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The one explosive they mention by name as "unstable" is actually a pretty professional primary for specialist applications. Easy to synthesize from common mater
by jandrewrogers 2y ago
The one explosive they mention by name as "unstable" is actually a pretty professional primary for specialist applications. Easy to synthesize from common materials but not trivial for amateurs to make usable. In addition to being entirely unworkable as a main high-explosive it also tends to rapidly decompose (benignly) when in contact with many common metals and poor storage, so shelf-life can be an issue.
- Hilift 2y agoIt's stable when pure. This guy made his own, and lost three fingers in the process. It seems to have developed a reputation with suicide bombers, probably due to the illusion of easy manufacture.
- jandrewrogers 2y agoThe articles I’ve seen do not imply he lost his fingers working with it. I’ve also never seen it associated with suicide bombers, you may be thinking of acetone peroxide chemistries (e.g. TATP), which are common low-grade explosives used by terrorists. Also highly inadvisable, TATP is a pretty shit explosive in almost all aspects (low power, low stability). Someone stupid enough to be using TATP should not be using HMTD, as the latter requires more discipline than TATP. There is a technical gap between making HMTD and processing it into a form that can actually be used in practical explosive systems.
- littlestymaar 2y ago> The one explosive they mention by name as "unstable" is actually a pretty professional primary There's no contradiction here, the main characteristic of a primary is it's (relative) instability.