I have posted this a while back, but im sure some of the newer posters havnt seen it yet. Its somthing to try when your out of supplies or have nothing to do.

You dont have to be wasteful with that flint on your magnesium firestarter. Powder it with a file very slowly or it will spark and set your whole pile up as it burns well withough oxidiser. Once your pile starts building up contain it and start a new pile, in case it does spark you don't ruin the whole batch.

Once you get a measureable amount, add some oxidiser 7 oxidiser/3 flint And you have some extremely strong flash. Its just a novelty though as its very sensitive.

If you light the pile w/o oxidiser it still flashes. Like a weak flash powder. But adding the oxidiser makes it incredible.

[This message has been edited by Monkeyman666 (edited 07-22-2003).]

thanks monkeyman666 this is a good idea.

Oh I remember that... trying it is still on my to do list.

I just made and experiemented(sp?) with a gram of it. Neat stuff.

Damnit I just threw away 3 flints

HOLY SHIT use extreme caution while testing this!!! I just ground up approx a half gram, and mixed it 1 to 1 by my eye with kclo3, and it was just enough to fill one of the halves of a cracling ball, I just did a deflageration test and didnt attach the other half or tape it up, and it self confined with an extremely loud bang. I was just expecting a flash, but luckily still stood a safe distance away, or I would have been injured.

I should look into this, sounds promising, although a little dangerous.

I have Sodium Chlorate and Potassium Chlorate handy, so Ill soon try some tests as soon as I find my MG bar.

I wonder how well it would work with less powerful oxidizers, because chlorates seem kinda risky.

Hey Rat, where do you get your KClO3 in Canada?

can i just take the lint out of a lighter.

flint, i mean flint.

quote:Originally posted by bulllgod66:

flint, i mean flint.

no not really. It just a little piece in a lighter but a Mg fire starter has a big strip. (I think it might be around 1/2 gram) Just go to a surplus or camping store and they have them for like five bucks.



Peace Out,

Evil_Tree

could you safely ball mill flint?

heh iam going to try that right now

quote:Originally posted by XTheWhitePonyX:

Hey Rat, where do you get your KClO3 in Canada?

Friend (used to be a highschool chemistry teacher)

I had wondered for a while if anything could be done with the flint from Mg firestarters but figured that they couldn't be powdered because they'd just spark, never occurred to be to just file it very slowly. I'll have to try this some time.

quote:Originally posted by Evil_Tree:

(I think it might be around 1/2 gram) Just go to a surplus or camping store and they have them for like five bucks.



1/2 gram? Those things are a lot heavier than that, at least 10 grams.

Ball milling it wouldnt be a good idea, since there would still be oxygen in the ball mill for the flint to react with.

quote:Originally posted by Rat_Bastard:

I wonder how well it would work with less powerful oxidizers, because chlorates seem kinda risky.

The only reason I used a chlorate

is cause I have a pound, and have never used it cause I use kclo4 for flash. I dont know what to do with that shit, Im scared to make large amounts of flash with it so its worthless. I know I shouldn't be but I over protective. I Detonated some once mixed with vaseline and it sucked. Its not that strong. I will try a weaker oxidiser today.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this, and what their results were..

quote:Originally posted by Monkeyman666:

Just wondering if anyone has tried this, and what their results were..

if you have some chlorate that you hardly use laying around would you consider selling it ?



if so e-mail me @

pyrus at shaw dot ca

Okay, just in case you didn't know, the "flint" on the Mg bars is actually a rare earth alloy strip. It isn't stone (flint) so don't go out and buy some flint and expect it to be like the rare earth strip from the Mg bars.

quote:Originally posted by Third_Rail:

Okay, just in case you didn't know, the "flint" on the Mg bars is actually a rare earth alloy strip. It isn't stone (flint) so don't go out and buy some flint and expect it to be like the rare earth strip from the Mg bars.

so it being a rare earth metal is there a way to mill it automatically with out spending the time on it with a file ..

quote:Originally posted by warweed12:

so it being a rare earth metal is there a way to mill it automatically with out spending the time on it with a file ..

Well.... if you used lead shot or .50 lead balls, there should be no problem. It's just that rare earth metal alloys tend to ignite very easily from heat or "quick" friction (a knife being scraped on them, if it's sparking), not shock (like lead crushing it).

Note: I have not tried this, I am getting all of this from physical properties of the metals involved. Use small amounts for starters and see if I'm right.

[This message has been edited by Third_Rail (edited 07-28-2003).]

i will give it a try in augest and report back with my results .. as i am chemicaly dry right now and my grandma has some cool chemicals in here basment .. and a huge old grind stone that is powered by and old motor that runs fairly at a descent speed so i will pull the stone off and attach a cylinder lol





[This message has been edited by warweed12 (edited 07-29-2003).]