Amen. You have to stay away from that toxic commercialisation. It messes with your brain and stalls your progress in any hobby.

I think one of the best things about arts, crafts, sports, music and the like is that it has a built in resistance to that kind of commercial takeover. Having good pens will not make you better at art, good shoes won’t make you better at soccer, a fancier gym won’t give you bigger muscles. These things come from hard work, perseverance, dedication. You can’t buy skill no matter goes much money you have, I love that.

Any art or craft or sport is pretty much free when you weigh up the hours vs the outlay required.

Except skiing and motorsports. That eats money.

I think that was potassium-permanganate and sugar. It was one of the saner recipes ( who really wants to blow their face off or smoke banana skins ) with somewhat easily available ingredients.

It was legit. But the temperature window between melting the ingredients together and igniting it was very narrow. We did what your friend did, we made the smoke bomb and also set it off in one go.

Your friend must’ve been in a while ton of shit.