Potassium Permanganate & Glycerin FireStarter

[Swoop]

Anyone ever heard of this combo or used it?

I just finished watching a Les Stroud episode in Africa.
He used potassium permanganate & glycerin as a fire starter.
He put carried them separately and mixed them on either rhino or elephant dung. Smoked immediately and then there was fire.

 

[HoB]

That would most certainly work. If it doesn't combust spontaneously, it won't take much to get it lit. I would be rather careful with it though. It's like bubbling oxygen through ethanol...when it goes, it REALLY goes.

 

[k_estela]

I have it and only use it for demonstrations. In the space needed to carry both components, I'd rather carry extra ferro rods or vaseline cotton balls. It does work and burns hot but for safety, the components should be carried separately. If you lose one, the other can't be used independently to start a fire. That is a risk I won't take.

 

[nick-nack]

I have it and only use it for demonstrations. In the space needed to carry both components, I'd rather carry extra ferro rods or vaseline cotton balls. It does work and burns hot but for safety, the components should be carried separately. If you lose one, the other can't be used independently to start a fire. That is a risk I won't take.

Thats a great point!

 

[nodh]

Still it works.
I used it as a demo at school once. It made smoke to cover an aircraft carrier It burnt hot to totally melt a coke can and looked cool.

The thing is that the Potassium..... have other "survival" type uses but the clycerine has few if any.

 

[flybri]

i think the potassium permanganate can be used to purify water (don't try it though unless you confirm with someone that this is safe). IIRC I read this in the SAS Survival Guide. It used to be readily available in drug stores because it was a component used by pharmacists to mix certain drugs, but they've recently switched to other potassium compounds for the same purpose. Glycerine is sold in drug stores too and is commonly available around here... I don't recall exactly what it's good for though... was it an antiseptic?

When I take my Scouts camping, I sometimes use these two chemicals to start a fire. I put the glycerine in a little ketchup cup (the kind you get at fast food restaurants) and stick it in with the tinder. Then I tell a little story about magic fire powder and sprinkle the potassium permanganate into the tinder (and thus the hidden cup). The whole thing will start smoking with purple smoke and light up shortly thereafter.

I have to say that this is most effective when you grind the potassium permanganate first (i use two spoons), and you have to have enough of both compounds, or else it won't work properly. Personally I wouldn't trust this method as a fire starting technique for survival... there are other less messy and more convenient (to use and carry) methods out there.

 

[Don Rearic]

It will work and if the temperature outside is just right and you get the combination just right, it can actually be fairly violent, going off in a few seconds.

It is in the SAS materials of both Wiseman and Davies and appears in interesting literature on French Guiana, etc., as a water purification method - just the PP, not the Glycerin.

Bob Cooper who markets the Mk III Survival Kits that used to have the tiny little Leliera (can't remember the spelling but I have one!) survival knife, his kit contains PP, it's called, "Condy's Crystals" as well and that's the name he uses for them in this small vial. He also has a single Glucose tablet and with half of that tablet and a like amount of PP, you can use a stick to crush and grind this mixture as friction sets this combination off...although I have not tried that yet, I'm sure Cooper is not wrong.

PP has many uses and I guess it is really personal preference but I don't think I would use it for water purification purposes unless I found someone who really knows what they are doing with it.

I think it was quite popular with the Special Air Service because it is also an anti-fungal in the jungle and that would be a very important component in survival and first aid kits for that environment.

It can also be used as a mouthwash to get rid of oral problems in the jungle.

It can be used to stain snow, very tiny amounts will do this - a very small vial could be used to spell out SOS quite clearly in extremely large letters in the snow.

I have a friend who is about ready to retire, he is a Pharmacist and that has been his occupation all of his life, he is in his 70s and I asked him about this substance and among so many things he talked about, he said that Doctors actually did prescribe PP concoctions for persistent foot and crotch fungal infections and the history of the substance is also marked with a bit of darkness, having been used as an abortive in douche form before Roe V. Wade passed in the early 70s.

Henri Charierre speaks of drinking water purified with PP in his book, "Papillon." I don't think he explained it quite well or there was something lost in the translation. I think that was a base that you used to purify even more water with, not totally dissimilar from using iodine crystals and one ounce of water (as Ron Hood shows in one video) to purify a quart of water.

The reason I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you do NOT use PP for water purification purposes is because the only source is Wiseman and Davies and they're not giving exact measurements but instead are relying on the color of the water after treatment with PP.

I have had this substance, just about a half dozen tiny crystals, on my fingertips and it will make your fingertips tingle for over 30 minutes, this is an incredibly powerful chemical that should not be toyed with when it comes to firestarting and definitely, most certainly, do not ingest this material in water until someone comes along that knows precisely what they are doing with it and puts out some solid information on it. If it makes your fingertips tingle and it's just a few crystals, who knows what the hell it would do to your internal organs.

 

[xinel]

Saw this recently on a Ray Mears episode on bush survival skills. I would rather firesteels for the room taken.