Traditional Muzzleloading Association

Traditional Firearms => Pre-Flintock Firearms => Topic started by: butterchurn on April 11, 2010, 10:49:00 PM

Title: Slowmatch rope
Post by: butterchurn on April 11, 2010, 10:49:00 PM

Can Sisal be used for slowmatch or is something else better?

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Post by: bluelake on April 12, 2010, 12:50:23 AM

I'm not familiar with sisal.  Personally, I just buy the "cotton" line from WalMart and pull out the plastic core.  If I could find the right diameter hemp braid, I would try that, as it is more traditional for what Koreans used.  Anyway, I then soak it overnight in a niter/water solution.  The next day, I lay it horizontal and flat on a board (in the sun, if possible).  Mine burns about one inch per five minutes.

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Post by: butterchurn on April 12, 2010, 01:57:17 PM

I found some 100% cotton braid sash cord at Menards.  I will give that a go.

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Post by: bluelake on April 12, 2010, 05:20:38 PM

Just make sure it doesn't have a plastic core (IIRC, the WalMart cotton line also said "100% cotton").

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Post by: butterchurn on April 13, 2010, 12:22:11 PM

Thanks!  I will check it.

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Post by: Gambia on April 13, 2010, 12:33:40 PM

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.

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Post by: bluelake on April 13, 2010, 07:58:34 PM

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.

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Post by: Loyalist Dave on April 13, 2010, 10:30:04 PM

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

Title: Re: Slowmatch rope
Post by: James Kelly on March 22, 2017, 05:40:41 PM

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 (http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/lunte.html)