Marmaloon
October 29th, 2004, 10:51 AM
I tried out the directions for making 19th century slow match as somewhat detailed in a section of the 'Poor Man's James Bond'. I'ts just a reprint of a 19th century pyrotechnics manual. It suggested making a rolled paper case out of an ordinary sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 typing paper, it does not matter if there is printing on it or not. I used some water proof carpenter's glue, although it really does not matter much whether it is water proof or not, as far as I can tell. You are going to want to spread a thin uniform layer of glue over the entire one surface of the sheet. Have some petroleum jelly spread uniformly (the only way to know how much is by experimentation), over a 18 inch long piece of 1/4 inch metal stock. I used galvanized round rod, although any round metal rod with a uniformly round section would be good. You are going to make the fuse case 11 inches long, so line up the edge with the rod and start carefully rolling the case up on the rod. The petroleum jelly is there to allow you to remove the case from the rod. You will have to experiment again with the amount of time you leave the rod inside the case before removing it, if you remove it too soon, the case will 'wrinkle' which is undesireable. Once you have removed the case from the rod and the case is nice and uniform, leave it to cure in a dry relatively warm enviroment for about 2 or 3 days or so, again, the amount of curing time is to be determined by experimentation. You want the tube to assume the feel of wood when you tap it on something. As for the filler, you can experiment with the various fillers in PMJB and elsewhere, I simply mixed up a crude mix of sugar and Potassium Nitrate, which made a very smoky fuse mix with a good end spit.