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Make you own Black Match
Black Match is the most used type of Fuse in pyrotechnics. This fuse can be made even by a novice pyrotechnic enthusiast. As I have learned to make good black match it requires a lot of practice to create a good Black Match fuse.
| Items you need: Ingredients: -FFFFg Black Powder (Goex or Elephant Only) -Cornstarch or Dextrin -Cotton String (Non-waxed) |
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| Tools Need: Coffee can or Pan Hobby Knife Plastic Mixing Spoon |
Paper Towels Latex or Plastic Gloves |
Procedure:
Make sure to do this outside, you don't want this to ignite inside when drying. It normally takes about a day to dry.
If you cannot get Dextrin here is what you have to do to make your own.
Making Dextrin:
First preheat the oven to 400 Degrees F. Pour cornstarch onto cookie sheet
or other pan. Bake the cornstarch at 400 Degrees for a few hours. It is
important that you mix it every 20 minutes, this will prevent the
cornstarch from burning. The Cornstarch is done when it turns a nice
golden brown color.
Mixing the ingredients:
In your coffee pot or whatever you are using to mix the ingredients
mix, 1/4 teaspoon of dextrin, 3 tablespoons of FFFFg Black Powder, and
30ml of hot water. You want to make sure that you mix the ingredients very
well. The consistency should be that of oatmeal.
Improvement: (This step is not necessary but will
greatly improve upon the reliability of the fuse.) With only one
string the fuse will still work however, what if you added more strings to
the fuse. There are multiple ways to do this.
1. Have 2 coffee can with the mixture in it and a string in each, after
the string is dipped in the black powder solution twist the string
together. When the strings dry they will be stuck to each other.
2. The other way to improve the string is to braid 3 pieces to string
together. This will create area for the black powder to stick to the
string. If you do not know how to braid it is easy. Take 3 pieces of
string and tie together in a knot. Now put the left most string and put it
over the center string. Now take the right most string and put it over the
center. Keep on doing this to get the nice braid.
Add the String:
To prevent the Black Powder Mix from getting under your skin I
recommend putting on some either plastic or latex gloves. With how
sensitive things are now, you don't want to get question repeatedly why
you have Black Powder on you hands. I find it easy to soak some string in
the mixture you want to rub in the paste to make sure that the Black
powder really gets absorbed.
Letting the String Dry:
Lay it out on a piece
of sheet metal, lean, plexiglass, or other non-absorbent material
(definitely not wood) to dry. Your fuse will stick to the board and
when you pull off the string some of the powder will be left on the board
and this will ruin your fuse. Keep on soaking the string in
the mixture until there is no more left in the container. This should
create about 40 feet of black match. Let this dry outside for at least a
day. After the string has dried wind it up on something and try not to
handle much, bits of Black Powder will flake off and the fuse won't work as
well.