9/16". You can't get those nowdays, but you can (carefully) trim down a 5/8 wick, or run 1/2" wicks It's not rocket science, but you need to learm how they work so they burn as bright as they can....

[michaelb2296]

Thanks Suzanne,
I appreciate your comments.
With Best,
Michael

[Drkbp]

Michael,

Do you have the square lamps, '09 to '14, or round '15 up?

Ken

[michaelb2296]

I have the square 1912 lamps.

I have determined that the 12mm cotton wick is, by far, superior to any 1/2'' wick. They fit EXACTLY and do not bind. Easy up/down motion , with no gap. No cutting, no fuss, perfect. Your mileage may vary....

[Drkbp]

I have the square John Browns and they use the same.
Pack of 5 wicks says "1/2-inch" but they are a little under.
Easy to keep trimmed and set correctly. I use K1.
The round lamps use smaller wicks.

[Farmer J]

Where do you get the 12 mm wicks?

[CudaMan]

I looked on Ebay with "US only" selected and came up empty, all of the wicking comes from China.

Amazon has it also, but probably the same thing, all sourced from China.

[michaelb2296]

on Amazon. I don't know where you can get USA 12mm wick... For me it was about getting something that fit the size of the hole without binding...

Sscon 1 Roll 4M Flat Cotton Wick 12mm/1/2 Inch Width Kerosene Oil Lamp Stitch Wick

It came, it was cotton, it was smaller than the opening. And, Susanne gave excellent advice about not going above the burner dome to keep from getting soot/carbon build up which clogged all of my burners up (I bought them used and had to spend 2 hours cleaning).