Horse tail effects

[Merlin]

I know how to construct the shell and burst to produce the effect but so far my stars have been leaving very faint reddish trails. I don't know if it is camera effects or not but in these photos the effects are much brighter. I am searching for a formula that leaves a yellow-orange bright effect trailing to red. Any suggestions?

[JOPETES]

I know how to construct the shell and burst to produce the effect but so far my stars have been leaving very faint reddish trails. I don't know if it is camera effects or not but in these photos the effects are much brighter. I am searching for a formula that leaves a yellow-orange bright effect trailing to red. Any suggestions?

that effect is made with kamuro, willow or white willow. The formulas are them in the jopetes pdf document. Depending on the size of the star and how to apply the primer layer will hang more or less.

 

José

[Mumbles]

The image on the left is a time lapse photo. If you want a longer hanging tail, you may want to look into incorporating some coarser charcoal into the mix or lampblack. You can brighten up the tail and star somewhat by adding maybe 5% atomized or bright flake aluminum.

[Merlin]

What would happen to the effect if comerical air float was used for the charcoal. I am making a few pounds of comp and don't want to experiment and waste it. I have willow but what I have I hoped to reserve for BP. Hope yes mentions white willow. I have no idea what kind of willow I have- it came from custom charcoals. However if in your judgement willow is necessary I will use it. Thanks

[OldMarine]

My charcoal made from pallet lumber gives me the best long hanging spark trail. Not sure what wood it is but doesn't smell like pine.

[Mumbles]

On the contrary, I wouldn't think of using willow charcoal. It's sort of a contradiction that willow charcoal doesn't make good willow shells, isn't it? You could use it, but I suspect the stars would burn faster than you'd like and the tail wont hang around very long. It'd be better suited to spider stars. If you were going to use some specialized charcoal I'd look into pine, honey locus, or even powdered BBQ briquettes.

[Merlin]

Thanks mumbles your a life saver! All I have is willow. erc, and com air float. I have some white pine 2x4 I can make into charcoal. Of course I have a couple bags of kingsford brickettes. Between the air float, white pine and brickets which would you use?

[Wiley]

I would use the airfloat and add +10% FeTi. The airfloat gives dim reddish sparks, and the FeTi produces brighter golden firedust that hangs for a long time. I've heard of people subbing out some airfloat for briquet charcoal, but I haven't done that myself.

[Merlin]

Thanks Wiley. I want to reproduce the effect at top of thread. The formula Jopetes gave required 25% ferotitanium and he mentioned pine charcoal. I have weighed out the chems and did use commercial AF with a little 80 mesh. I had only 2/3 the amount ferotitanium so made up 1/3 with the same mesh spherical titanium. I hope the metals don't scratch up my star plate as he specified pumped stars. Thanks

[starxplor]

Thanks Wiley. I want to reproduce the effect at top of thread. The formula Jopetes gave required 25% ferotitanium and he mentioned pine charcoal. I have weighed out the chems and did use commercial AF with a little 80 mesh. I had only 2/3 the amount ferotitanium so made up 1/3 with the same mesh spherical titanium. I hope the metals don't scratch up my star plate as he specified pumped stars. Thanks

 

I heard Ti was particularly bad if your plate is made of Al.

[dagabu]

There is a group buy for FeTi on Fireworking right now, $10.00 a pound.