potassium permanganate

[fred gordon]

It does stain your hands if you are not careful. Even the smallest crystal can turn alot of water deep purple. Great colour.

We make chlorine gas with it, by adding concentrated Hydrochloric acid to it. So becareful what you are mixing it with, you don't want to poison yourself.

Lets be a bit careful about what we post here. We don't want this site to attract 'unwelcome' attention

 

[w00dsmoke]

if you grind it with sugar it makes a flame...also if you pour anti-freeze on it

Not the stuff I bought...I've tried it several times without success.

I don't know if they have added anything to it these days but I've tried from different suppliers and it does not work for me.

Glycerine... nope
Sugar and pressure ...nope

Anyone got any other experiences or advice on this?

 

[Goose]

Not the stuff I bought...I've tried it several times without success.

I don't know if they have added anything to it these days but I've tried from different suppliers and it does not work for me.

Glycerine... nope
Sugar and pressure ...nope

Anyone got any other experiences or advice on this?

There are a couple of different types of PP, they are the same chemically(IIRC) but you get stuff that is powdered or free flow which is bigger bits, therefore less surface area,therefore takes longer to combust.
I have not had success with sugar and grinding with a rock, but generally have success with anti freeze and PP. You need newspaper, copier/computer paper doesn't work as well . It needs to be the right anti freeze, glycerol, I find it best to tip the anti freeze onto the paper, it seems to absorb the water out of the glycerol this way. then tip the PP into a small pool of antifreeze, wrap it up and leave it, it can take longer than you expect to combust. It will smoke and fizzle and if you have it right it will suddnely burst into flame, if you use too much antifreeze it seems to expend its energy turning the water in the antifreeze into steam and not getting quite hot enough. If you poke it with a stick, not your fingers!, it can sometimes kick it into action, but be careful it can take you by surprise!
I haven't used glycerine myself but the technique I have seen is similar.

 

[deezee_uk]

LOL the trouble you guys go to to save carrying a lighter and a plaster. I don't want to pee on the proverbial bomfire, but i'm pretty sure you guys don't carry antifreeze into the forests etc with you, but does anyone keep neat antifreeze in thier vehicle. to use with PP.

I'm assuming the antifreeze in your cars cooling system is too diluted to be of any use? or would it just take longer?

 

[sharp88]

Not the stuff I bought...I've tried it several times without success.

I don't know if they have added anything to it these days but I've tried from different suppliers and it does not work for me.

Glycerine... nope
Sugar and pressure ...nope

Anyone got any other experiences or advice on this?

ok...thas a lil weird I bought mine a while back though, so that may explain somthing.

I wasnt serious about the anti-freeze thing btw, it works very well dont get me wrong, but a pretty uselss fact in the field of bushcraft.

 

[Goose]

I have got it to work with diluted anti freeze but it takes a lot of PP and results are sketchy. And yes its more of a party trick than a proper bushcraft skill, it is more of a facination with fire and novelty for me!

 

[Singeblister]

Isn't it used in dye as well , I seem to remember it being in the ingredient list of a copper patina as well but cant be sure

 

[Mikey P]

Woodsmoke - Prompted by your comments, I dug out my little plastic bag with PP in it that I've had in a survival tin for years, mixed it with a bit of sugar, put it on a rock and scraped it with a knife next to some cotton wool. Whilst it wasn't spectacular, it did actually work. So yeah - maybe there are slightly different properties depending on manufacturer. Any chemists out there?

Anyway, I'm off to see what happens when you fire a schmooly into some tinder.

 

[bluemountaingunworks]

Potassium Permanganate is used here in the U.S. as a fire management tool in the form of PSD's, or Plastic Sphere Dispensers. These are nothing more than little ping-pong ball filled with a specified amount of PP that are distributed by a specialized machine mounted in the door of a helicopter. The machine operates by inserting a syringe of ethlyene glycol, or common anti-freeze, into the ball and a premeasured amount is injected. The reaction is as others have mentioned and the balls are released from the helicopter to land on the ground and start fires. We used these aerial ignition platforms to achieve all sorts of objective rolls. I participated in their use several times while fighting fire with the U.S. Forest Service. For example some terrain is too difficult and dangerous to send in firefighters on the ground, so the PSD is used to ignite backfires and conduct burnout operations. They are also extremely effective at covering huge expanses of ground when conducting prescribed burns in an effort to reduce hazardous fuels accumulation. We also played around them and discovered that a small amount of Mountain Dew soda will achieve a similar reaction. Take care and God Bless! Jerry