saltpetre and amadou

[resnikov]

I'm looking to make some amadou and I think I have found a good supply of horse hove fungus.
After reading about how to prepare amadou, I now need to buy some saltpetre / Potassium Nitrate.

I have tried a few garden centers and they say they dont stock it.

Anyone know where I can buy some from? I would prefer a shop instead of online and I'm in the Leeds / York area.

cheers

 

[Toddy]

Shops I don't know about, I buy mine from the sausagemaking.org sites. It's good, it's clean, it's cheap and it's quickly delivered

cheers,
Toddy

 

[gregorach]

You don't need it, don't bother. If you're going to use shop-bought saltpetre, you might as well go the whole hog and just buy some firelighters.

 

[resnikov]

You don't need it, don't bother. If you're going to use shop-bought saltpetre, you might as well go the whole hog and just buy some firelighters.

Ahh ok, would you just use the boil and wood ash method ?

 

[gregorach]

Yup. Worked fine for me the last time. Only boiled for an hour or so too...

 

[Toddy]

Well, I've made it from scratch, and it's a footer, it takes ages, it stinks I'm not doing it again.
I use it when making amadou that I know I'm going to be using in the cold and damp, and it takes from the tiniest wee spark

It doesn't smell like firelighters, it just kind of sparkles a wee bit if you get it kind of strong

Saltpetre from here:
http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Saltpetre__500_grammes.html

cheers,
M

 

[resnikov]

Instead of pounding it after the boiling, has anyone tired just compressing it, like when drying flowers ?

Just an idea, think I might try both and see how I go.

 

[Toddy]

Supposedly it's the stretching that eases the fibres. Pounding it or working it with your hands.

cheers,
M

 

[gregorach]

Well, I've made it from scratch, and it's a footer, it takes ages, it stinks I'm not doing it again.

You mean saltpetre? Yeah, nasty business... I'd be curious to have a go at it once in my life, just to know I can, but I don't much fancy the process.

I use it when making amadou that I know I'm going to be using in the cold and damp, and it takes from the tiniest wee spark

Never really found it a problem. Admittedly, I haven't tried with flint and pyrite...

 

[Toddy]

You've an allotment, you could have a shot there
Basically it's the product of a festering old fashioned midden heap. Vegetable waste, fires ashes and bodily wastes. If you can make one on top of a slab with brick laid walls and capped with wood it'll mellow away to itself and you'll end up with crystals on the bricks.
Just mind to pee on it after you've had a fair bit of red wine or beer the night before and it'll thrive.

cheers,
M

 

[R.Lewis]

Used to grow on walls of a house i lived in, scraped some into a tin that kept for ages but lost at some point.

Also, when I was eighteen it used to grow inside the lower level in this old monastery I lived at (step father was head gardener to the estate), pee'd on it wall and it grew really well!! Ended up making some basic black powder that was reasonably ok.....

 

[Galemys]

Never really found it a problem. Admittedly, I haven't tried with flint and pyrite...

For me, flint and iron pyrite works very well with the untreated trama layer of horse hoof fungus. Just scrape it into a fine woolly mass and (try to...) direct the sparks onto it.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[gregorach]

Just mind to pee on it after you've had a fair bit of red wine or beer the night before and it'll thrive.

Aye, well, no real problems there right enough...

I'll add it to the "TODO - Allotment" list. Might get around to it in, oh... 2015 or something.