I haven't made my way through this whole monster thread yet, but I was just talking with my wife about the whole cotton wick issue, and while she normally glazes over during my "vape talk", she perked up...
I don't know why it didn't cross my mind, but she knits and spins her own yarn for her projects. In roughly 5 minutes she had sourced raw, organic, cotton fiber that was grown without pesticides, has never been treated with chemicals, bleach, or anything else. It's just been planted, picked, and carded (brushed to align the fibers for spinning). It comes in a bag the size of a pillow case, and should yield around 425 yards at the size of the wick I showed her. She seems pretty interesting in spinning some for me to try as a wick, and what is cool is that I can customize it by making it thicker, thinner, looser, more tightly wound, more braids or less, etc. But the best part is, I'll know exactly what has been done to it. She has also sourced both hemp and bamboo as well, though she tells me those will be more difficult to work with since they have to be spun wet. Still, would you go cotton, hemp, bamboo, or something else entirely? What do you think? Worth a shot? Or would it just make more sense to try to source some premade?