Wild Catmage
September 15th, 2003, 03:16 PM
After searching the forum for sodium chlorate related explosives, I found that there was nothing similar to what I have been experimenting with recently. Consequently I decided to write this article. As this is only my second post I placed it in the water cooler, but hopefully if it is worthy, a mod will move it somewhere else.
Sodium chlorate is available as a weed killer in most countries, although in the UK fire suppressant has been added to it. Whereas the UK’s chlorate is around 50% fire suppressant :( , if you pop across the channel using the Eurotunnel, they sell 99% pure Sodium Chlorate. It is available from most large supermarkets on the continent (including Cité Europe’s Carrefour) in 1kg and 5kg tins and is a yellow colour. It is also renamed to something like Chlorate de Soude.
The chlorate can be soaked into paper to make a versatile product that can be used for a number of things including fusing, rocket propellant and possibly as an incendiary (it will melt aluminium which means it reaches a temperature of at least 660 degrees C). Advantages of this product over black powder are:
It is quicker and simpler to make
It is less ‘messy’ to make then black powder
It burns cleanly with little debris, although it produces smoke
To make this product (someone suggest a name for it please), you will need to mix up a saturated solution of sodium chlorate and water. To do this, I dissolved 4 dessertspoons of chlorate in 300 ml of boiling water (sorry about the imprecise measurements).
I then took 15 sheets of kitchen roll/kitchen tissue/kitchen paper and soaked it in the solution, before spreading it out to dry in the sun. The sheets were left very wet as I took little effort to squeeze them, but if you did, I believe that you could make a larger batch with the same amount of solution.
It took about 4 hours in the sun to dry the sheets, but once that was done, I ended up with a fairly insensitive product. However, I later found that the product will explode if struck hard with a hammer and a punch (I was ramming rocket engines the kewl way when it happened :eek: and luckily I suffered only minor injuries and blistering on my right hand but I now know to be more careful when using this stuff).
WARNING: A spillage of chlorate solution on plants will most likely kill them. There may be problems with the debris killing plants too, but I haven’t experienced this personally. Also chlorate soaked clothing is bad, as it ignites easily.
Sodium chlorate is available as a weed killer in most countries, although in the UK fire suppressant has been added to it. Whereas the UK’s chlorate is around 50% fire suppressant :( , if you pop across the channel using the Eurotunnel, they sell 99% pure Sodium Chlorate. It is available from most large supermarkets on the continent (including Cité Europe’s Carrefour) in 1kg and 5kg tins and is a yellow colour. It is also renamed to something like Chlorate de Soude.
The chlorate can be soaked into paper to make a versatile product that can be used for a number of things including fusing, rocket propellant and possibly as an incendiary (it will melt aluminium which means it reaches a temperature of at least 660 degrees C). Advantages of this product over black powder are:
It is quicker and simpler to make
It is less ‘messy’ to make then black powder
It burns cleanly with little debris, although it produces smoke
To make this product (someone suggest a name for it please), you will need to mix up a saturated solution of sodium chlorate and water. To do this, I dissolved 4 dessertspoons of chlorate in 300 ml of boiling water (sorry about the imprecise measurements).
I then took 15 sheets of kitchen roll/kitchen tissue/kitchen paper and soaked it in the solution, before spreading it out to dry in the sun. The sheets were left very wet as I took little effort to squeeze them, but if you did, I believe that you could make a larger batch with the same amount of solution.
It took about 4 hours in the sun to dry the sheets, but once that was done, I ended up with a fairly insensitive product. However, I later found that the product will explode if struck hard with a hammer and a punch (I was ramming rocket engines the kewl way when it happened :eek: and luckily I suffered only minor injuries and blistering on my right hand but I now know to be more careful when using this stuff).
WARNING: A spillage of chlorate solution on plants will most likely kill them. There may be problems with the debris killing plants too, but I haven’t experienced this personally. Also chlorate soaked clothing is bad, as it ignites easily.