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June 2001
July 2001
August 2001
September 2001
October 2001

Today I'm supposed to go to the Ottawa Carleton Forest with some of my friends. I hope it doesn't rain.

I replaced the sparker on the smaller gun with the same kind of lighter as on the bigger one. I found it in the garbage and salvaged it off an old barbeque. It's really hard to press but gives a bigger spark than the one I bought. I hope the small gun will be more reliable now with a bigger spark. I bought some propane for my gun too, for the stubby green Coleman tanks the cost is about $3.09 for 465 grams. It's slightly more expensive at $3.19 for 400 grams for the same stuff in a "Mastercraft" tall blue tank. I bought two green tanks.

I went to the forest and it wasn't too special. I tried the 1.5" barrel on the small gun and it actually goes rather well, but of course not as far as the big gun. The forest is covered in poison ivy and lots of deerflies but I didn't get poison ivy or many bug bites.

I decided to make a shopping (or acquiring from garage sales etc.) list for the potato gun and pyrotechnics:

sensitive scale

potassium nitrate

copper sulfate- for a green color

-ammonia and Iodine (I wish)

ammonium nitrate

large measuring device-for propane 150cc+

always looking for extra sparkers

On Friday I bought potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate from Upper Valley Hydroponics. This stuff is more pure than the other stuff too. I haven't found a use for the ammonium nitrate yet but I am looking. I made some smoke bombs and stuff with sugar, 3 parts KNO3 (potassium nitrate) and 2 parts sugar, by volume. You can use a little bit more sugar to make it slightly better. Make sure the powders are fine. I used a coffee grinder to grind the KNO3 and just used icing sugar. You don't need to cook it, though it might make it better, I haven't experimented yet.

**Editors note: I used a propane torch to light off the smoke bomb. Since the smoke bomb spews hot potassium nitrate everywhere, it throws some at the torch and plugs it up.  This ruins the torch, though I guess you could clean it, be warned.

I also made gun powder. I had to make a scale and charcoal but I couldn't make much charcoal because it's hard to make in the city if one doesn't have a fireplace or firepit. The scale I made is a simple balance scale. I used a _|_ shape of wood, with a hacksaw blade in the top. Then a piece of dowel with a notch in it across the top and two cups on either side. For cups I used two metal fruit cup things because of their weight, soup cans or whatever would work too. Tie them to each end of the dowel. Using two wires on the sides of the cups proves to be an advantage, instead of three wires because I can tip the cups to dump the contents out easily. I used a syringe and put water in to measure relative weights. It works great. The problem I have is knowing whether it is level or not. I tried a few things to see if the loads were equal but the best I could come up with is the distance of the cups from the table, when they are the same, it is level. It doesn't even have to be level, just the same as when you started. It would probably be better if I had a small level to strap on. I have to calibrate the scale each time but it's not too much work. I put a small cup inside the bigger one, that way I can put water in either large cup to calibrate it and not get the stuff I'm measuring wet. The small inner cups are also good for measuring very small amounts of things. I guess the longer the arms are, the more sensitive it is.

Now I want to make flash powder ( half and half Mg and KNO3) and fuse and thermite with the scale.

I also want to try zinc dust and sulfur

http://vipergang123.tripod.com/ac1/id88.html Search "hydrochloric acid"

I just made flash powder and some other stuff but the flash powder is the best. I replaced the hacksaw blade on the scale with a razor blade and it works much better. Now I want to try an ANFO - ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, is a high explosive but it isn't very sensitive and you need large blasting caps to set it off.

Exams are finished and I have a whole 2 months to make explosives!! I made more black powder and did some experiments with copper sulfate my dad got me. He also got me some Pyrex test tubes and a beaker. I tried them out and they withstand the heat of the black powder well. Tomorrow I should try flash powder and black powder, that is the flash powder to detonate the black powder, since I haven't got it to detonate yet. I have to remember to re-visit Pyros diary to see some stuff I could do. I haven't got the copper sulphate to do much yet. If I put it in black powder, it reduces the burn rate tremendously, and if I put too much in it won't burn. I put some 70% rubbing alcohol into a small container (enough to soak the copper sulfate and a bit more) and put some copper sulphate in (fine powder) and heated the bottom over a propane torch. Light the alcohol at the same time and when it burns down to just a bit left, (the heat applied to the bottom boils the alcohol, giving a much bigger flame) the copper sulfate begins to decompose and gives a great green flame for a few seconds. I put some copper sulfate in a  spray bottle as a flame thrower and it gives a good green flame but it plugs up the spray bottle quickly.

