I've had wicking issues with my russian and a little less wick i think would help! tyvm
You're probably right... with cotton, you'll want it to be just slightly snug inside the coil...
I'd suggest using rayon (cellucotton). It needs to be quite snug in the coil (more forgiving than cotton), but then trim the tails down to very thin (snip off 75-85% of the wick thickness in the tail sections)... rayon wicks faster than any cotton I've tried and lasts longer between re-wicks too...