Ohio Blue Tips

[vacek]

A good day.  I was helping my sister pack since she is moving.  Found and was given a whole box of Ohio Blue Tips.   

[gypsyman]

If their the strike anywhere match's, be careful that kids don't get ahold of them. If their the strike on box, a little safer. When I was growing up, and mom and dad went to Canada for a fishing trip, use to take the strike anywhere match's, and melt candle wax on the head. Store them in a prescription pill bottle. That way when we left fishing camp, and stayed in the bush, always had dry match's to start a fire. gypsyman

[Pat/Rick]

I always thought the "blue tips" were the best. A small variety chain store here in So. WA and No OR called Bi-Mart carries the Diamond brand of strike anywhere matches so that is what I use.
  Yep, melted parrafin for waterproofing works well and I've used that method for decades. I also use various match safes, form the old Marble's copies, to the GI copies sold at wally world, to my new favorites; the ones made of brass with the Silva compass on the lid. Ben's backwoods carries them last I knew. Cabelas still might, but I'd have to look.  I've used a varity of items for match storage though. For the "kitchen" when camping I use an empty plastic spice bottle. Been known to use 35mm film containers to old pill bottles. A small piece of wet/dry sand paper epoxied to the outside gives you a good place to get a spark.
 

[vacek]

Boys, I'm 60 years old.   I'm glad that as a kid I had total access to strike anywhere's.  They were fun in lots of ways for a boy.....  shooting them out of a BB gun,  yes waxing some up for my kit .... killing the odor in the outhouse .... scraping off a bunch of heads to make some "fireworks". ....  O, and we also used them to start fires.  No boy complained about taking out the trash when I was a kid cause you got to dump the trash in the big 50 gallon barrel in your backyard next to the alley then light it up.  The marshmallows had a funky taste though ....  Kid's are getting "safety'd" out of a lot of fun.  They will probably have a forum when they ar 60 on their good ole days at Starbucks.

[Spector]

I'm 64 and those stories put a smile on my face.
 
I recall when CO2 tubes were blued steel with a lead slug seal in the end.  You could bore out the lead slug just enough to get a strike anywhere match tip into the hole.  Push in a little and then break off the stick from the chemical tip. 
 
A friend did this and launched his homemade rocket.  It was impressive so he tried it again.  This time when it was just partially filled (thank God) a match head ignited while he was filling it.  I still recall his howling and that CO2 tube banging off the concrete block walls.  My friend wound up with some nasty looking 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his hand after hot ignited match heads ejected out the back onto his fingers.
 
Later I thought I was smarter so i took a razor blade and just cut the light blue tips off and continued to cut up the pile until it resembled a powder.  I loaded a small rocket motor and was fine until I started glazingg the packed match heads by trying to form a hollow chamber in the center.  It exploded and I received blood blisters for my trouble. 
 
Nothing exceeded that experience until I had a catastrophic case failure in my Glock 21 back in May.
 
I can still remember the day when my dad and I were in his fishing boat and his pocket began to smoke and my dad began to cuss and dance beat on his pocket.  I don't know why he had so many strike anywhere matches in his pocket.  He always hated safety matches.   Smile.......Mike

[Gun Runner]

Not blue tip matchs, but raleys/belair markets in N. cal carry a brand of strike anywhere matches. Cant find any blue tips any more, but grew up with them.

[ironglow]

Nwer 'strike anywhere' matches do work..but not nearly as good as the old 'strike anywhere' matches.  Probably because the tip, which does the striking , is very small as compared to the old ones, and even then doesn't seem to have the same "flash power"...just my 2 pennies.

[blind ear]

The white strike anywhere match tips would make fair cap gun ammo in a desperate situation. ear

[45-70.gov]

i  once read an  article
about re-builting primer with strike any where matches


then they re-laoded  a 44 mag,,,,, using the matche heads  for powder  too


they  got  approx  44 special  performance...if i recall correctly


it would be much  easier to just stock up on primers tho

[Pat/Rick]

Interesting about the reloading with them. I am now wondering if a small amount of the match heads, wetted to a thick slurry could be used to reprime rimfire cartridges? Hmmmm.

