making slowmatch....

[JCKelly]

With only the greatest respect for Michael Trőmner (Matchlock}, I must take issue from a chemistry standpoint with one quote.
"Slow match basically consisted of three main strands of fibrous hemp including a considerable amount of porous cortex, twisted and soaked in saltpeter/nitrate (Salpeter/Bleizucker). As this chemical solution is volatile it can usually no longer be proven in existing pieces of matchcord."

I will tell you that there is nothing at all "volatile" about saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Given a small length of cord any good lab could analyze for it.

The only questions are, would be is there a modern way (Xray) to do the analysis non-destructively, and is the lab indeed competent to do so.
From my own work experience getting metallurgical analyses done at a number of laboratories, I would not trust any official status of "Great Lab". Instead, make up a few samples of cord my self so that I absolutely knew what they were. Send them to a number of potential laboratories.
You may be surprised at how many different results you get from wonderful/Certified/usedbyAerospace laboratories. Pick one you deem correct, then send the real old matchcord for analysis.

For myself, I would accept what Ulrich Bretscher said, and use no saltpeter/gunpowder in my match. I did use saltpeter in the match for my own matchlock maybe 40 years ago, and it behaved as Bretscher said. I know enough chemistry to regard Bretscher as knowledgeable when it comes to actually shooting a matchlock gun.

Trőmner was the worlds greatest collector of matchlocks. Perhaps not a shooter

 

[RAEDWALD]

I have too many things in hand to get a start of my matchlock project (one being actually getting my Brunswick Rifle fore end parts delivered from TRS) but I have been playing with my lock as it has an integral pan and these are my observations.

I found that saltpetre resulted in the hemp match growing a long soft ashy glowing tip and saturated with saltpetre it did tend to occasionally spit sparks which was somewhat disconcerting. The two best matches were braided hemp, with the lignin removed by 'bucking' i.e. boiling in a caustic sodium hydroxide (lye) then drying and soaked in a saturated lead acetate solution. The same with little rods of dried bracket fungus lead acetate treated. These would burn very slowly with a stable small pointed yellow hot coal.

With the saltpetre the soft ashy coal not only made sparks but a long build up of the ash could result in a misfire with the coal insulated by the ash when it hit the priming and the ash cone made the point of contact of the match cord tip with the priming less obvious. With the bucked lead acetate the tip set off the priming every time as soon as it reached the priming.

However, in the field or on campaign improvising a match from 'liberated' cord* and one's own powder is a more practical choice for the military. For my amateur use the bucked lead acetate seems the obvious choice when the time comes. Possibly with small sticks of fungus tinder lit for each shot from a cord slow match otherwise kept in a metal gauze match case.

In time I will put this to the test but it will be project number 6 in the queue and number 1 is finishing the new house for the Memsahib (and myself I should add).

*'goodnight and sleep tight' from the old beds with the mattress resting on criss crossed cords. A popular requisitioning/looting target of matchlock men seeking fresh match.

 

[toot]

WOW, this subject it so fascinating.it truly is a history lesion.