I used to "do" the thermite reaction when teaching secondary chemistry. It's actually a bugger to get the stuff to ignite. You have to stick a length of magne

I used to "do" the thermite reaction when teaching secondary chemistry. It's actually a bugger to get the stuff to ignite. You have to stick a length of magnesium ribbon into the mixture, and I'd usually make a little well of magnesium powder that this would feed into. Then I'd use a Bunsen burner to ignite the ribbon, as often my lighter wasn't hot enough to ignite the ribbon unless I'd sandpapered the ribbon first to remove the oxide layer.