1 1/2m cores of fine grained organic lake sediments gradually redeposited over a period of 9 months accurately track the direction of the ambient magnetic field. Inclination errors are not significant and the delay between deposition and acquisition of a stable remanence is less than 2 days. Only a small degree of post-depositional grain reorientation occurs after this interval. The newly formed deposits are sufficiently cohesive to be subsampled without recourse to forced compaction and retain a stable remanence with water contents as high as 90% by volume (~85% by weight). Use of the results to calibrate the simple relative paleointensity estimate Q=NRM/susceptibility for the natural sediments can lead to variable results even in similar sequences where the NRM is a DRM.