Slow match for your tinder box

This is just a quick article on making slow match for your tinder box. Slow match was originally used by musketeers and cannon crew to readily have a hot ember where by they could ignite there weapons at will. Slow match is a thick cord that burns with a hot ember at one end, burning evenly and slowly keeping a hot ember ready at anytime, that is difficult to blow out or extinguish. It is a handy piece of kit where by you can transport a hot ember to your desired ignition source easily, particularly handy if you are moving to a new camp and wish to relight your fire easily.

Slow match can be made using -
1. Cotton cord aprox 8-10mm thick
2. Potassium Nitrate (do not use sodium nitrate where possible, as it absorbs moisture more readily)
3, Vinegar
4. Waterproof container
5. Brick

First mix up 1 regular cup of vinegar and pour it into a suitable container. Next add another 3 cups of warm water to the container followed by 3 heaped tablespoons of potassium nitrate, stir well and make sure all the sodium nitrate has fully dissolved.
Take a long length of cotton cord and slowly feed it into the solution, making sure that the cord does not float and is fully submerged, if necessary, place a small brick or weight on top of the cord to keep it submerged.
Leave the cotton cord to soak up the solution over night, small bubbles will escape from the cord over time as the solution fully saturates the cord.
In the morning remove the cotton cord and find a suitable place to dry it.
Make sure you try and dry your slow match cord flat, so as not to have an uneven burn.
Once the cord has dried it will be able to be used.

I am currently looking for alternative recipes, some include vinegar, ash and coffee in them, I am unsure as to how this helps the burn of the match, but as far as I am aware, the presence of carbon in the solution helps the potassium nitrate to burn easily.I will have to conduct a few experiments to see how it works, but I will post my findings here when I do.

All the ingredients are easily purchased online, I picked up the potassium nitrate on eBay along with the heavy cotton cord. If you are using hemp cordage as was used in some records for making slow match you should add double the amount of Potassium Nitrate stated here, everything eses remains the same volume.
Adding more potassium nitrate speeds up the burn, too much will make your match cord, burn more like a fuse, so there are uses for both.

Good luck making your own slow match, You can buy slow match already made, but it's nice to be aware of how easily it's made, and to be able to make it yourself.
Let me know how you get on, and especially if you have variants on the recipe, I would love to hear about it.

Ta for now
Shiver