[45-70.gov]

Interesting about the reloading with them. I am now wondering if a small amount of the match heads, wetted to a thick slurry could be used to reprime rimfire cartridges? Hmmmm.

maybe  to prime and charge  in  one step


you  got a heal crimp  mold  the cast them??


could  load a revolver shweatzen style?

[Gun Runner]

Some where I have the instructions for using match heads to make primers and loads for (I think) 44 and 308 cals. Will see ifin I can find it and try to post it.

Gun Runner

[ironglow]

  I believe those tips are fulminate of mercury..

[lakota]

Interesting about the reloading with them. I am now wondering if a small amount of the match heads, wetted to a thick slurry could be used to reprime rimfire cartridges? Hmmmm.

There was a write up in Backwoodsman Magazine a while back about this. It sounded easily done.

[sidewinder319]

When I was a pup 50 years ago a friends folks had a Civil War musket hanging over the fire place. The old gun had been in the farm house for generations. One Sunday morning the boys got it down and were firing match heads on the nipple. The old gun fired striking one brother in the leg. He spent the rest of his life a cripple. He may have been the last man wounded by a Civil War Mini Ball.

[spooked]

Interesting about the reloading with them. I am now wondering if a small amount of the match heads, wetted to a thick slurry could be used to reprime rimfire cartridges? Hmmmm.

There was a write up in Backwoodsman Magazine a while back about this. It sounded easily done.

Easy as in "simple", but hard as in "tedious".

[vacek]

Spector,
 
Those empty CO2 cartridges were awesome if you had a little imagination.  Here is what I did .... once.....  I reamed out the hole and filled it up with black powder. I then emptied an unfired 16 or 12 guage shotshell and pushed the cylinder in hole first so it would be next to the primer.  I then used a couple layers of masking tape to form "fletching" on the end.  A BB was glued to the primer.  I then threw it at a nice long arc out onto our paved street.  I worked perfectly. A really nice kaboom that caused a little neighborly commotion.  I had a good hiding spot so no one was the wiser.  I guess I'm a little wiser now, and wouldn't do that, but when you are 12 ... Well.....

[blind ear]

Spector,
 
Those empty CO2 cartridges were awesome if you had a little imagination.  Here is what I did .... once.....  I reamed out the hole and filled it up with black powder. I then emptied an unfired 16 or 12 guage shotshell and pushed the cylinder in hole first so it would be next to the primer.  I then used a couple layers of masking tape to form "fletching" on the end.  A BB was glued to the primer.  I then threw it at a nice long arc out onto our paved street.  I worked perfectly. A really nice kaboom that caused a little neighborly commotion.  I had a good hiding spot so no one was the wiser.  I guess I'm a little wiser now, and wouldn't do that, but when you are 12 ... Well.....

You gave me a great idea! (Hey, yall watch this!) I'm 61 and hope I get older. ear
PS: do you know how to make water proof fuse? 

[anachronism]

Remanufacturing primers:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7nphPRG6JA

This information is also in the military "Improvised Munitions Handbook".

[Empty Quiver]

Spector,
 
Those empty CO2 cartridges were awesome if you had a little imagination.  Here is what I did .... once.....  I reamed out the hole and filled it up with black powder. I then emptied an unfired 16 or 12 guage shotshell and pushed the cylinder in hole first so it would be next to the primer.  I then used a couple layers of masking tape to form "fletching" on the end.  A BB was glued to the primer.  I then threw it at a nice long arc out onto our paved street.  I worked perfectly. A really nice kaboom that caused a little neighborly commotion.  I had a good hiding spot so no one was the wiser.  I guess I'm a little wiser now, and wouldn't do that, but when you are 12 ... Well.....

