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16 Comments

1. What a waste of dynamite.

2. I wonder, what purpose tamping serves. If the charge is covered, at proper depth, even if you just applied hand pressure around the charge to keep it snug and in place, shouldn’t that be enough? To me, tamping around 50% nitro seems a bit risky. Then again, I am not versed in demolitions like you described. Interesting article though.

3. Amazon pulled the book. No longer available. Don’t want us conservatives to have that sort of knowledge, lest we have some muscle to go after the rest of the internet LEFTists who deplatform conservative speech as HATE.

   1. Yes, Democrats are the enemy we know. But Republicans are the enemy we sleep with.

      Amazon made an $11 billion profit and paid no federal taxes. In fact it received a $100 million rebate! It’s called corporatism, a fancy name for fascism. Guess which party wrote the laws creating Big Corporate, its tax indulgences and granted its special protections.

      Corporations are not normal natural businesses. They are a creation of government. They are granted special protections. Does ‘corporate personhood’ and ‘limited liability’ sound natural to free enterprise? Ha. Try taking Amazon to court. Do you honestly think Jeff Bezos would see the inside of a jail? What a joke. He is protected. He has no skin in the game. Corporate CEO’s are a government-created-protected class.

4. If you do not tamp the charge to contain the explosion for a micro second the power of the explosion will be much less as the expanding gasses will exit the hole instead of applying the force against the sides of the rock or stump or what ever you are trying to move or remove. A good example of the increase in gas pressure is the difference in recoil between firing a blank cartridge and firing a regular cartridge. I get a kick out of watching movies where they tie large quantities of dynamite to bridge supports etc. to rob the train. look up info on shaped charges, they will get the job done with far less dynamite and are less dangerous as the force is directed directly where it is needed. As always know what you are doing with the tools you use, good article about a labor saving method.

5. I almost forgot to make mention of a way to deal with old weeping dynamite. The liquid leaking from the dynamite is actually the nitroglycerin, and is very unstable. A man named Nobel figure out how to stabilize this unstable liquid and hence the first Nobel Prizes in science were started. Basically the Nitro is mixed with fullers clay and this creates a much more stable explosive. I once found my self with about 20 cases of old weeping sticks of dynamite at a mine I was hired to run. Upon advice from the underground mining engineer I bought a bunch of sawdust from a local saw mill and donning rubber gloves we rolled the sticks in the sawdust to absorb the nitro. We then took the sawdust and saturated cardboard cases out to a cleared area and burned the whole mess with the exception of the dynamite sticks which we used in the mine. Because of the lessened quantity of nitro available they charged the holes with about twice as many sticks as normal. Thus we got rid of the old dynamite and got some useful work out of it.

6. I gotta admit that the most fun I had in Infantry Officer’s Basic Course at Ft Benning was Engineer Week, when we got to blow stuff up. C4, Det Cord, clackers and blasting caps. Ah the memories.

7. Gone are the days when all you needed was a drivers license. Need bigger holes, use ammonium nitrate.

8. Hmm, brings back memories of demo class yrs ago, shaped charges, det cord, and military dynamite. Class room time and then field training time, the last example the instructor showed for us was how to take down a 3 to 4 ft dia tree, the right way and the wrong way. the wrong way did a beautiful job of taking off the bark and the right way ( 3 sets of charges in the ground in 3 places around the tree, with 3/4 less explosives ). That was interesting. that was a looonnngg time ago

9. While attending my sons college graduation in Colorado last year i walked by one of the colleges pickups which said advanced demolitions and explosives. I didnt know they had a course for that!!!! Guess it makes sense though its still a needed commodity.

10. I used a lot of C-4 during the Gulf War to destroy Iraqi weapons and Ammo. Crimping the blasting cap is probably the most dangerous part of the process. Make sure you wear good eye protection, gloves and hold it away from your body and turn your head away when making the crimp. I Have been looking at different regulations and it appears in my state you can by so much once a year for personal use with little hassle.

    In the future I may be Lucky enough to attend a blaster’s class.

    Can’t remember for sure but I believe one of JWR’s books discuss how to procure legal explosives for survival purposes. Think it was How to Survive TEOTWAWKI.

    1. Survivors [JWR book] has Molotov Cocktails recipe and how to protect yourself in the making. Also, Patriots demonstrates how to blow a home to Kingdom-come. Excellent reads… Thanks JWR for all your work!

11. I have lived in FL most of my life, but my mother was from E. TN. Her father worked in construction and always had a case or two of dynamite, which was a very useful tool in the mountains. The CCCs trained him to use explosives and as a stone cutter back during the Great Depression. After he passed, the family was cleaning out his shop up on the hill and sure enough, there were a couple of cases that hadn’t been touched in decades… Which gave the local PD a chance to try out their new robot… They were willing and able to safely dispose of the dynamite…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps

12. [That book is] still available on eBay. They can’t stop the signal…

13. My grandfather taught me how to make dynamite and caps, and taught me how to crack boulders and stumps. Back then the cops didn’t care like they do now. Caps are touchy things to press, and at least 1 in 10 would blow while in the press. Got my first drink after moving a case of sweaty dynamite and the bottom dropped out of the wooden crate. Grandpa and I spent the rest of the afternoon getting hammered. We burnt the sticks the next day.

    The safety rules limit the death and destruction when you have your accident. And it is WHEN, and not IF you have an accident. You never know what might sensitize the explosive and set it off. I self trained in improvised weapons and explosives when I was a helicopter crewchief/aerial observer. That job could get you down behind enemy lines in a hurry. Knowing how to fight, hide, and survive are much needed skills. If you’re still in the service, stick your nose in in those books!

14. Exudation that has leaked onto the floor of a storage facility is safely cleaned up using acetone. If nitro has leaked(exudated) and crystallized, friction or heat will detonate. Water applied will make it safe to move to disposal site.

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