My slow match isn't so slow!

[dittles]

 OK I tried making a slow match out of cotton cord and soaking it in Spectracide. I soaked it all night then squeezed out the excess solution before drying it. I used 3 Tbl  spoons Spectracide to 4 cups water. I do get a good glow but it seems to be burning on the fast side. Do I need to add less Potassium Nitrate to the solution or should I not squeeze out the excess solution before drying it? I do like the slow match over the torch, little more nostalgic. 

[seacoastartillery]

     Sounds like you are making the same mistakes we did when first figuring out how to do slow match.  Hemp instead of cotton helps a lot and spending about 10 or 11 dollars for real potassium nitrate through any of the fireworks supply dealers will provide the other half of the solution.  A pound should be a five year supply.  Hemp is available through several vendors in the stickies at the top of the opening page of this board.  It is cheap as long as small dia. cord is purchased.   We use 1/4 inch most often.  We are not experts on soaking method, but have found that a simple saturated solution at room temp works well.  We soaked for 120 minutes and dried outside in the sun.  Store finished slow match in gallon freezer bags and they will always be dry, ready for use.  This is a very simple way to make reliable slow match, but be advised that there are as many methods to do this as there are stars in the night sky.

Good luck!

Tracy and Mike

[dittles]

Thanks Seacoast! Another error that I think I am doing is hanging it instead of laying it out to dry. I'll have to try out the hemp and real Potassium Nitrate.

[seacoastartillery]

    BINGO! You see Dittles, you have reminded us why we lay the soaked cord out on a drying board AND you have educated everyone else here that This, Laying Out,  is a very important technique used to keep the same burn-rate for each piece of slow match you make. Hung vertically, even after 'wringing out' all excess KNO3 fluid, there will be a nitrate concentration at the bottom of each piece so hung, thereby increasing the burn-rate of the bottom 25% (approx.)

Tracy and Mike

[Double D]

Soak over night and lay out in the yard to dry.

Never found the need  for anything but cotton rope and stump remover that is potassium nitrate. Works just fine...13 inches an hour burn rate.

[dittles]

Double D I'm going to give her another try. This time I will lay it out to dry instead of hanging it! I do have about 6' of hemp rope that I'm soaking ,along with the cotton, and will see how that works out. Thanks for the input.

[Double D]

Burning hemp might get you some funny looks   

[Max Caliber]

I recently made some slow match and kept notes on the process. This is not how it's done, but how I did it: I soaked 7 feet of old quarter inch pure cotton sash cord for 36 hours in 20 ounces of water to which was added 3 level tablespoons of pure potassium nitrate then dried it in the sun. It burns at the rate of 1 inch in 7.5 to 8 minutes. You only want enough potassium nitrate in the solution to keep the match lit. Too little and of course the match won't stay lit, too much and it sparks and burns too fast. The type of cord or rope has a lot to do with the final results. Modern rope and cord probably has some protective coating. I have had better results by washing the material several times in the washing machine before using it.

[Microboomer]

Dittles,
I just made my first slow match with no problems using the same brand of stump remover that you have. I used 5grams of the KNO3 in 100mL water (this is about the same as the 3tbs/qt that other people suggest).  I made 2 lengths the same way but dried them differently.  I put the solution in a ziplock bag and put cotton cord in and zipped it up removing as much air as possible.
I squeezed the cord through the bag until no more air bubbles came out.  Then I took it out to dry. (since the KNO3 doesn't bond to the rope in any way, prolonged soaking doesn't seem necessary - this took me about two minutes!)  One piece I put in a high-airflow fume hood at work.  The other I set out on my screened in porch at home.  Both were laid flat(I agree that this is probably where you had your problem)..  I cut 3" lengths off and burned them in the lab fume hood (wind simulation) and one burned in ~16 min and the other ~18 min.  For me that's close enough to the standard 5min/in rate.  The one I dried in the lab hood was the one that burned faster.  I don't know if it dried faster or if I didn't wring it out as well - either would leave more KNO3 in the rope, which would make it burn faster.
andy

[seacoastartillery]

      Dittles you're new here, so to judge the validity of some of this free advice, you have to understand the adviser's motivation.  Our's is simply to get the info out.  Follow it or not; we don't care.  But some like Double D, our esteemed western moderator, well, you've heard the phrase, "Follow the money", right?  Well, with some like DD it's "Follow the Freebies".  This explains why he has been an unabashed Hemp promoter for at least four years.  There is a large coil of hemp rope in his shop, still unused.  He was nice enough to offer it when we needed some for a pulley lifting project we had, but we already bought some manilla rope for that.  Now, all of a sudden, he is pushing King Cotton!  He is smitten with cotton and has become a shill for the Cotton Industry: 

Never found the need  for anything but cotton rope and stump remover that is potassium nitrate. Works just fine...13 inches an hour burn rate. 

   We are almost certain that a rather 'Large' gift arrived at his Montana home 6 or 8 months ago and if you were allowed to poke around his 2  1/2  car shop, you would most likely find, under an old green canvas tarp, in the dark corner, a full bale of the best Texas cotton, wrapped in burlap and weighing 500 pounds!    

I'm definitely in trouble now!

Tracy

[Double D]

Lets see

Cotton rope 1/4 inch 10 cents a foot available locally.

6mm Hemp rope 22 cents a foot plus shipping  mail order (online or phone) only.

Hemp rope is a beautiful rope and much to nice for burning.....

[dittles]

 Seacoast and DD you both have some good points in your statements. As my grandfather would always say " poor men have poor ways". This poor man just purchased some more cotton cord and is soaking it right now in stump remover. I also ordered some KNO3 and when it gets in I'll soak some cotton in that. Then if I'm not satisfied with either results , I may break down and buy some hemp. I thought I had a couple feet of hemp rope (off of an old lariat) but I can't find it.  This greenhorn is thankful for this forum and all of everyone's advice.
   
P.S. DD I can just see it now. Small town gossip. " Did you hear? Dittles is purchasing hemp through the mail!"

[Rickk]

If you add food coloring to the solution, it will show how well your drying techniques are.

For instance, if you hang it, you will see that all the food coloring (and KNO3) goes down to the bottom.

If the food coloring is splotchy, so is the KNO3 distribution.

Food coloring has the added effect of showing that a piece of rope has already been soaked.

I like saturated solutions myself because there is no variability in the solution.

Also, round cotton lamp wick works awesome for slowmatch. It has no nylon core in it, and it sucks the solution up like a wick (pun intended). It can be gotten in many different sizes in bulk lengths for wholesale pricing at www.wickstore.com , specifically at   http://www.wickstore.com/Departments/Round-Cotton-Oil-Lamp-Wick.aspx . I prefer the bigger stuff (7/16) as there is less fighting with the fuse trying to get it to light.

Rick

[Double D]

Rickk that gets added to the link list...good one

[dittles]

 Rickk good site! I'm with you on the 7/16. I also like the food coloring in the solution idea. I'll  have to try that one on my next batch. I'm wanting to get some whipped up in order to use on the 4th of July, for lighting fireworks.  (I hate them darn punks. )