We led remarkably similar chilhoods.   I cut shotgun shells apart to fill the CO2 cartridge. Ignition was much simpler though, a punk stick tied to a long fire cracker fuse. That sucker blew apart the wood pile and landed us a stearn warning from mom. It had been a summer of explosive escalation, match head cannons to the improvised pipe bombs. We used everything from match heads, lighter fluid, gas, opened .22 rounds, shotshells you name it. No doubt would have been considered a felon and terrorist by todays standards.

[vacek]

This one is for all you boys.  Its a poem I wrote a couple of years ago about growing up in a small town.  Hope you like it.
 
 
 A Town for Boys – Alleys and Vacant Lots        
Any day, when boys run free
Pocketknife … loaded Daisy
Levis, Keds, an old t-shirt
Early morning rise, a glass of milk
Grab some cold bologne, and slip out the door
Ready for the alley safari.

The Alley, a place and a time 2 generations past
Sparrow and tin can fair game
Stalking quietly, the yellow jacket’s lair
Slowly, carefully taking aim.
Every safari has its dangerous time
But without risk the adventure is lame
---------------------------------------------------
Any day, when boys run free
A hike to the junkyard … Got knife? Daisy?
A quick drink from the hose, before starting the trip
A mile west from the schoolyard  …  stop for a pee.
Turn north to the smell and smolder
 Ready for the junkyard safari
The Junkyard, a place and a time 2 generations past
Rat and glass jar fair game
Keeping a sharp eye for a snake in the weeds
Sneak up on one, carefully taking aim.
Every safari has its dangerous time,
But without risk the adventure is lame
--------------------------------------------------
Any day, when boys run free
Walking the track … in a baseball cap …  the Daisy
Pick up some spikes; lay a penny on the rail
Flattened by the mail train, when it passes at 3:00.
One hour heading west with the wind in your face
Hitch a ride back because you’re late … then face Mom’s fury

The track, a place and a time 2 generations past
A quarter to the city, one-way
A soda at the Corner Drug, a swim at City Park
Back to the depot at 5:00, the train won’t delay
Another quarter will get you home
To the end of a great summer’s day
--------------------------------------------------
Any day, when boys run free,
Over to the vacant lot for a look-see
To join a game of round-up … start in right field
Catch a fly ball and you’re batting for free
Hit as many as you can
Before flying out or getting called out at strike three

The Vacant Lot, a place and a time 2 generations past
We always played a fair game
Whether it was football or baseball, your age mattered not
What mattered … you are there ... that you came.
And so what if it was “tackle” without any pads
Without risk the game was too lame.
-------------------------------------------
Any day when a man’s mind roams free,
He goes back home in his memory
And whispers a prayer of thanks for that time and that place
Now two generations past  ….  For the friends and his family
And those times with his friends still play in his mind
When he and the boys all ran free.
 

[sidewinder319]

Damn I love that post.

[blind ear]

+1, ear

[Spector]

When my brother and I were kids our parents would buy us salt peter, sulfur and once even a large brown jar of powdered charcoal for our birthdays, which were just two days apart.  Today we would be on a Homeland Security watch list.  My parents were questioned at times by drug store employees as to what their intention was. 
 
They just told the truth and said they had sons who like to make homemade rockets and stuff.  Apparently they received some disapproving looks, but, God bless them, it never deterred them from getting the chemicals they knew my brother and I wanted. 
 
Usually I just ground charcoal in a short steel coffee can using an old valve stem chucked in our drill press.  Never really occured to me that might be a bad idea and I ground some superfine black powder in those days. 
 
My bombs usually ended fizzling in those days and my rockets blew up.  Got the neighborhood's attention more than once when the sound wave hit the back of the brick covered Catholic high school that was adjacent to our yard.  That recurring echo was fantastic and brought the neighborhood to their backdoors on more than one occasion.  Although we'd try to act nonchalant the smoke was always a give-away.
 
