Cotton waste, used for cleaning machine rooms in ships, called "twist"

[Taalgaardenier]

Being Flemish-belgian and a bit older now, I wonder if in the Anglo-Saxon world this kind of cotton wraps called "twist" still available is. Probably under another name?
Here I send a googled Dutch fenomenon with pics. Maybe older Machinists will recognize this phenomenon and have more information, and concerning names or url.

To better understand, here translation of my script in a Dutch Wikipedia about "Poetskatoen":

polishing cotton

1. cotton rags or cotton wool that you cannot use for anything else and are therefore suitable for cleaning things, and are allowed to get dirty themselves

2. Addition-justification vs. previous assumption: There is clearly a misunderstanding here from mistranslation. Cleaning cotton has nothing to do with rags, nor cotton wool. Polishing cotton is a waste product and consists of short threads of real cotton that are cut off at the end/beginning of every new stitching in garment factories. Since polyester thread is used much more nowadays, real cotton has become expensive. By the way, real cotton thread is only used in the more expensive pure cotton clothing. Everything else is stitched with synthetic thread because it is much stronger and does not break so easily. Real polishing cotton was not much used by ordinary citizens, because they kept their worn underwear, shirts and other cotton scraps for it. So you could work for a blacksmith and suddenly have his wife's underpants in your hand. Since large companies, or purchasers of shipping lines could hardly afford to purchase this kind of heterogeneous material they bought polishing cotton from the specialized trade. It was indeed very widely used on both naval and merchant ships, mainly in the engine room then.
It was very hard to find in the retail trade even at that time. Most civilians "organised" it in the company where they worked. That is why so many assumptions are made about it by people who in fact do not know the real background of it. See also Real cleaning cotton.

 

[4GSR]

Back in my childhood days, I remember going to the oilfield supply store and granddad would pick up a box of "Rig Rags". Back then, they were primarily cotton waste. Eventhen, it wasn't totally 100% cotton. Nowadays, they are nothing but discarded clothing that has been cut up into rags. Undergarments included! My last local job, they would buy boxes of Rig Rags for the shop to use instead of what I call "Grease Rags', I hate it!
I know this is not what the OP is asking, I think the stuff he is asking for has not been available here for many years.

 

[L Vanice]

On the wall in the restroom (WC) of the American Precision Museum is a very old framed sign. The building dates to 1846 and did house a textile mill in the late 19th century. I cannot quote it exactly, but it essentially says that any employee who uses the company's cotton waste for personal purposes (wiping his bottom) would be discharged.

American Precision Museum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

About - APM

More information about the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont, an industrial history museum located inside a National Historic Landmark.

americanprecision.org

In 19th century America, "twist" was a term for chewing tobacco.

Larry

 

[WizardOfBoz]

In old steam locomotives, the engineers would use waste cotton to wipe up leaks, especially oil leaks.

" Waste cotton is used as a raw material for throws, cushion covers and khadi table runners, napkins and table cloths. The waste cotton comes from leftover cotton fiber from the cotton industry. The raw material is collected at cotton spinning mills or at cotton processing factories where they use cotton for products such as make-up pads and swabs."

 

[Garwood]

Goodwill shreds all the clothes they can't sell, presses them into bricks and sells them to the US navy for this.

 

[fciron]

Sailors traditionally had access to a material called “tow” in English which was the unraveled fibers of ropes. Probably in sacks from the chandler at the beginning of the voyage supplemented by unraveling old ropes over the course of the trip.

 

[fciron]

Goodwill shreds all the clothes they can't sell, presses them into bricks and sells them to the US navy for this.

20 years ago We bought one of those bales of rags from goodwill. It was not shredded and was almost entirely synthetic fabrics and not very absorbent.

 

[L Vanice]

Sailors traditionally had access to a material called “tow” in English which was the unraveled fibers of ropes. Probably in sacks from the chandler at the beginning of the voyage supplemented by unraveling old ropes over the course of the trip.

Seventy years ago, I read a book that mentioned an early 19th century American farm boy wearing a new "tow shirt" with the understanding that it was scratchy and uncomfortable. Tow was a low quality byproduct of converting flax fiber into linen.

This says tow can also be from hemp or jute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tow_(fibre)

Wooden sailing ships had their hull and deck caulking constantly renewed by sailors driving "oakum" into the joints with special tools. Oakum was made from old tarred hemp rope that was deconstructed.