I spent the day experimenting and stuff. I tried the thermite again and it didn't work. I made more fuse (blackmatch and White fuse).

on the list for the show tomorrow (I'm giving a small display for our political group, demonmoo):

smoke bomb in a can

smoke bomb and magnesium

flash powder, gunpowder in a paper tube

gun powder in beaker

smoke bomb in a beaker/test tube

leftovers from making fuse

fire gun

rubbing alcohol and copper sulfate

For tomorrow, I could also make a gun out of a copper pipe. I probably will have to go to Canadian Tire and buy some parts to plug up the end with. I tried making a gun with wood and it works ok but I shot a marble and it didn't even go through a piece of cardboard. I think the problem was that I need a longer barrel. I tried it with gun power but it just burns slowly, so I used flash powder.

I had good success today with fuse making, I made some black match fuse and it works great. All I had to do is add some water to gunpowder to make a think paste, then cover the string in that and leave it out to dry. I also made some "white" fuse (I just made that up 'cause it's white) with smoke bomb (3 parts potassium nitrate, 2 parts confectioners sugar). I did the same thing as with the black powder, but the white fuse takes a really long time to dry so I haven't tried it yet. I tried making fuse before by mixing black powder, water and corn starch a while ago but it didn't work out very well because I made the mixture too thin and there wasn't enough on the string. I also tried the white fuse before like that (the powder, water and corn starch) with a thicker mixture so I know it works. Another fuse I made today, from the anarchist cookbook, is sulfur wick fuse, it burns slowly with a blue flame. To make it I melted some sulfur, being careful not to burn it, and dipped the string in it. I melted the sulfur over a propane torch with just a yellow flame, that is without the aeration part. It works well but it stinks to high heaven, but since when is anyone going to set off a firework indoors anyways? unfortunately, when I was cleaning the sulfur off the beaker I used, the beaker cracked and there's a hole in it now, the one I just got two days ago.

I tried flash powder to detonate black powder but it doesn't do anything except burn the black powder as normal.

I also tried and ANFO, but I couldn't detonate it and it seems the Ammonium nitrate is quite inert, nothing happened. I tried with kerosene stuff and paraffin wax too. On the other hand, in the anarchist handbook, it does say it needs a large shock to set it off.

I tried the first fire mixture but it didn't work well at all. This may be because I couldn't get finely ground aluminum. I just realized also that you're supposed to mix the thermite with it as well. Maybe I'll try it tomorrow. I may want to try melting the smoke bomb tomorrow also.

Again I tried sulfur and zinc, this time I used new pennies for a zinc source (starting in 1997 they are 98% zinc, just coated with copper in Canada) Nothing happened.

Did I mention my dad got me a whole 9 pounds of charcoal, for barbeques (costs about $8.00) ? anyway, that's what I used for the gun powder mentioned above.

I may also want to visit these pages:

http://vipergang123.tripod.com/ac1/id68.html (sulfuric acid, ammonium nitrate lll)

http://vipergang123.tripod.com/ac1/id66.html (safety)

and some other ones at the anarchist cookbook

To do:

film canister bombs

firecrackers

aluminum balls in black powder- fireworks

I just made a gun out of a copper pipe, just crimping the ends together and it works pretty darn good, with lots of flash powder (about 1/4 teaspoon is lots to me)

I just tried the sulfur and zinc thing again (I can't seem to quit) and it certainly doesn't go at all. But then! I put in the same amount (by volume) of potassium nitrate as sulfur and it goes off violently. Not as fast as the flash powder but good. Another thing is that it burns green. It was in sunlight that I burned it but I'm pretty sure it was green. Maybe it's the zinc or may be it's the small amount of copper in the zinc (ground up pennies...). It's worth noting that the sulfur and zinc alone isn't really burning, it's the zinc and sulfur reacting to form zinc sulfide.

