- Joined
- Sep 15, 1999
- Messages
- 3,318
I carry lots of ways to start a fire in my day pack. If I'm on the water, or if it's winter and I'm going to be alone and remote, I might even have a road flair in my pack. (So far I've never needed it.) Road flares are heavy, though, and I'd always hoped for something smaller and lighter. If it was compact and light enough, it might even find its way into my summer pack. With this in mind...
When I was a kid, we used to make smoke bombs by mixing saltpeter (aka potassium nitrate) and sugar in equal mixtures and lighting it. You could slowly melt the two powders together, they would liquefy and then cool into a solid. While it was still soft we'd put a wick into it. It worked just as well to mix the two powders, wrap it up in a rag and then just light the rag. Either way, it put up lots of smoke and it burned extremely HOT. (Saltpete was used to make black powder and is used in model rocket engines.) It might not be as hot and long burning as a road flair, but I'm confident that a film canister of the mixture would get a fire going in the foulest of weather.
Any reasons not to do this? Anyone know if the sugar is even necessary? Is it safe to carry the two ingredients mixed or could there be a reaction? I'm fairly certain keeping them separate until needed would be safe.
When I was a kid, we used to make smoke bombs by mixing saltpeter (aka potassium nitrate) and sugar in equal mixtures and lighting it. You could slowly melt the two powders together, they would liquefy and then cool into a solid. While it was still soft we'd put a wick into it. It worked just as well to mix the two powders, wrap it up in a rag and then just light the rag. Either way, it put up lots of smoke and it burned extremely HOT. (Saltpete was used to make black powder and is used in model rocket engines.) It might not be as hot and long burning as a road flair, but I'm confident that a film canister of the mixture would get a fire going in the foulest of weather.
Any reasons not to do this? Anyone know if the sugar is even necessary? Is it safe to carry the two ingredients mixed or could there be a reaction? I'm fairly certain keeping them separate until needed would be safe.
