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Thread: Potassium permanganate & glycerine

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    Default Potassium permanganate & glycerine

    I'm watching right now Survivorman and he's using the fire piston in alaska, and that looks neat, but I remembered last week when he used potassium permanganate & glycerine. You mix the two together and they produce an almost instant exothermic reaction, great for fire starting.

    Plus, they're multifunctional with other uses, really good for including in a survival kit. I know I'll be including them in any I make, thats the easiest fire making I've seen.


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    Super-duper Moderator Sarge47's Avatar
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    Question Uh, Chris...

    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    I'm watching right now Survivorman and he's using the fire piston in alaska, and that looks neat, but I remembered last week when he used potassium permanganate & glycerine. You mix the two together and they produce an almost instant exothermic reaction, great for fire starting.

    Plus, they're multifunctional with other uses, really good for including in a survival kit. I know I'll be including them in any I make, thats the easiest fire making I've seen.
    would you happen to know just where this stuff might be purchased?
    SARGE
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    potassium permanganate

    You don't want to mess with that stuff. We inject it into the ground for remediation purposes. It's nasty and turns everything purple, including your skin. Takes awhile to wear off.

    It's one of those jobs that most don't want to do.

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    Always Vigilant glocker36's Avatar
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    I have used potassium permanginate and radiator coolant and the results are pretty impressive, very hot fire, but BE CAREFUL and stay clear of the fumes.

    I also have mixed pp with sugar and used friction to get a fire, it is kind of like striking a match. I actually keep a vial in my survival kit of the sugar/pp mix as an alternate fire starting method.

    You can get it in a bunch of different places, including Ebay and most stores that sell pond supplies. It is used as an anticeptic in Koy fish ponds.

    I can second that it turns everything purple when mixed with water, I spilled some on our walkway brick and just brushed it into the cracks, but when my wife rinsed off the walk way.....boy was I in trouble. The purple just kept boiling up out of the cracks, it took almost 15 minutes of flushing to get it all out.

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    ...shhh... smokelessfire's Avatar
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    some of this stuff is so silly. whatever happened to using what is available in nature for your survival. you want fancy chemicals and crap, stay in your cities where they make it. want fire? a shoe lace made into a small bow drill, a rock to hold it down, a drill stick, etc. and voila. chemicals...why not just blast a rock with the stun setting on your phaser? it produces enough heat to last through the coldest winter night, and you don't have all those smoke fumes. jeez!

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    Super-duper Moderator Sarge47's Avatar
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    Cool Okay, Captain Kirk!

    Quote Originally Posted by smokelessfire View Post
    some of this stuff is so silly. whatever happened to using what is available in nature for your survival. you want fancy chemicals and crap, stay in your cities where they make it. want fire? a shoe lace made into a small bow drill, a rock to hold it down, a drill stick, etc. and voila. chemicals...why not just blast a rock with the stun setting on your phaser? it produces enough heat to last through the coldest winter night, and you don't have all those smoke fumes. jeez!
    I'm on the fence here. I think that being able to start a fire by just adding two chemicals together is kinda cool, however if they got mixed together in, say, your pack what might happen then? I also wonder what would happen if you poured the PP onto snow to signal for help from a rescue aircraft? A Large "purple" S.O.S. on a field of white snow should show up pretty good. Whaddaya think? You can keep your fire-bow, it takes to long and in a survival situation speed is of the essence, as is conserving energy. Matches & lighter with a Flint & Steel back-up work just find and take up little space and don't weigh much. Just my "Duos Centavos".
    SARGE
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    Quote Originally Posted by smokelessfire View Post
    some of this stuff is so silly. whatever happened to using what is available in nature for your survival. you want fancy chemicals and crap, stay in your cities where they make it. want fire? a shoe lace made into a small bow drill, a rock to hold it down, a drill stick, etc. and voila. chemicals...why not just blast a rock with the stun setting on your phaser? it produces enough heat to last through the coldest winter night, and you don't have all those smoke fumes. jeez!
    They're not just random chemicals, they're medicinal products part of many first aid kits.

    So, you want your survival kit to be as light and portable as possible right? Might as well go for items with dual duty. These two items are multi-taskers.

    http://www.primitiveways.com/chemical_fire.html

    Plus... you can't always make a fire with other means. What if one hand is injured so you can't do a fire bow? Or there isn't good dry fuel around to catch a spark?