My dad just showed me that if I put gas line antifreeze into a little container and some borax on the bottom it burns green, but not that green. I then tried copper sulfate and it really works well, a little bit of the (methyl) alcohol burns for a long time too. Then I tried it with potassium nitrate and it gives off a mostly yellow flame with some purple. All in all it works much better than the rubbing alcohol.

From viper gang's home page (the makers of the anarchist's handbook):

try lighting tin foil on fire

I did some research on the zinc sulfur and found a thing that said to use 5 grams of sulfur to 10 grams of zinc. I think the problem for me is that I don't have fine enough zinc powder or maybe one of the chemicals isn't pure enough.

I may want to try sulfur and iron dust

I might want to try making an electrical ignition today. Made it. I just took a 12 volt battery that I have, two "recreational vehicle" lead acid 6 volts together in series and a switch and some wires with alligator clips on the end. Clip a strand of steel wool in between the alligator clips and connect the circuit. The wire turns red hot and melts.

I also want to try methyl alcohol in a flame thrower.

The methyl alcohol flame thrower works better than the isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol but nothing fantastic.

I might want to make acetone peroxide today (http://www.section1.f2s.com/ap.html).

Apparently a misguided individual (or induhvidual) could find finely powdered aluminum in a paint store as "bronzing" powder.

I also want to make better, waterproof and more durable fuse

I have to try making gun powder today again but making it right, not just "meal powder" i.e. just mixing the powders together. You're supposed to add water to the potassium nitrate to help it mix with the other chemicals (sulfur and charcoal) then squeeze it to get out most of the water and then dry it.

I called around for bronzing powder and I found one store that said they would order it for me and it would take about 2 weeks to get there.

I made acetone peroxide yesterday, with directions from megalomania's page at http://www.nettrash.com/users/megalomania/ (it has to sit for 24 hours) but it didn't work. Well, that's not quite true, you see I screwed up. Did you know mineral spirits isn't the same as acetone? Ya. Anyways, I'll try it again tomorrow, but I only have 75ml of hydrogen peroxide. That's probably a good thing anyways, since I'll make half of the prescribed amount of this very sensitive primary explosive.

I made lots of fuse to day but unfortunately in a strange mishap it all burned up, I set off a pile of black powder near it and the sparks set off the nearest one, set off the others and so on, burning 8 18" pieces, and scarring the porch it was drying on. I'll make some more tomorrow and hopefully experiment with different ways to make it more durable. I read that one could make fuse by putting some black powder in a piece of duct tape and rolling it up, lengthwise.

I also crushed up some rocket engines today, I didn't know it burned that fast but it's too expensive for most of my uses. Apparently one could make a kind of flash powder with potassium nitrate, sulfur and aluminum, in a ratio of 5:3:1, so when I get aluminum powder, I suspect that will be my staple explosive.

I also tried gunpowder again today, but it hasn't dried yet, I put more hot water in, and ground up the ingredients finer than last time by using a glass plate ( a mirror actually) and a beer bottle. I tried grinding already made gunpowder like this but it didn't work any better than meal powder (gunpowder ingredients mixed dry).

There haven't been any entries for a while because I'm moving and had to take down my shop for a while. The batch of gunpowder didn't work very good at all. I can't say that I know why but apparently the kind of charcoal used makes a big difference as to the quality of the powder. Alder and some other woods are supposed to be some of the best. I don't see why since it's mostly elemental carbon anyways but what do I know? I read that regular sparkler is a good fuse for thermite on a FAQ page for rec.pyrotechnics. I'd like to join this rec.pyrotechnics after reading the FAQs but I have a bad feeling they don't exist any more, since the FAQ is text based (indicating old) and the FAQ was on the FAQ.com server, not their own server. Rec.pyrotechnics also recommended a recipe for Thermite, coarse and fine aluminum and rust equal volume, which I might try since I still haven't had any luck with Thermite yet. I called Randall's paints here in Ottawa and asked about aluminum powder and they said they would order some for me but it would take about 2 weeks to arrive, then they said they'd call me back with the price but they never did.

I just went out and bought a butane torch. I've had so many barbeque lighters break on me, that's it. I've had enough of these pussy little lighters. The butane torch costs $34.50  but it's worth it. The one I bought is the micro torch by Roburn from Lee Valley. 

