acetylene or carbon producing gas question

Spelunkers use carbide lamps, that generate acetylene from carbide and water, and burn it right there.

You ought to be able to generate it in small quantities; the best way may be to buy a lamp with some carbide, and experiment.

If you blow yourself up it isn't my fault.

I used a carbide miner's lamp for many years to produce soot on the front sight of my competition pistol. I drilled out the orifice with a #80 drill bit (twirl it by hand) causing the gas/air mix to produce a sooty flame. The first 2 links take you to suppliers of new lamps and the 3rd link shows an offering on ebay.

Calcium carbide is used to manufacture acetelyne gas, so you could try a local gas supplier to obtain a handful of carbide. Altenatively, the lamp suppliers offer carbide in larger quantities.

Cheers.

MAPP is available in little bottles at the hardware store for use in Bernzomatic torches. It produces smoke identical to acetylene, as far as I can tell, when burned alone in an Acetylene/Oxygen torch.

Jon

you might try a wax candle, a burning piece of plastic, and so on - do this outside, see which one makes the kind of smoke you want