Other Resources

Here's a modern recipe
http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/lunte.html
His comment that "cotton never makes good match" is well taken. Thing is, when you're first getting started, it's really easy to make OK match with cotton. Then with a little experience try the more complex stuff. Also, if you want to show off your prowess with flint and steel, cotton match is WAY easier to light.

Here's another:

Howdy,
I'm writing from Canada where it's almost impossible to get KNO3.Thanks to 9/11.I was up the creek and didn't know what to do to make my matchcord for my Gonne I had made. Well one day I just happened to read the ingredients on the label of my Birchwood Casey Plum Brown barrel finish. It's loaded with nitrates.I only had to soak my braided cotton cord in the bottle for a few minutes and let dry.Voila! good matchcord!
I haven't ever had matchcord before so maybe it doesn't work as well as storebought but it certainly sounds like what you describe it should be like. Maybe this will help someone else that can't get the nitrates. My braided cotton cord is around 1/4" and maybe I will try something bigger if I ever get my matchlock musket I want. For now it does the job just fine.
-- Tom Munroe