There is a smaller, plastic one for  about 11 dollars but I know someone who had one and it broke so I got the higher quality one. The only problem I had was filling it with butane. I didn't have a butane can that has a nozzle to fit. One almost fit and I got some butane in with quite a bit of it leaking out. The torch has a piezoelectric igniter, I wouldn't get one that didn't, after all, that would defeat the purpose of it as an easy and simple lighter. I also tried to get a mortar and pestle for grinding gun powder ingredients but they didn't have it.

I'm still trying to get aluminum powder. I found a paint store that has it for $12 an ounce. I'm not sure how much that is so I don't know if it's expensive or not. Skylighter has iron oxide available to Canadians, for thermite compositions. It's black so maybe ordinary rust doesn't work. I might order some. It's about the only thing available to Canadians, or anyone else outside of the US. Man, if I lived in the US, I'd blow so much money on supplies and have so much fun! They even have potassium chlorate and perchlorate. Sometimes I wish I lived in the US.

I just got aluminum powder!! I got it from ArtGuise (in Ottawa- look them up in the phone book) for $12 for 2 ounces. It is used for a pigment in paint.

I made thermite and the first fire recommended in the Anarchist's cookbook but it doesn't go. The first fire works OK though, and I also tried the 5:3:1 potassium nitrate, sulfur, aluminum mixture and it goes but it burns bright and hot, not very fast. To make flash powder, I would need potassium (per) chlorate.

YES!! I made Black Powder and Thermite!! Finally! I made "black powder" before but it was really just meal powder because I didn't do it right, and it didn't explode. This is how I did it:

Black powder

You may remember a while back when I tried to make black powder and this is what I did: I ground all the ingredients finely between a beer bottle and a glass plate and added hot water to the potassium nitrate, in a drinking glass. Then I mixed in the other ingredients. I squeezed some of the water out but not much and basically poured it out into the sun to dry, on some aluminum foil, or maybe I just left in in the glass to dry, I'm not sure. I left it out for a long time to dry and then ground it up fine. This stuff only burned, and a pile of it wouldn't even burn completely, it would leave a smaller pile underneath.

Anyways, just now I took that stuff, which I had saved in a jar for some time and I put in a drinking glass with some water, I thought it was too much, maybe as much water as black powder, by volume to make a watery mixture. I put it in the microwave at high heat but it got too hot and was boiling over so I took it out, let it cool some and tried low heat. Too cold. I took it out and tried medium-low heat. I left it in for about 4 1/2 minutes, taking it out to mix/grind it with a thick (2") wooden stick with the end rounded, it just fit the curve of the rounded bottom of the drinking glass (it wasn't a cylinder). I had to use a cloth to take it out of the microwave because it was hot. For different power levels, my microwave turns on high, then turns off for a while, turning on less for lower powers. Every time, the mixture would almost boil over and then go back down again, losing water each time. Eventually it became all bubbly, hard and dry, which may have been dangerous, I wouldn't recommend letting it dry in case it might ignite. I took it out and ground it up some, then added some water to make it just damp, mixed it some more and then took it outside, put it on a sieve and pushed it through, making little granules of it, spread thinly over a piece of cardboard. I let it dry in the sun which didn't take long at all, maybe an hour and a half, because it wasn't very wet and remember it was still hot from the microwave which makes it dry much faster. Then I put it in a jar, and tested a small portion of it, it went of with a very satisfying and long- awaited puff of smoke.

Thermite

    Before I had been trying to make Thermite with rust, but never got it to work, this time I didn't use rust for thermite, instead I burned some burned steel wool. To burn the steel wool, light it with a match or whatever and blow on it if it is a small piece, for a larger piece, I put it in front of a window fan. If you don't force air onto it then it will go out. Crush as much out of the steel wool as you can of the grayish powder and then take the stuff that won't crumble and take a propane torch to it. Then crumble it some more, and you'll be left with the same stuff that won't crumble as before. I couldn't turn all of the steel wool into powder stuff but I got enough to make some thermite. I measured out a quarter teaspoon of it and a quarter teaspoon of fine aluminum dust. Then I took some first fire mixture I had made before to tri to light the thermite with rust. The first fire is 5:3:2 Potassium nitrate, aluminum and sulfur. Mix two parts of this with one part rust thermite. This can be lit with a fuse but I used a propane torch. I could of used a sparkler I guess but I had that stuff leftover. Pour the pile of thermite onto a brick or something, make an indentation in the top of the pile, and poke a hole in the pile going down, with a match. Pour the first fire on top and light it. It threw molten iron around so don't stand too close.