Then we switched to making hydrogen filled ballons.....sending them aloft with firecrackers and delayed fuses.  Remember the big round ballons we got as kids in the 50's and 60's.  I had one anchored in our workshop.  It would have easily blown out the garage windows.  My dad was remodeling our house at the time and he walked out there with some jagged steel and popped it.  He had lit cigar in his mouth.
 
It had taken multiple bottles of lye water and aluminum to get that ballon inflated so big and I hated to lose that one, but I was more relieved that nothing blew.
 
Remember match guns?  Those disassembled spring type clothes pins that we'd reassemble the springs in and then wrap the ends together with a rubber band.  When it was done right the thing held a ''strike anywhere'' match lightly until the spring was pulled like a trigger.....launching and at the same time igniting the match.  We had some great battles with those things. 
 
I remember once hitting a guy behind the ear while the chemicals on the head were still burning.  It stuck.  Or the night-time battle near Halloween when a fellow caught one under his arm pit.  I would have thought his well washed hooded sweatshirt would have been too moist to ignite, but after a few minutes it became a glowing hot spot that was only revealed when he raised his arm and hollered.  We hit the ground in laughter over that one.
 
We had a corn field directly behind our home. The school property began at the corner of our yard.  Two horse lots over a quarter mile long next to the corn field and then woods and Silver Creek.  Hard to say how many days we spent swinging on vines in the woods. 
 
I wasn't allowed to have a BB gun.  You got it.......Mom said I would put my eye out.  But I had my slingshot loaded with marbles.  It helped to be the local marble champion.  I was deadly with that thing.  Finally got a pellet pistol in the 8th grade.
 
Great memories that I wish my son could have experienced......but times changed.  My grandkids are really missing out.......Mike

[vacek]

Spector, its a miracle we survived.....  Yep I had a chemistry set in the garage and we did our best to make some blackpowder... even tried the stale urine addition to up the nitrate.  We never really got good results since we didn't really understand the need for really good mixing.  However, the stuff smell bad enough to forego the explosion.    Good thing we didn't have Google and Forums back then.  Could have made us really dangerous with the extra knowledge.
 
 

[reliquary]

I haven't looked at this thread for a while, but remembered it today when I found my old emergency match storage box in a seldom-used corner of the old rucksack.  These are at least 35 years old and some of them still work.
 
If I told you that the instructions for making black powder are in Foxfire 5, pages 246-247, would you report me to Homeland Security?

[vacek]

Yep, I have that Foxfire book.  Glad you found some matches.
 
A good memory was the day we were doing some welding using Oxygen and Propane (instead of acetyene).  We were by some gated irrigation pipe and as usual there was a cottontail inside one.  My cousin and I closed off all of the gates and then stuffed our shirts in as far as possible at both ends.  Then we open up one gate and started filling the pipe with the gas mix.  Then we lit it.  A nice boom and the shirts blew out of both ends along with the cottontail which laid there about 5-6 feet away from the opening he exited.  We assumed he was dead an went back to work.  A few minutes later he got up and staggered away.
 
Then there was the time we froze a rattlesnake with some propane gas.
 
I digress.

[Cornbelt]

As long as we're on the subject of "do-it-yourself weaponry, I'll tell you about a novel gernade some "friends" used to make.
 Wait till night.
 Put some rocks in a quart jar.
 Climb up to the eaves and put it over a paper wasp's nest, scraping it off w/the lid.
 Next day while you're playing war games, shake it up and throw it.
  Won't make as much a boom as a howl, but it get's 'em out of hiding.
 
 
   Last time I checked, you could get Ohio Blue Tips at Lehmans' Non-Electric in Kidron, OH.
   (The tip is potassium perchlorate)

[vacek]

Cornbelt,
 
That's a new one.  And a better choice than ours.  We always cleared out the foxholes in the BB gun wars with cherry bombs.  That wasp tactic is pure genius.
 
As to Lehmans. I get their catalogs but haven't seen the Blue Tips.  I will look again, and also when I say my prayers tonight will thank the good Lord we didn't seriously hurt anyone including ourselves back in the day.  Great for grins now, but I shudder to think........