Huck Towels????

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

I have heard that carrying a few of these "huck towels" are period. What are they and where can I find them?

Thanks,

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

RAH VA MIL '04

[Michael Comer]

Re: Huck Towels????

Huckabuck towels are a plain white towel but they are different than your run of the mill bath towel. Some folks on this forum say they have found them at Wal-Mart. My nearest supercenter does not carry them but I have found it on the bolt at Hancock's Fabrics. It is pretty cheap - couple bucks a yard at most. If you go to a fabric store just ask for huck toweling. It is similar, I believe to the old cloth towels you used to find on the roll in service station bathrooms.

There are folks on this forum that know more about it than I, especially concerning the fabric itself, and I am sure they will add their knowledge to this.

[straggler]

Re: Huck Towels????

I have also found white huck towel material at some JoAnn fabric stores
(in the same area where they carry the burlap, muslin, etc.). It comes in
a 15 - 16 inch width. I cannot say for sure but it may also be possible to
still buy huck towel throught some larger janitorial supply stores.

I believe someone previously posted that huck towel material goes back
to the mid to late 1700's - so it would be period.

Up until the wider use of paper towels and air driers it was the type of towel
material used in the roll / pull-down type holders in rest rooms.

[K Bartsch]

Re: Huck Towels????

Huck towel source.

These are completely authentic in all respects -- and quite cheap.

http://www.eparks.com/eparks/product.asp?id=87279&park=915

Cordially,

[Bill Cross]

Wal-Mart in the correct section

The huck towels are in the kitchen section of Wal-Mart and come in a package of six (?).

[BHoover]

Re: Huck Towels????

Huck towel source.

These are completely authentic in all respects -- and quite cheap.

http://www.eparks.com/eparks/product.asp?id=87279&park=915

Cordially,

The towel in the link is made at the Lowell, Mass textile museum (Boot Mills portion). They have several museum shops there, and they carry several correct towels. (Various color stripes, etc). I don't see it on the web site, but the shops also carry the material in rolls where you can buy it by the yard (very cheap). I don't have contact info for the museum shops, and don't know if they would sell it that way directly through the mail, but it might be worth trying.

Also, FWIW, the loom which is currently making the towels they sell is only about 90 years old, but the fabric is exactly the same as it would have been in the 1860s. And, if you ever get a chance to visit the museums in Lowell, it's well worth the time. Completely fascinating. (attching a picture of the looms at the Boot Mill which make the towels.)

[KarinTimour]

Re: Huck Towels????

Folks:

I've searched Walmarts in several states and never found huck towels there -- found lots of different kinds of toweling, much of it white or white with stripes, but none of it huck.

I'd recommend your first and easiest choice is ordering from Lowell.

A word of advice on buying huckabuck in Joanne's or Hancock Fabrics. As previously mentioned, it has a distinctly different appearance because it is so short, width wise and both right and left edges have a distinct woven edge. It will be found in the same section of the store as burlap, osnaburg, canvas duck, but many stores carry it only occassionally. If your neighborhood store doesn't stock it, you can order a few yards and they will ship it to your store (I don't remember how long this takes).

Word of warning -- I sent a friend in another state this same description and he went to his local Joannes. He thought the clerks were supposed to be helpful and told them that he was going to make some towels. One of the staff refused to believe that anyone could make a towel out of any fabric except terrycloth, and tried to convince him he just didn't understand what he was talking about. Some of the folks that work in Joanne's are absolutely terrific, others know little or nothing about the stock.

Once you get your huckabuck: The Workwoman's Guide (mid 1840s) says that a towel should be 36 inches long. You can hem the ends, or unravel about a half an inch on each end, both are period correct. If you are feeling fancy, you can sew yourself a loop of an inch or so on one corner, so you can hang it off a branch if you get the opportunity.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Michael Semann]

Re: Huck Towels????

I have a question to those more savy in Hucktowelology :). I've located a selection of 100% cotton Huck towels at my local Country/arts/crafts type store, and they all have country patterns of thin, muted Blue OR red lines woven into them. They form a sort of very open windowpane arrangement of alternating two lines over one line, vertical and horizontal. Was this to be found on period towels in addition to the more common plain white, or is this more of a 20's/30's onward kitchen pattern?

[flattop32355]

Re: Huck Towels????

Some folks on this forum say they have found them at Wal-Mart. My nearest supercenter does not carry them

Found mine at WalMart right next to the terrycloth towels in the kitchen department, 5 for $5.00 (Columbus, Ohio area). They are just plain, white cloth.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Huck Towels????

Found mine tonight at wal-mart...they are called flour sac towels and come in a pack of 5 for $5. They were in the kitchen section with all the other towels.
Thanks to everyone for their help.

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

RAH VA MIL '04

[KarinTimour]

Re: Huck Towels????

Gentlemen:

Flour sack towels are white towels.

You can buy them at Walmart for $5 for a package of 5.

They are not made from huckabuck and are not the same as huck towels.

My experience has been that they look and perform differently than huckabuck. I have all three -- toweling from Lowell, huckabuck from Joannes and the flour sack towels from Walmart. I've used them in my modern kitchen to compare the performance in drying dishes as sort of a form of evaluation. The flour sack ones are much thinner in texture, absorb less water and are sodden fairly quickly. Personally, I prefer the other two.

With regard to their shape, if that matters, flour sack towels are generally fairly square, while the huck is 15-16 inches wide, and for period towels should be 36 inches long. Period huckabuck was woven wider than this, but we can no longer get it in the width that they had. Modern huck towels are going to vary from period ones in width.

With regard to the question about the red and blue checked or plaid towels, I'd question their use in our time period -- with rare exceptions household linens were white so that you could literally boil them when washing so as to get the whitest whites. It is pretty common to have red or blue embroidered laundry marks on white household linens. I have some of the huck from Lowell with the blue and the green edge stripes, and their documentation seems pretty sound. But I've never seen documentation of towels with lines of colored threads running across the width of the towel -- I suspect that these would also be shape of dish towels, and thus would also vary from period towels.

Another issue that I forgot to mention about huckabuck is that the fabric is pretty tightly woven and the sizing that is put on it in the factory makes it feel pretty stiff. You need to send it through 3-4 hot water wash cycles to get it to the right texture for a towel.

Your milage may vary,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, hats, balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Michael Comer]

Re: Huck Towels????

Flour sack towels are not the same as huck towels. I think every Wally World has got the flour sack ones but I do not believe you will find huck towels there.

After viewing the website referenced by Mr. Bartsch, I immediately ordered a couple. They really look good and for $3.95 each I don't think you can beat it. They are much better looking than the huck toweling I found at Hancock's Fabrics.

[paulcalloway]

Re: Huck Towels????

Pat Kline of Family Heirloom Weavers and I have batted around doing a Huck Towel Bully Buy for a couple years. Whether he stocks them or not I don't know, but he says he has the capability to make an authentic repop.

[MrsArmstrong]

Re: Huck Towels????

Ohhh...my....pretty please....with sugar on top :kiss: I would like four to start.
Susan Armstrong

[26th NC]

Re: Huck Towels????

Agree with Keith Bartsch on the towels from the mills at Lowell, Mass. Read the write-up and you'll see why to get them. I have four and they are great. Go to the eparks link and get a couple. Probably as close to original as you'll get. Never saw huck towels at Walmart myself.

Layton Pennington