    Personally, I'd rather survive using anything I can than be a tool-snob and die because I wanted to be as traditional as possible. Call me crazy...

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    a bushbaby owl_girl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    They're not just random chemicals, they're medicinal products part of many first aid kits.

    So, you want your survival kit to be as light and portable as possible right? Might as well go for items with dual duty. These two items are multi-taskers.

    http://www.primitiveways.com/chemical_fire.html

    Plus... you can't always make a fire with other means. What if one hand is injured so you can't do a fire bow? Or there isn't good dry fuel around to catch a spark?

    Personally, I'd rather survive using anything I can than be a tool-snob and die because I wanted to be as traditional as possible. Call me crazy...
    Chris has a point smokelessfire. Its about being resourceful rather that be natural tools you find in nature or chemicals in your car.

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    Senior Member wareagle69's Avatar
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    smokeless fire i understand your point.
    the line gets blurred alot
    1- camping
    2- primitive skills
    3- survival
    i love to go camping allot of times i practice primitive skills ie fire starting shelter etc, when doing both i still have a tarp sleeping bag food water and a way to start a fire fast flare lighter what have you so if i fall into a freezing river and it now becomes a survival situation i will live to post it on my website or in my book..

    always be prepared.

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    Senior Member Fog_Harbor's Avatar
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    I'd never even heard of the stuff before the show, but I damn sure ain't wearing it on my body. I'm a bit on the Murphy's Law side, I don't carry ANY kind of combustables on my person (magnesium excluded).
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    Super-duper Moderator Sarge47's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Yea, Foggy!

    Quote Originally Posted by Fog_Harbor View Post
    I'd never even heard of the stuff before the show, but I damn sure ain't wearing it on my body. I'm a bit on the Murphy's Law side, I don't carry ANY kind of combustables on my person (magnesium excluded).
    Murphy's law is the clincher. Imagine having that stuff break open, combine, then set your pack on fire?
    SARGE
    "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
    Albert Einstein

    Proud father of a US Marine....SEMPER FI!

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    Senior Member Tony uk's Avatar
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    Put it in a thick metal container with a lock and it wont set your pack on fire if you can get it out fast enough, or put them both in seperate containers
    A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by smokelessfire View Post
    some of this stuff is so silly. whatever happened to using what is available in nature for your survival. you want fancy chemicals and crap, stay in your cities where they make it. want fire? a shoe lace made into a small bow drill, a rock to hold it down, a drill stick, etc. and voila. chemicals...why not just blast a rock with the stun setting on your phaser? it produces enough heat to last through the coldest winter night, and you don't have all those smoke fumes. jeez!
    LOL. You actually expect us to believe you use the old bow and spindle technique???

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    a bushbaby owl_girl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by phreak View Post
    LOL. You actually expect us to believe you use the old bow and spindle technique???
    Why is that so questionable? Hello this is a "survival forum". A lot of people on this site know how to use primitive methods...what did you expect
    Last edited by owl_girl; 09-11-2007 at 07:01 PM.

  15. #15

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    I suspect it was contrived.

    I think he probably saw it on the internet, brought them along with him under the guise that he was using them for disinfection and digestive first aid but in reality only wanted to impress the television audience.

    My advice is to steer clear of this method.
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    Member tfisher's Avatar
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    Actually they do put the PP and sometimes Glyc in old or European survival kits. So you could run into these in the real world. I have seen the combination in First aid/survival kits in military surplus stores. They used to include the PP for foot fungus in First aid kits.

    Now it is sometimes hard to buy because of limitations in illegal drug manufacture. Just like strike anywhere matches.
    "SURVIVAL..........it's all in your Head!"

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    A Laughing Wolf spiritman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RobertRogers View Post
    I suspect it was contrived
    Well of course it's a show, and on his show he always tries something new out and shows how well they work out side of a controlled environment.

  18. #18

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    If you do a search on www.froogle.com you will find a thousand places that sell those two chemicals. However, they are not as efficient pound for pound as a good magnesium flint, which will last thousands of strikes. The idea is cool, but I'm not really thrilled with the potential (no matter how remote) that I'll set my backpack on fire and burn all my goodies.

  19. #19

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    SurvivorMan found those chemicals in the dog sled he was riding.

  20. #20

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    its a basic experiment in chem class. I learned it in high school but never tried it in real life. Its cool and as long as they're not combined they're harmless. But PP is a powder in its natural state so keeping it in a metal tin works best.

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