Red Glitter

[PhoenixRising]

I would have to agree with you here, treating everything up front would probably be the "best" practice, but maybe not the most cost-effective or practical.

 

Curious how Linseed oil might affect color stars though. Not to mention I think that a lot of linseed oil sold today is not actually real linseed oil. Not sure if this matters.

 

There is also the issue of drying after application of linseed oil, which I think takes a couple of weeks? Again, not a problem if time is on your side.

 

It might be best to use Potassium Dichromate to coat everything as it makes a better protective layer than any coating oils or stearin.

 

My personal opinion is to not using anything at all unless absolutely necassary.

 

In most cases, careful monitoring of moisture will negate the need for the extra protection.

 

Coarse Mg/Al can withstand some reaction/cracking comets and still be useable. When fine Mg/Al reacts, it's usually a done deal.

 

If you ever experience cracking, sacrifice a comet and split it open. Sometimes you'll see that the Mg/Al inside has all but 'disappeared.'

 

If you can still see Mg/Al flakes, then the comets may still be useable, pending the cracking isn't too bad. Mines are always fun.

[kingkama]

I'm with you "anything if is not really necessary" I have issue only in silver shower if I don't ball mill Charcoal potassium Nitrate and boric acid before adding alluminium. The best as you said is to control moisture before reaction, in glitter i found usefull an electric oven at no mre than 70 Celsius to reduce the evaporation time. Edited September 25, 2018 by kingkama

[PhoenixRising]

I've not actually made any silver, potassium nitrate based, compositions yet. I'm sure with some of the other grades of flake aluminum, boric might actually be necessary.

 

The only flake Al I have is for booster, everything else is spherical. Traditional firefly and flitters are on my radar for next year.

 

That's cool that you're able to dry your glitters in an oven, I haven't had much luck with that yet.

 

I typically only force-dry phenoic/alcohol stars in a kiln, especially with hexamine.

 

With glitters I've had more than a couple of reactions with forced drying, but it seems you're having luck by adding some boric acid. That's a handy bit of info.