Traditional Firearms > Pre-Flintock Firearms

Slowmatch rope

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Gambia:
Would that be the same stuff one would use for in the brass tube fire starters? Where ya' char the end after it is stuck through the brass tube, then flint and steel will get it hot again when you need it, pull it back and it will extinguish.

bluelake:
Hmmm...  I'm not familiar with that, griz.  Slowmatch burns, well, slowly (well, it also crackles a bit as the niter is burned off).  The more niter the cord is soaked in, the easier it lights (but it also burns faster).  It will go out if it is pinched or stomped, but would be hard to extinguish by cutting off the air supply, as the niter is the oxidizer.

Loyalist Dave:
Yes it's the same stuff, but match can vary on the amount of KNO3 that is used in the solution.  I have seen people boil it in the solution, and make their own hemp rope and use that too.  I think the boiling helps the cotton rope tighten a bit when drying, and dry faster.

LD

James Kelly:
A while ago I built & shot a matchlock, used Mom's old real cotton clothes line soaked in saltpeter.

Since found this site by a German fellow how to make the real stuff. In short,one boils it in potash. Sounds good to me, my nitrate soaked fuse/match did sputter a bit. BTW as a college freshman I found a real interesting use for the nitrate stuff, but that needn't get on-line.

Slow Match

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