Black
Match, Crossmatch
& Quickmatch

"Black
Match" is simply a cotton string covered with Black Powder.
When a small
piece of Black Match is inserted in a length of Japanese Time Fuse, it's then
called "Crossmatch".
If Black Match is covered in a thin paper tube, it burns
hundreds of times faster than normal and is called "Quickmatch".
All in all,
Crossmatch, Black Match & Quickmatch are all essentially the same, and are
made from lengths of cotton string covered with Black Powder.

Manufacture

To make Black
Match, you're going to need 3 things: A plastic container with a snap-on lid, a
1/8" drill bit, some Meal Powder (which is just very finely powdered Black
Powder), Cotton String, and a little Dextrin.
Make sure you get Cotton
string, not nylon or any other synthetic material. The string must be Cotton and
must be able to absorb water quickly. The best you can get will be from a fabric
store. They usually sell unbleached Cotton string, which is by far the
best thing to use... although ordinary white Cotton string will work
fine.
Make sure the string is less than 1/8" diameter. The ideal string is
about 1/16" Cotton String, although any size under 1/8" can be used.

The first thing to
do is to drill a 1/8" hole in the lid to your plastic container. Don't just poke
a hole through the lid, the hole must be a clean, smooth 1/8" hole free of
burrs.

Pour 50 grams
of Meal Powder and 10 grams of Dextrin into your plastic
container.

While stirring,
add a little water at a time until the mixture forms a runny paste ( about the
consistency of ordinary Ketchup ).

Cut a 3 foot
length of Cotton string and carefully coil it into the Meal Powder paste,
pushing it down into the mixture until it is completely covered.

Thread the other
end of the string through the 1/8" hole in the plastic lid. Leave about 2 "
sticking out of the hole.

Snap the lid on
the container, and set the whole thing on the ground.

Slowly,
pull the string through the hole, and it will emerge perfectly
coated.

Using some tape,
or better yet a thumb tack, attach the coated string to an overhang to dry. It's
very sticky & messy while wet, so be careful not to let it touch anything
until it's dry.

After a couple of
days, your Black Match will be dry and quite stiff. Cut off a small length and
test it outside. It will catch fire easily when lit, and burn just like a
fuse.
If you take a longer length of Black Match and cover it in a thin,
tight paper tube, you'll find that it burns much faster. This is known as
Quickmatch.
The faster burning is due to the pressure increase inside the
tube. As the Black Match burns, hot gasses and flame build up in the tube and is
forced down the length of the thin paper tube at high speed. Some commercial
Quickmatch can burn at almost 500 feet per second.