I don't want to scare anyone away from making their own, but I do want to share my own experiences in doing so. I ordered about a pound of sodium chlorite powder, technical grade about a year ago, and made my own solution.

Everything went well but I will share the following for anyone who is considering it:

The dry sodium chlorite powder/crystals can be very dangerous. I have heard that it can be explosive if it contacts "organic matter" and water. In fact, the first vendor I bought it from was local here in Connecticut, and he wanted to make sure that I knew it was unstable ... He told me that he had personally "seen it go up."

Make sure you follow John Humble's recipe.

I made mine outside on a day with no wind, away from the house and any people just in case ... used gloves, eye protection, etc... Please make sure that you keep your face away from any NaClO2 dust that comes up, and try to avoid wind. I suppose an outside shed or bard would be best, as long as it has good ventilation.

When I first mixed it up, the solution became VERY hot ... I was afraid at first it would melt the container; I'm not kidding here, it was so hot on the bottom of the bottle (I used a glass container) that I literally thought the heat would pop the bottom off.

Anyhow, once it began to cool down (a couple of hours), everything was fine.

Once the sodium chlorite is in solution, it is completely stable (nonexplosive), although it is still corrosive and you don't want it on skin or near children.

I bought just the right amount of dry NaClO2 to make the amount of solution I wanted, so I had NO dry stuff left over. If you do, then you must take care in the storage of the leftover powder ... remember it is still unstable and potentially explosive. I had decided that I did not want to store the dry stuff in my house, and I have no shed or barn.

Again, it is not my desire to scare anyone, and if you feel you are up to it, I say by all means make your own. Just please be very, very careful ... make sure that no one is around you when you make this stuff, ESPECIALLY any children, and that the solution itself is stored in a safe place.

It is my desire to purchase a 100lb drum of this stuff, as soon as I have a good place to store it, because I am afraid that it may become hard to get now that John's book has come out. So, I am not shying away from making more.