- 1). Preheat your oven to 150 degrees F.
- 2). Cut your dowel rods into matchsticks by nicking with a small knife and snapping into 2- to 3-inch lengths.
- 3). Mix a small amount of potassium chlorate with white glue in a Pyrex or Kimex beaker to create a thick paste. The ratio is not important, so long as the mixture does not drip.
- 4). Dip the end of each matchstick into the potassium chlorate mixture.
- 5). Set the matches on an old pan, keeping the paste-covered tip off the pan's surface by resting each match against a length of dowel.
- 6). Bake your matches for two hours or until the potassium chlorate paste hardens.
- 7). Make a paste of white glue and red phosphorus in a new Pyrex or Kimex beaker, and stir gently. Do NOT use the beaker in which you mixed the potassium chlorate paste; the two chemicals are explosively reactive and, if combined, can blind, disfigure or even kill you.
- 8). Dip the baked head of each match in the second paste, and set it on the pan again.
- 9). Bake the matches for another two hours. When the second paste has hardened and cooled, you can ignite your homemade match on any surface.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -