When i was a youngster i used to steal nitric acid and sulphuric acid from an electroplaing works a few streets away from where i lived in hunslet leeds and myfavorite trick was to pour nitric acid into sodium hyperchlorite (i think thats what i used!!- memory!!) and watch the reaction. i could get the acids but could never access glycerine which was just as well. the acid was stored in glass carboys in straw filled metal frames at the rear of the building out of the sight of prying eyes and using wire and test tubes to access the acid and when the wire eroded away use a newer piece of wire. My clothes were always disintigrating driving my parents mad and staining my hands which were constantly peeling. At that time you could buy potassium nitrate and potassium permanganate over the counter in chemists with no problem and sulpher from gardening shops and of course i did have a disaster mixing weedkiller(no fire retardent at that time) with suger and learning quckly of its ability to spotaneously combust ......there were other things.....Im now almost 80 and how iv got this far in years is beyond me.........

No gloves, metal spoon to stir, I love the reckless abandon at which you operate Sir!

When I was a kid, my dad taught me the ingredients were nitric acid and sulfuric and you could use glycerine or cotton. The formula was in his Gilbert Chemistry set manual. The reason it's called 'Gun Cotton" or Nitro Cellulose is because it was the first replacement for black powder in firearms. Current smokeless powder is a mixture of nitro cellulose and nitro glycerine with stabilizers.

Back in the mid '60's you could by nitric acid easily. Among other things it was used as a copper etchant and cleaner. A nutty friend had a container of both nitric and sulfuric on a shelf in a back workshop. One day his dad bumped the wall with the tractor and both bottles fell to the floor and broke. Wood floor. They knew enough to cut out and replace that section which had become "pithy" and had a bad smell. It sat, leaning against the side of the house for months until they finally were burning some trash. They tossed the cut flooring on the fire and wound up stomping out burning trash hundreds of feet away. With neighbors laughing the whole time.

When I was 12 years old a friend of mine introduced me to gun cotton which was easily purchased from a paint manufacturer that was just across the road. Still to this day don't know why they sold it to kids. Any way his first experiment was to fill an old paint tin with the gun cotton , put a small hole in the lid and put a length of fuse around 6ft long into it. He then had a hole around 5 ft deep and placed the tin at the bottom. Then covered the hole with a sheet of tin with fuse hanging out and covered the tin with sand and some old bricks . We then lit the fuse and rushed to the side of the house to watch. When this thing went off it was a real explosion that lifted the tin sand and bricks about 3ft in the air with the loudest bang I'd ever heard. Powerful stuff.🇦🇺

Mix gun cotton & petroleum jelly, you get Cordite. Makes the gun cotton stable. But still goes boom.

I applaud your absolute disregard for safety, sir

A college friend was a physical chemistry major, would bring the two acids home from the lab, and was making gun cotton in his dorm room. He would entertain himself by setting a gun cotton ball on top of an incandescent light bulb, and it would go "pfffttt". One day, he came down to lunch with no eyebrows. He was doing some soldering in his room and got the soldering iron too close to a good sized batch of gun cotton.

just a quick tip, if you are trying this at home, don't dry the cotton in a clothes dryer after rinsing, or if you do, make sure you have a fire extinguisher near by

For some reason, I can't help but think a Ren and Stimpy episode plot line could be made out of this ...

This is basically solid nitroglycerin. I was not aware potassium nitrate could be used in place of nitric acid (although I am aware potassium nitrate is used to manufacturer nitric acid. When I was a teenager we attempted to make nitroglycerin. I guess we were successful because it went off on us and luckily we were about 40 feet away from the reaction. Used a mixture of fuming nitric and sulferic acids and glycerin chilled in an ice water bath. Should have used dry ice because the reaction is not cooled sufficiently with ice water. In our case, the mixture went off as a fast burn like a rocket motor, did not explode. We were lucky! Made mercury fulminate too. Reckless as hell, and had a lot of fun with it. Made lots of it. It's a miracle I was not blown up and gives me the chills when I think about what could have happened. When you are a teenager you think you are invincible. Now I just realize me and my friends were just plain lucky, very lucky!

Not mentioned, but use baking soda in heated water to neutralize the remaining acids on the guncotton.

When I was visiting a history museum years ago, the fellow who was doing black smith demonstrations had some of that. He had something he'd toss in the forge and it'd flare up just like this. Interesting!

I love it! The gun cotton mixture can be used on any cellulose to make anything you would want to make burn faster! Use paper, and you can make flash paper, but use as thin as possible paper for the fastest burn rates, like tissue paper!

In my city there is a company that makes this gun cotton. About 25 years ago it was on fire. The drums with the cotton inside were flying 60m or about 200 feet in the air. The blinds of the houses next to it melted. I dont know who was there first the manufacturing or the houses. It would not be allowed to build that close to it in this time.

10:17 flash cotton be damned, I want some of that magic dissapearing cotton you have there 😂

Also called 'Pyrocellulose", in the magic industry. Used to make it in Chemistry Class, back in '59 (Yep, I'm THAT Old...!). Lol

They always taught me that it was disolved in nitric acid. It looks to me like you would need to disolve it in acetone before putting it in your spray gun!!

Dollar stores , yard sales and flea markets are great places to find old pyrex pots and pans. LONG handled wooden or bamboo spoons and tongs would be useful too. Get stuff you can just throw away when you are done. You DEFINITELY don't want to have someone come along later and try making mac and cheese in the brew pan.

I sense a Darwin award in the making.

It would have worked much better if instead of "rinsing" it with water, you neutralized the solution by adding baking soda to it and letting it sit for 20 minutes before taking the flash cotton out of the solution. You can then take the cotton out and let it sit and dry. It would combust even faster

I love the test burn table -- old PC lids make the best burn tables -- LOL

I made gun cotton when I was a young chemistry student using nitric acid. Was much messier than this. Well done, thank you

If I only had a metal tray…I know: I’ll use the access panel from my desktop computer! 😂

Great video! Imma try this! I wanted to say, I think u are so damn funny! because I can tell when u get an idea to do something,You always make this funny ass sound “HHHMMM” almost like (Homer Simpson). I am your newest subscriber! Hope you create more content! I would also like to donate to your channel if that’s possible. With love from Gulf Shores,Alabama! ~ROLL TIDE~

I know when making gun cotton you need Sulfuric acid and Nitric acid. I'm thinking the Potassium Nitrate turns into Nitric acid in solution with the sulfuric acid. I would be very careful what time of gloves you use because Nitric acid reacts violently with nitrile gloves. Like it literally makes the glove light on fire. Man when you were stirring the solution I was getting very anxious for your fingers. XD Glad you didn't get any on yourself. I was going to say next time you do this I would have a little baking soda water solution on stand by just in case you need to neutralize the acid.

Nice video. Don't understand why we had to watch the regular cotton burn lol

A hemostat to hold the gun cotton for ignition would be a good idea. Also, watching a cotton ball burn for 00:01:20 will scare away viewers; it’s okay to fast forward that stuff.

Suggestion: Use a long handled Iced Tea spoon, to keep your hand farther away from the acid.

Sometimes when I watch the news, they have stories about some random house in the suburbs blowing up. The authorities like to say it was a "gas leak". Now, I am not so sure. 🤔

In the early days of aviation we used cotton cloth, and painted it through with celliose nitrate, ( nice clear finish) , when the engine backfired, you landed right where you are, even at 1000 feet of alt

It burns a lot faster if you fluff it up.

Don't forget gauntlets, respirator, and eye protection.

Mixing it like that when its being chilled while the nitrate salt will be fully disolved it will take some heat to get it converting to nitric. I've read that heating to 70°c is sufficent. I simply just warmed the sulphuric acid up to temperature and add the saltpeter you'll lose a fraction through decomposition into Nox gas but its negligible and is the fastest method to make the nitric you need. Kinda the dame goes for the gun cotton.. chill it in ice over night... Or just do it at room temp just keep an eye on the solutions temp or if it gets too high itll start melting the cotten or possibly have runaway nitration. But this way 10 or 15m nitrating is sll it requires. If you really want to give it some more kick. While the cotton is still in the solution instead of taking it out, pour in another equal volume of frest solution. You do it right instead of cellulose trinitrate as you would have from the first pass in the solution, to cellulose hexanitrate after double nitating it... Think if that like cellulose try nitrat's bigger stronger angrier, less stable older brother

If you didn't do the "wash", what would happen? Since both components are soluble in water, wouldn't that mean the "wash" is dissolving or taking some of the reactants away?

If I esd editing this video I would edit out some of the pauses and drop the music. :) That said, great video. Now, how do you decide how much is needed to duplicate some of the old British rifle loads?

No gloves, metal spoon, no base to neutralize the chaos

I have always wondered whether or not gun cotton can be made from the cellulose solution used to make Rayon. The Rayon fibers are formed by extruding the solution into an acid bath, so why not a "mixed acid bath which would normally be used to make gun cotton. Does anyone know? My eyes are too far gone to do the experement my self

I'm glad you were using a bionic hand to hold the gun cotton when lighting it

stichometrics of solution for nitric acid is basically 1 to 1 so next time perhaps add equal parts then just enough sulfuric to liquify instead of slurry.

If this video taught me one thing, it’s that tongs are over rated.

Yes, I like the reckless abandon that you create your concoction with, but really can we do something about the background music from John Travolta‘s 1970s dance movies?

The fact it put the candle out is amusing to me for some reason. It reminds me of how they put out fires in oil wells by dropping dynamite down in them.

I got one for you- next time you're out roasting marshmallows slip a cotton ball on one of your drunk friends branch and watch the fun.

It's got a whole lot more oomph than black powder. I've seen people shoot it in their cap and balls and then the 357 magnum I'm sure it's got a hefty pressure spike. I'm gonna make some more, but this time I'm gonna try activated charcoal instead of cotton, no idea what that'll do😂😂

You know if you just add charcoal to this instead of cotton balls you have…

"Don't do this at home." "Do this in a well-ventilated area." LOL

if its in alcohol soluble its only collodium wool. its an test how high you have nitratet it. but when i see the remains its only kollodium high nitrated burns much faster. highnitrated burns in an withe flash.

Tickles my chuckle nerve.No protectives, exothermic reaction, chilled water, acting on a container constructed using one of the most common, efficient, (very efficient), insulation materials, (that will incidentaly disintergrate readily into potentially lethal shrapnel), one living, breathing, crash tester Have you used up all of your medical insurance cover yet? We have the national health, get rolled in, bagged out, wheeled out, or walk, no exit charge to either survivors or succesors.

Great video man, got my sub. I'm actually planning on making some of this soon and am gonna see if I can reload some ammo with it.

That's drain cleaner has an additive that keeps it from working well its usualy the purple color. Its supposed to keep it from burning your skin quicky if mistakes as made otherwise that cotton would go poof more quick

Reblued a cheap pistol with stump remover on a stovetop once. The finish was better than the factory finish and still lasts to this day many years later after daily carry in a very hot and humid environment. But I'll never do it again. 😂

One of these days I’m going to try that.

You shoud have golves and an acid gas cartridge respirator. You can absolutely destroy your lungs if you breathe in those fumes.

You needed to rinse the cotton more in water until they rinse clear.

That stuff would be good to have in a survival kit

I saw a video of someone using sulphuric acid and potassium nitrate with glycerin. They put a drop of the nitrated glycerin on a piece of paper and hit it with a hammer, causing it to detonate. I'm not sure if drain cleaner works for that or if you need to heat it to get the water out for fuming sulphuric acid.

To make fuses i make a saturated solution of sodium nitrate and soak butcher string in it for a few hours or overnight. Then hang up tp dry. I used to use filter paper but would burn to quick.

Your gun cotton leaves some carbon residue after it burns. Is that because the ingredients are not pure enough?

Okay. I watched the whole video hoping you were going to show us something useful to do with it, at the end. For what CAN it be used?---Anything practical or mo' bigger, mo' blasty fun??? Could it be compressed and shot with a tracer or something? Thanks

I asked the a.i. some questions about what you did here, it seems to think you were 28g short on your addition of kno3 to the equation. That is assuming your sulfuric acid is a 40% concentration.

This guy is winging it! Nice!

Bare hands is much safer than having gloves in nitration reactions. :) Use non-nitrile gloves, if you can find any.

Is there a way to make musket cartridges with gun cotton and metal BBs?

I jumped when you lite them like I was doing it myself lmao 😅

Reminds me if 8thgrade. 1968.good old days

Ignore detractors. I enjoyed it. Just glad my sons are grown and didn't see it in their young and crazy days.

Paladin Press published a book "Improvised Explxsives" by Seymour Lecher. His was sulphuric axid and acetone mixture.

Dried extracted wood cellulose became the preferred feedstock for industrial production.

Gordon's tree stump remover and tsp in proper proportions... paired with a cap will make a loud noise

Nice to see you still *_had_* a thumb with which to give a "thumbs up" at the end of the vid! 😅

Gun cotton and flash paper; lots of fun to make. One important thing is to not let the mixture dry in the glassware with the cellulose in it; getting it out is... difficult. Well, that's a lie, getting it out and keeping the glassware intact is the challenge. I was soaking tissue paper to make flash paper, left it in the mixture with a beaker full of water holding the tissue in the solution to soak, then got busy doing something else. When I got back to it, it was a dry glass/nitrocellulose/glass sandwich. The rest I leave to your imagination.

Can this be done with a whole tee shirt or a pair of jeans? Maybe a canvas tent?

I asked the a.i. some questions about what you did here, it seems to think you were 28g short on your addition of kno3 to the equation. That is assuming your sulfuric acid is a 40% concentration. This might explain why your flash cotton is, uh, kinda slow.

Why not just shred the cotton at the start? Wouldn't it also nitrate easier and evenly. Or is there a reason not to?

If only metal spoons could be nitrated... 😂 In all honesty, the stabilizers in the drain cleaner likely keep the spoon from being attacked too much.

Interesting/Fun - Thanks ! 😎👍

What is the mixture of drain cleaner to sulfuric acid

Ok I got tired of reading the replies from the safety "officers" and didn't see what I was looking for and yeah I know I am a year too late to the party also. However I noticed that unlike most gun/flash cotton this leaves a bit of ash and I was wondering if this ash could be eliminated (or mostly eliminated) using the same method and chemicals but with a few modifications such as maybe a longer soak time? More thorough rinsing? Maybe a different ratio of the chemicals? Or are we just stuck with needing fuming nitric acid and the traditional methods to make ashless flash cotton/paper? In any case an extremely interesting video and if I am going to have to just put up with a bit of ash then so be it, it's worth it to not have to go to the hassles with obtaining and using concentrated nitric acid, thanks al lot!

Of what value is this stuff? What do you use it for? Can it be used for an explosive? Or is it something like a science type project that wasn't really used for anything.

Okay, Mr. No-Eyebrows - show us your work! What's the reaction formula - in full?

Work it into a tight string. Wrap it around something wooden, a pencil maybe, wrapping it in a spiral then ignite it.

Is this how Walter white got started???!!😂😂

I thought I saw a few flaming hairs. One looked like it went east, then a trail of smoke going north. LOL

Think possibly if your water bath had been colder and cotton left in the acid longer the results would be even better. Faster and brighter flash and virtually no ash. Using fuming HNO3 works better but may raise some eyebrows on purchase if indeed you could get it! Gloves, and a glass stirrer may also be recommended!!

A short spoon and no gloves. I'm sure you probably didn't bother with those silly safety glasses either, right?

"...just a few household chemicals mixed in the proper proportion." ~ Colonel Hannibal Smith

I'm watching this specifically to elevate the blood cortisol levels of my FBI agent.

This is a truly useful video

Does sulfuric acid taste like super acid pickles or rotten eggs since ppe is not required ?

Gun cotton is tough on barrels if used instead of black powder. Black powder is corrosive enough but gun cotton? Have a spare barrel laying around.

Why did my cotton melt in the cleaning process and the rest dried without any nitrification

You missed that gun cotton explodes when hit with a hammer

when i added sodium nitrate nothing happend :/ i think my drain cleaner contains sulfuric acid but idk it’s slightly greyish and when i added water it made a huge cloud of smoke

I'm guessing this formula could be used to make magician flash paper.

What would this be good for? I can't think of a single thing tbh

This guy is having way to much fun with his gun cotton ! Shortly after this video his nickname was "lefty " 😂😂

I found a formula for making a plastic explosive back in the 60's using gun cotton and something else I forgot so I never made any.

I am going to have to download this stuff so that I will have it incase it has been tacken down and if i need it

Wow, at first i thought, yeah but I can't buy these ingredients in Australia.... Sulfuric acid is available as pool cleaner and yup, a company here will ship you potassium nitrate as stump remover, which BTW can be used to make black powder with sulfur and good quality charcoal.... not that anyone should try any of this.