slow fuse Trying to Improve my Black match

[Zigzag]

Hello everybody! Just want to have some tips to make my black match more flexible and slow.
 

So normaly I use normal black powder (not ballmilled) and 5% Dextrin and 100% cotton string. No doubt it works great! But. When you bent the fuse the black powder chips off. And when lighting it theres bit chances that the fuse wont continue on the bent area.

My goal is to make more reliable even when bent and also slow. maybe you guys have any  ways of making it more flexible. I would really appreciate🙏🏼

I saw on old forums some is using CMC I think if I’m not mistaken to make the fuse more flexible. Please correct me If I’m wrong.

also I was not ballmilling black powder for fuse purposes to make it more slow. Cause I my case ball milled BP is wayy to fast for fuse.

Thank you everybody!

 
 

 

[Zumber]

First bare black match burns slower

Sencond to make it flexible avoid dextrin and use gum arabic as a binder.

Match made with gum arabic is extremely flexible even you bend it very less bp falls down and there is no problem on continuous burning of match.

For 500 gram black powder use 15 gram by weight of gum arabic.

Dissolve gum arabic in hot water stirr well so that it dissolve totally it will take time... And add this solution to bp to make slurry.

While working stirr slurry every 3 to 5 minutes as gum arabic slurry tends to set at bottom and only water remains on top.

[Crazy Swede]

The most important thing for black match being able to burn through bends is to have black powder between the strands and not only as a superficial coating on cotton yarn. 

To achieve this, black match is preferably made from several thin cotton strands that enters the black match slurry separately and then are collected before they run through the nozzle that keeps the coating even. 

Using a nozzle (can be your fingers but require practice) is very important since too thick coating can make it chip of pieces easier. 

I don’t have experience of CMC but many seem to like it. It is also common to use more dextrin than 5 %. 

[Crazy Swede]

Gum arabic is good when the relative humidity is low but because its hygroscopicity, it will make the match too limp for practical use in many countries. You normally want black match to be stiff!

There have been experiments using PVB as binder and ethanol as solvent with what I understand was very pleasing results. 

[Zumber]

Amount of binder and type of binder affects burn rate a lot.

I am eager to know how pvb will affect burn rate.

[Crazy Swede]

In the discussion I saw, an amount of 4 % PVB was used in the black powder that was made into a slurry with ethanol. 

As I understand, it was only used for quick match since it apparently burned in an unpredictable way if naked. 

[Zumber]

Have you ever made QM with PVB?

[Crazy Swede]

No, I haven’t tried it myself. 

Personally, I’m somewhat sceptic about using non-aqueous binders with charcoal compositions since you miss the nice effect from water dissolving some of the oxidiser and getting it into better contact with the charcoal. 

[All10Fingers]

What if, and I'm only brainstorming. What if you soaked the thread in a saturated solution of just kno3 and water? It should burn and fizzle nice and slow without throwing much sparks. It should remain flexible and should be able to sustain it's own flame. You might have to prime the end of it. I'm only speculating, but it seems feasible at least in imagination land in my head

[SharkWhisperer]

20 minutes ago, All10Fingers said:

What if, and I'm only brainstorming. What if you soaked the thread in a saturated solution of just kno3 and water? It should burn and fizzle nice and slow without throwing much sparks. It should remain flexible and should be able to sustain it's own flame. You might have to prime the end of it. I'm only speculating, but it seems feasible at least in imagination land in my head

See youtube for an idea of the suboptimal results you can expect by KNO3-infiltrated thread/string alone for fuse. Slow, it will be. Regular and predictable not so much. Not usable for cross-matching or for making quickmatch, either. Can't think of a decent use for it, actually--it'll get snuffed out at the fusehole on any device.

For match, some folks prewet their string/thread in KNO3 solution before running it through a BP slurry to accommodate any losses due to precipitation on the BM surface when drying--I, and others, find this unnecessary. Decent BP worked well into the strands makes reliable match without much (if any) visible KNO3 segregated on the surface.

With crappy slow charcoal (Comm "AirFloat") you'll get slower match; hotter coal/BP makes faster match. Milled hot BP makes it even faster, and quickmatch that burns almost instantaneously.

There's a reason American visco uses top-knotch predictably-hot milled/pressed/corned BP.