Have fun and long live pyrotechnics!

I set off some more Thermite with one of my friends, and this time we put it on some steel plate, it didn't do much to the plate though. Tomorrow I might try measuring the ingredients more carefully. I tried gunpowder in the gun and it works OK, it's not very loud. I tried grinding the gunpowder up and it burned slowly. I added some aluminum powder to the black powder and it makes it burn more slowly, but with a bright white light. I might make more gunpowder tomorrow and maybe make pellets of it.

I made some more gunpowder today and made some firecrackers with it. I read about them at Xinventions.com. For convenience I'll put instructions here. Use as strip of paper about an inch wide and 11 1/2 inches long or something. Fold one corner diagonally to make a right angle triangle, then fold it up to make a pocket. Put the gunpowder (or whatever kind of explosive) in this pocket. I filled it halfway but maybe more or less would be better. Then put the fuse in at either corner and continue folding it until you run out of paper. Then tape it shut. You're done. There's a different way to make firecrackers at Xinventions.com but I haven't tried it.

Maybe you see the part where the fuse is damaged. It might go out there or just smolder for a while and light again.** Editors note: My newer fuse with dextrin is much better.**

I also experimented with cooking the smoke bombs today, first I tried heating it with a propane torch but the torch kept going out so I took the air mixing part off to get a yellow flame but it wasn't hot enough. So I tried this lamp thing my dad found around the house. A long time ago it was used for heating up stuff in the kitchen or keeping it warm. Basically it is a pot with a glass wool sponge or something inside, with a hole in the lid and some adjustable holes to adjust the flame height. Fill the sponge with gasoline antifreeze and light. It gives a nice blue flame and if you spill the smallest amount of smoke bomb in it, it burns and turns the flame purple for a while. For a container I used a stainless steel salt shaker. I've read that you can use a soup can if you strip the plastic off it first, with acetone. I also tried a large spoon and a small aluminum container before I found the salt shaker. Both did fine but couldn't hold much. I also though I could use a Pyrex measuring cup. Anyways, I made fireworks by just melting about 1 1/4 teaspoons of the mix and while was still hot, I wore gloves and molded it around a fuse. I made different ones, some with gunpowder in them and I dipped one in aluminum powder. I wonder if wrapping them in aluminum foil would do anything like burn white.

I just found out that apparently potassium permanganate is used for crop dusting. maybe I can get some. (http://www.chemaxx.com/fires.htm "helicopter fire and crash")

Today I made some more firecrackers and tried this recipe: 80% ammonium nitrate, 25% aluminum and 12% aluminum. I guess you would say parts because they add up to more than 100%. It was totally inert. I even tried putting on some of the thermite to ignite it. The thermite burns fast with small aluminum particles, faster than the 5:3:1 potassium nitrate, sulfur and aluminum mix. I asked my dad about potassium permanganate and he offered to get me some from his lab if he has any since it's cheap. I might try putting the torch over some aluminum powder to make more coarse aluminum for Thermite.

I did some really cool experiments with rockets today, I made them like this:

I took some old roman candle tube and unraveled it so that it was much thinner and lighter, about 3mm thick and as long as you think is good, then put tape around it so it doesn't unravel more. Then I took a short (7mm maybe) piece of doweling an shaved it with my knife because it didn't fit into the tube, then drilled a hole in the dowel big enough for a fuse in the center. This is also the nozzle. I made the dowel a tight fit to the tube and put some white glue on it then pushed it in the end with a hammer.

