Sciencemadness Discussion Board

ETN detonation method experiments

Jebby - 9-5-2021 at 08:40

I was experimenting with ways to set of ETN and I found that 1g of ETN in a little 8 to 16 layer heavy duty aluminum foil cup with 1 crushed sparkler on top and a sparkler as a fuse works pretty damn good. I don’t know how much the 1 crushed up sparkler weighs, but if anyone is interested I could weigh out how much I used.

I’m also kinda new here so sorry if I should have posted this somewhere else I just want to give back to the community if I can.

If anyone has experience or suggestions for me to try I will because I have a lot of ETN to test with.

MineMan - 9-5-2021 at 10:28

This is well known. ETN responds well to heat shock when molten

Jebby - 9-5-2021 at 10:56

I know that it is know that ETN detonates with thermal shock I just wanted to share my method

kweiny - 6-6-2021 at 23:01

Okay so i am pretty new on here and got about half a year worth of experience with explosives and pyrotechnics. Right now i am still working on precursors for upcomming projects.

That being said i am working on a detonator that can set of most explosives like RDX, Ammonal, ANFO, ...
and i was wondering if ETN would work? If so: Is there a fairly reliable way to detonate it? Jebby mentioned crushed sparklers.

I hope this was the right place to post this :)

MineMan - 7-6-2021 at 00:19

Quote: Originally posted by kweiny  
Okay so i am pretty new on here and got about half a year worth of experience with explosives and pyrotechnics. Right now i am still working on precursors for upcomming projects.

That being said i am working on a detonator that can set of most explosives like RDX, Ammonal, ANFO, ...
and i was wondering if ETN would work? If so: Is there a fairly reliable way to detonate it? Jebby mentioned crushed sparklers.

I hope this was the right place to post this :)


I don’t think anybody wants to answer this.

XeonTheMGPony - 7-6-2021 at 03:43

Quote: Originally posted by kweiny  
Okay so i am pretty new on here and got about half a year worth of experience with explosives and pyrotechnics. Right now i am still working on precursors for upcomming projects.

That being said i am working on a detonator that can set of most explosives like RDX, Ammonal, ANFO, ...
and i was wondering if ETN would work? If so: Is there a fairly reliable way to detonate it? Jebby mentioned crushed sparklers.

I hope this was the right place to post this :)


there is 100 years worth of theory and practical knowledge on this forum on just ETN alone, I suggest reading.

MineMan - 7-6-2021 at 04:49

Quote: Originally posted by kweiny  
Okay so i am pretty new on here and got about half a year worth of experience with explosives and pyrotechnics. Right now i am still working on precursors for upcomming projects.

That being said i am working on a detonator that can set of most explosives like RDX, Ammonal, ANFO, ...
and i was wondering if ETN would work? If so: Is there a fairly reliable way to detonate it? Jebby mentioned crushed sparklers.

I hope this was the right place to post this :)


I don’t think anybody wants to answer this.

kweiny - 7-6-2021 at 05:26

Sorry for asking then.
Tried searching for etn as keyword and didnt really find much. I guess i will just have to read through everything then...

Thanks anyways

XeonTheMGPony - 8-6-2021 at 04:27

Search on the web ETN + Science madness

Pyro_cat - 9-6-2021 at 17:22

I want to try heat shocking it with my chlorate Al mix, it popped quite nicely with the foil and torch method.

I don't know what would happen. The foil and torch method was tricky.

Thinking maybe soda can thickness Al might be the way to go so the etn melts before the fire hits it, that flash heats so much quicker then the torch and heating to quick with the torch was a fail.

[Edited on 10-6-2021 by Pyro_cat]

twelti - 1-7-2021 at 10:39

Quote: Originally posted by kweiny  
Sorry for asking then.
Tried searching for etn as keyword and didnt really find much. I guess i will just have to read through everything then...

Thanks anyways

I can't believe you didn't find copious threads on ETN? There are many here! I wonder how you have the "chops" to make ETN, but are using sparklers (really?!) to detonate it. I'd suggest spending some quality time reviewing posts here, starting with "Life after detonation". There are some primaries that are much better than sparklers to initiate you ETN. Not hard to make either. Wessonsmith had some detailed information on NHN for example.

Search for example "your favorite blasting cap design", "NHN", "your favorite primary".

kweiny - 1-7-2021 at 13:24

Quote: Originally posted by twelti  
Quote: Originally posted by kweiny  
Sorry for asking then.
Tried searching for etn as keyword and didnt really find much. I guess i will just have to read through everything then...

Thanks anyways

I can't believe you didn't find copious threads on ETN? There are many here! I wonder how you have the "chops" to make ETN, but are using sparklers (really?!) to detonate it. I'd suggest spending some quality time reviewing posts here, starting with "Life after detonation". There are some primaries that are much better than sparklers to initiate you ETN. Not hard to make either. Wessonsmith had some detailed information on NHN for example.

Search for example "your favorite blasting cap design", "NHN", "your favorite primary".


Just to clarify: I found quite a few threads but it was not what I was looking for. After trying the method to google sciencemadness + keyword I did find a lot better results.
Also I did not use Sparklers to detonate ETN. I never used Sparklers in any project and I dont even have ETN yet.
I think you are mixing something up here and yeah, I saw the NHN method but I keep myself from doing anything that has something to do with toxic compounds/fumes until i get my fume hood set up. Still looking around though so thanks for the advice!

MineMan - 1-7-2021 at 15:06

My favorite way to detonate ETN is to weld a steel plate 1 inch think onto my cattle guard on my truck. I simply tape the ETN to the plate with submarine industrial tape. I then ram into walls at no less the. 45 miles per hour. So far, it has worked 34 out of 34 times!

Herr Haber - 2-7-2021 at 00:43

If you can make RDX surely you can find a better way to set off ETN than by thermal shock.
Sparklers... ffs...
If you worry about toxicity of reagents for NHN, than you might aswell forget RDX.

Average Joe - 3-7-2021 at 06:54

Quote: Originally posted by MineMan  
My favorite way to detonate ETN is to weld a steel plate 1 inch think onto my cattle guard on my truck. I simply tape the ETN to the plate with submarine industrial tape. I then ram into walls at no less the. 45 miles per hour. So far, it has worked 34 out of 34 times!

A bit like reactive armour. I bet the sweet spot is around 88 mph like in BTTF.

kick_ass - 25-8-2021 at 10:48

Do sparkles fully initiate ETN ?

And what sparkles do people refer to, the metal rod sparkle you hold in hand or the nitrocellulose in hard paper sparkle you hold in hand?