Going Old School in Modern Times.

Matchlocks are fun.

Photo by Oleg Volk

My buddy Evan (not in the photo) owns that beautifully unyielding piece of boominess and last time we got together, he mentioned having issues acquiring the proper match for it. The one you see is common sisal line out of big hardware box store which does the trick but not quite rightly.

So I managed to get 1/4” oil lamp wick and set to investigate what makes match a match and found out that early old school (1500s) match for matchlocks is a simple thing to do but must do the following: Burn hot, constantly, slow and spread no hot ashes or embers. Sensible because when you need your tick to go boom, you cannot find yourself staring at an extinguished piece of rope, not having such rope release hot ashes or ember on the flash-pan before you actually want it to flash and bang.

After some googling, I found that the formulas for the 16 Century match is quite simple: soak the match on a solution of potash or potash and manure. Where did they get the potash? Wood ash, yes that simple. And manure is manure either cow or horse would be my guess. I am lucky to have In-Laws that have horses and a fireplace, so acquiring the materials simply took me a quick visit and was ready to experiment which combo was best.

I soaked one piece of wick in a potash solution, the other in a combo of potash and manure and a third was pristine. After letting the wicks dry overnight in a flat position, I tested them for the qualities mentioned above.

The top was potash only, the one in the middle is the manure combo and the bottom is the “control” wick. Even though the perspective seems to contradict it, the slowest burning was the potash-only wick with the other two burning pretty much at the same rate and faster that number one (look at the length of the burnt sections). None of the wicks released ashes or died before burning all the way to the 2-inch mark.

So now I have about 47 feet of wick soaking in a potash solution for another 40 minutes and then it goes in the dryer. As mentioned above, the original recipes as to have the match dry on a flat surface, but I figure it was to make sure it dried evenly and not having ends or curves still wet while other sections were dry if dried in a hanging position.

I will do an AAR next time I meet with Evan and his matchlock.

Again, those things are fun.