Oakum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Larry

 

[sfriedberg]

In addition to "waste", another term for cotton short fibered remnants of the textile industry is "linters", which I have seen in a couple of old (century-ish) machining texts. However, this would not be the same as the warp/weft thread cutoffs described in the OP. Thread cutoffs would have much more structure than cotton waste or linters.

 

[adammil1]

20 years ago We bought one of those bales of rags from goodwill. It was not shredded and was almost entirely synthetic fabrics and not very absorbent.

I have a feeling that they must also sell a lot unsellable clothing to Africa. We sold a machine to Ethiopian airlines and I noticed a lot of people in the streets wore what must have been 2nd hand US originated clothing. When we needed rags for anything at the maintenance shops they were all old clothing (most likely the stuff that wouldn't sell locally).

 

[John Garner]

My recollection of wiping "linters" was that they were a denser version of clothes dryer lint, and left a trail over the wiped-down item if not wrapped in a wiping rag.

Don't recall seeing linters used since 1970 or thereabouts.

 

[cyanidekid]

yea, there is an incredible pipeline of off cast/reject clothing, particularly the T shirts that get printed up before big games, like '1989 SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS THE BENGALS" that have to be printed in advance that wind up in some under developed countries. the profits some unscrupulous resellers make on this trade is shameful.

 

[boslab]

Twist was an old name for thread, I first saw it in the childrens story, the Taylor of Gloucestershire ( I’m guessing really old) the twist comes up a lot with the nautical lot too, even caulking lead was sold in “ twists”
Of lead wool, I think the word history or etimology or whatever it’s called is fascinating , oh tobacco was called twist too, think that’s how the leaves were packed , scanes and hanks were words if heard too
Mark

 

[4GSR]

I recall a old No. 3 B & S mill dad brought home. Built around the turn of the century, cone head drive. When taking it apart, we found a bunch of that cotton waste stuffed into one of the pockets in the bronze spindle bearings on that mill. They used to use it in the stuffing boxes on train wheels back in the day before they outlawed it.

 

[BobH]

I used to love that stuff. A Google search for cotton wiping waste brought up several sources available from one pound up to forklift bales if this is what you want. https://easyleafproducts.nnigroup.com/product/cotton-waste/
Bob

 

[M.B. Naegle]

The term "waste" comes up often in machine handbooks and the like dating from around the turn of the century, being used the same as felt was later used to wick and meter oil flow in bearings and slide ways. I hadn't heard/read the other terms, but the whole picture gives more context.

We buy a fair amount of recycled cloths for rags. Most of the companies that sell shipping supplies or janitorial supplies sell them, and sometimes they grade the rags by how much cotton (preferred) there is compared to how much synthetic (worthless). We do lots of small machinery repairs and rebuilds and find that for 90% of stuff, the cotton rags work better than new paper disposable stuff, as they have better texture, less loose fiber, and generally hold up better. We have some of the red grease rags too which are good for what they do, but they often get passed over for the disposable rags as we prefer not to load them up with paint and know that we'll be washing them in that old washing machine in the corner later.

Rags are one of those core aggregate parts of a shop that many put little thought into. It's interesting to consider how their supply relates to the world. In the past it was half-a step away from the fields. Now it's half a step away from the land-fill.

 

[Sharps1874]

Raw cotton is available from a number of sources on the web. I've been using it for years to clean up the lathes and milling machines in my (hobby) shop, and it works like a magnet for chips and small swarf -- far better than shop rags and paper towels. Raw cotton seems a bit pricey now, but per use for my purposes it is dirt cheap.

 

[John Garner]

The cream of the wiping-rag crop used to be "white linen" wipers. The usual contents of a box of white linen wiping rags were slightly worn or stained linen napkins and tablecloths fresh from the laundries that served the finest big-city restaurants.

Many of the napkins were nicer than the family heirlooms in my dining room linen cabin.

 

[Taalgaardenier]

I am very happy to learn a lot from your answers.
The Flemish for a twist is a "wrongel". And indeed also used for Tobacco. Also it is surprising that Cotton twist is still sold. In the US rather expensive. In India, even on the internet, multi color "stitch waste" (so, that is really what I meant ), This, for incredible low prices, starting from 20 Roupee/kg, being about 1/4$/kg.
Of course being Flemish-belgian, I am looking forward to find a European dealer.

 

[michiganbuck]

Swab the deck is a common procedure I use. Make a circular mopping motion with a wet rag, and then give 3 or 2 quick dips in a bucket of water. The debris come out of the rag and go to the bottom of the bucket. It seems that cotton rags work best.