I didn't put fins on the first one because I didn't even know if it would work. I put a fuse in the nozzle and then put black powder, in dry form down the other end. I put some in, then packed it down, and put some more in etc. I taped up the end of the tube when it was full and then took a 3/4" copper tube, actually the barrel for my small combustion gun and I put the rocket, with plenty of room to spare, in the tube with the fuse sticking out. I lit it and foom, it flew out of the barrel and went about two feet before it went BOOM! and blew a hole in the side of the tube. Hmmm, my rockets needed some improvement, I had heard of this kind of thing happening with BP (black powder) rockets, though usually they are made by packing the not yet dry powder in and the problem is the grain cracking, making it explode.

The second one I tried, I did almost the same thing as before with the black powder but I packed it in more, and put fins on the rocket. I put some tin foil around it and taped the tin foil an a straight piece of coat hanger wire, to guide the rocket up the wire. I used hot glue to put this one together. This one was also bigger. I drilled a hole in some wood to hold the coat hanger up straight. Make sure the rocket slides smoothly up and down the wire and comes off easy, then I lit the fuse, it went for about half a second, halfway up the wire then BOOM ! even louder than the last time. Dang, needs work. I found that the hot glue was melted too, so it would have fallen apart had it kept burning.

The third time I didn't use gunpowder, but used KNO3 and Sugar, 6 parts nitrate to 4 parts sugar by volume. I figured it wouldn't explode if I did that. I made the rocket the same as the one for the black powder rockets but used white glue and put fins on, long fins that covered more than half of the about 3" rocket. I fired this one horizontally but it didn't slide along the wire well because of it being horizontal. I melted the fuel and had hard time getting it into the rocket because it solidified too fast. As a result, the grain didn't stick to the side well, it burned through the tape and came out the other end with out propelling the rocket much. No dice, try again?.

Sure, this time when I melted the fuel, I didn't melt it all the way, I left it at the stage when it isn't caramelized at all yet and just the potassium nitrate is mostly melted, forming large granules a couple mm across. To get these granules, you have to stir it fast and not let it caramelize anywhere. They're kind of soft and go into the rocket much better, then if you hurry you can still pack them down to a kind of hole grain. I think it burns faster too but I would have to experiment more. I have read on amateur rocketry pages that it destroys the structure of the sugar when it caramelizes. There would also me more surface area melting the stuff this way. I filled the rocket and packed it down, with the fuse in first. I didn't put fins on this one and put it in the pipe instead. I didn't tape the other end shut either since it seemed to stick in well. I invited my dad to see and.... zoom! It took off like, um a rocket. I fired it at a wall as opposed to going up because then it's easier to light the fuse and it doesn't land on anybody's house when it lands. It worked really well but when it hit the wall I think it came apart some because I saw two flames afterwards (it was dark) I couldn't find the pieces in the dark. My dad liked it too but doesn't want me to fire it that close to the neighbors (vinyl sided) house. I can't wait to make more and set them off somewhere outside the city, but maybe not even until fall when the fire hazard is low.

I made some additions to my shopping list too:

container to hold rocket fuel while melting

a medium-coarse file

potassium permanganate

potassium perchlorate - maybe chlorate instead

    Today I made more gunpowder but I couldn't find a sieve or any window screen to make one and I had to press it in a cloth and then dry it as a solid mass and then break it up and I think it worked better anyways. I also packed some into a rocket while it was still wet.
    I also fired a rocket I made from KNO3 and sugar fuel. This one had fins and I put it in a 1" .pipe to launch it horizontally. It only made it a few feet from the launch pad before the paper tube burst. I think it just burst from the pressure of controlled burning rather than the fuel really exploding, so I just need to made the paper walls thicker. After it burst, the fuel scattered and burned.
    I experimented with fireworks today also, I did a couple of things: I put magnesium in the smoke bomb before I melted it, and, predictably, it makes bright flashes. I also added magnesium and aluminum powder. I added just enough aluminum powder to the powder mix to make it look a light gray. If  you put too much in, the smoke bomb will crumble when you try to mold it. When it is melted, it looks nice and shiny. To make a firework out of any of these things, I took a piece of fuse and while the fuel was still soft from melting it, I wrapped it around the fuse, wearing gloves. Another thing I did was wrap tin foil around some 5:3:1 (I'll refer to the mixture of 5 parts potassium nitrate:3 parts sulfur: 1 part aluminum as 5:3:1) and put a fuse in the tin foil. Then I molded some KNO3 and sugar fuel, with aluminum and magnesium around the outside. I did the same thing with gunpowder in the tin foil. Unfortunately I can't give you descriptions of how each burned because they all caught fire at once by accident. I also tried shredding some KNO3 and sugar fuel to see if it would burn faster but it didn't. I would also like to find out the stoichiometric weights to make the fuel because I think I made a small amount that wouldn't even sustain combustion, I don't know if the mixture was all wrong or whether I burned it. 
    Another thing to mention, if you use a fire starter with a flint on the back for a magnesium source, remove the flint before you start to grind it up. I comes off easily if you tap it with a hammer or maybe wedge a nail in between it and the magnesium. If you don't remove the flint, first of all it makes it harder to clamp down any way you want because it's not square. More importantly, when you get to the bottom of the block of magnesium, just when you have ground up lots, if you hit the flint with the hacksaw, it sends sparks into the magnesium, setting it off and the paper you used to collect the shavings catches fire too, not only is this a fire hazard, especially because of how hot magnesium burns, you will lose all you're work.

