So… I was thinking about alternative ways to start the fire. So I know that Potassium permanganate and antifreeze will act together and created spontaneous combustion. So obvious way would be to carry a vial of antifreeze and vial of Potassium permanganate. But I wanted to take it a step further. I would take glass tubing that is easy to seal (about one inch). I would seal one end with epoxy or just melt the ends shot over burner. I would pour antifreeze into it. Seal another end. I will take Potassium permanganate and crush it not into powder but fine crystals. Now I take my sealed tube and dip it into wax or simple glue, than roll the vial in the crystals. After everything dries I wrap cotton fibers around it or jam it into a predrilled hollow tampon. Now in order to make fire I just collect dry tinder and break the vial and leave it on top. It works on the similar principle as ammonia vials used to gain somebody’s consciousness. So what do you guys think?

Matt

It is the glicoze in antifreeze that reacts with potassium permanganate. So instead of carrying anti-freeze add some glycerine in your first-aid kit or a small amount in your EDC. You get a better result with glycerine instead of antifreeze and you can also use it for personal care.

Antifreeze is very harmful. The taste also is very sweet and attracts animals, if you have a pet be very careful with it they love the taste!

Burak

There may be easier to fabricate explosives - just search the net for the anarchists cookbook. I think that I remember that you can fabricate something equivalent to plastic explosives from household chemicals and spark it from something like the piezo element from a lighter.

Doesn't seem like something that I would want riding losely or tightly packed in my pocket survival kit though. Reminds me of this post .

where you will find this interesting piece of info

having glycerine in the vial sounds quite a good idea. i'd not try the home made plastic explosive if i were you, a friend of mine was working in his lab the other day and he destroyed his fumehood, and i do mean destroyed, all the glasswear the works, mind you he was doing a reaction on a multi litre scale. he didn't realise that the reaction he was doing made the said explosive, which is extreamly shock sensitive.

I presume that you will take precautions when you carry such a thing. But there are a few potential flaws. When you glue the crystals to the vial, you reduce the surface plus there might be too much glycerin. I`d pack the crystals and the vial into a small plastic bag and seal it. Wrapping or jamming the vial into cotton fibres might make ignition difficult. So it might be required to fluff it.

I had a similar idea in December : to keep permanganate crystals and a small bottle of glycerine in a PSK. Each product having different uses.
I bought permanganate in small bags (0.25g/bag) ; I tried to put a drop of glycerine on the crystals of 1 bag >>> nothing <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
I guess you need a larger amount of crystals to start a reaction.

Alain

For all that trouble couldn't you just get a small lighter or matches? Or am I missing something here?

Well the key word here was different methods...

Matt

sounds ok in theory.
have you actualy tried it yet?

This weakend will be my trial run.

Matt