    I tried different things to make my fuse more durable and the best I could come up with is wrapping and twisting it in waxed paper. I could try steel or copper wire for fuse also to make it more rigid. An excellent site on a strange kind of fuse is http://www.ctel.net/~dwilliams/thermalite/thermalite.html. Unfortunately I don't have the chemicals to make this mixture but I'll keep looking.

    I'll fill you in on what I've been doing these past few days: Yesterday I got potassium permanganate. It came in big crystals, so I have to pulverize it which is annoying, but still it is great stuff. My dad also lent me a mortar and pestle to grind it with. I only have a small amount to experiment and I may look for more of it to buy. It is used to purify water, as illustrated on http://www.caruschem.com/. I think it's cheap since the smallest quantities mentioned as orderable are 25 kg and the biggest 48,000 kg. It leaves a brown stain on skin and clothes that is manganese dioxide. On the carus website it says you can remove the stain with "3 parts 3% USP hydrogen peroxide, 4 parts 5% food grade white vinegar, and 3 parts tap water." but I haven't tried it. Here are the things I did with it:

Flash powder:

This is the best stuff I made with it. I got the recipe from http://216.36.6.9/webdoc1.htg/CompDB/Flash.htm which has all sorts of flash recipes. The same site has other good stuff on it too. The recipe I used is 12 parts potassium permanganate, 7 parts aluminum and 10 parts sulfur, by weight of course. It works really well but it stinks because of the sulfur. Remember that flash powders are very sensitive and powerful so only make small quantities. I tried mixing the chemicals with the paper method (put pile in the middle of some newspaper, then lift opposite corners to roll powder over itself) but even newspaper was too stiff, so I just mixed it carefully in a  container. It goes off faster than the potassium nitrate and magnesium. It's great stuff. 

KMnO4, sugar:
    This is a hot incendiary (apparently). By volume 50:50. I did it by weight and it didn't go very well but when I added more KMnO4 it worked well. It didn't ignite with glycerin but it might if you did it right (enough KMn04). It looks weird when it burns, like a flower bulb or something. 

KMNO4, iron. 
    50:50 By weight, this isn't very exciting but it works. maybe if I added more iron it would be better. As it is, a glow passes through the thing when it is lit.. I bet it would be OK in the dark.

Another flash composition to try tomorrow is : potassium nitrate 50, aluminum 30, sulfur 20

For tomorrow:

67:16.5:16.5 potassium nitrate, aluminum, sulfur

29.6:23.5:47.5 potassium nitrate, sulfur, magnesium.

copper oxide

copper powder
boric acid
 Iron oxide
strontium carbonate
starpol

    I searched for a place to buy potassium permanganate on the internet and I found out that you can buy it for treating water for Koi fish at http://www.qualitykoi.com/vs_products_detail.cfm?ska_id=MED28. The price is 19.95 for 1 KG. There are a few other places that sell it but they are more expensive. I also read that any place that sells it is instructed to give the name of the purchaser to the Feds, so nobody make any bombs or anything. If there is a big fish store around you probably could get it cheaper since you wouldn't have to pay for shipping and handling.