Multiple strands, and/or good inside penetration of the BP, accommodates most any sloughing off of the BP from the outside of your match around corners, whether stiff or a more flexible binder is used. I use 4-ply cotton with 3-4% dextrin and have no problem with white cores in the dried product.

[Zumber]

2 hours ago, All10Fingers said:

What if, and I'm only brainstorming. What if you soaked the thread in a saturated solution of just kno3 and water? It should burn and fizzle nice and slow without throwing much sparks. It should remain flexible and should be able to sustain it's own flame. You might have to prime the end of it. I'm only speculating, but it seems feasible at least in imagination land in my head

It will not ignite second thing, usually black match is purposely used to ignite other items.

Soaked cotton thread with kno3 will just burn with little slow speed and have no ability to generate sufficient heat to ignite other items.

Science projects for kids sometimes draw some figures/letter using kno3 solution and paint brush and dry it.

If it is touched with issence stick it just burns on the way of what is drawn over paper and outside paper is unburnt.

Edited February 28, 2024 by Zumber

[Soloserly]

On 2/27/2024 at 7:36 PM, SharkWhisperer said:

There's a reason American visco uses top-knotch predictably-hot milled/pressed/corned BP.

Visco made of corned BP?  Then they mill it back down to a fine powder for the core?  

[SharkWhisperer]

On 3/25/2024 at 3:29 AM, Soloserly said:

Visco made of corned BP?  Then they mill it back down to a fine powder for the core?  

Yes. Pyrogeezer has a couple of threads going in Random Discussion that details American Visco production. Apparently they use two different fractions--fine granules and a powder similar to Meal D to fill in the gaps. Tightly controlled production and burn characteristics.

[Zumber]

There are two types of burning characteristics

1- parallel burning where composition burns layer by layer example spolette pressed with fine bp, gerbs fountains etc.

2- propogative burning- if there is air gap or coarse material( which is responsible to create air gap) hot gases passes through this gap and ignites next layer or particles immediately this way burning dpeeds raise up suddenly.

Example granulated bp.

In visco fuse two things are important one is burning speed either moderate  or slow and second is fall of powder through funnel.

Fine powder dont pass easily through funnel thats why few percentage of granulated or coarse form of powder is used.

And to prevent fuse from propogative burning tha gap should be filled fine bp do this job.

So according to desired characteristics mixture of exact percentage of fine plus coarse bp is used.

[Zumber]

Here is powder extrated from commercial vicso.

[deepakpyro]

There is a method i personally use to make the Quick match and it is perfect for me. 

Previously i used to have 5 strands of cotton thread pass through the BP slurry and dry it. There are some problem i faced is that - water absorbed by strands quickly and needed regular mixing of water to the slurry, improper burning of inner core. So tried the new method and happy with the results. 

Spool the dry cotton threads seperately and have it soaked into the BP slurry (1 litre water : 300 gms BP) without binder directly and let it absorbs as much slurry they can. Then pass them through BP slurry (yogurt consistency) which have 4% binder and strands will pick up a nice layer of BP on top of it. When it burns, all cotton threads burns well since it have absorbed the BP from the slurry. You will not have problem of frequently wetting the slurry and also no problem of BP settling in the bottom of the tool. I find this method is good for me and dries soon. 

[dgsh009]

Hi my friends
I need some slow burn BM. what is your suggestion to make that?
Can we made it by change the BP ingredients ratio or add something?
Thanks for your advices and tips.

[Zumber]

What are you aiming for?

Don't you have visco fuse?

Specify more.

[dgsh009]

2 hours ago, Zumber said:

What are you aiming for?

Don't you have visco fuse?

Specify more.

I dont have visco fuse. i want to make slow burn BM

[Zumber]

Unpiped match /bare match or black match burns slower than piped match.

If you still want to slow it's rate down, you may use just scratch mixture and don't ball mill, if still you fill to lower it's burn rate ;you may then change the ingredients ratio. You still haven't cleared what are you trying to do with it so that you may get proper suggestions. 

[dgsh009]

4 hours ago, Zumber said:

Unpiped match /bare match or black match burns slower than piped match.

If you still want to slow it's rate down, you may use just scratch mixture and don't ball mill, if still you fill to lower it's burn rate ;you may then change the ingredients ratio. You still haven't cleared what are you trying to do with it so that you may get proper suggestions. 

i want the slow burn BM for general purpose
 for example make delay between the mortar shots by this kind of BM.( like this picture below)

[Bju90]

I’ve been trying to do the same thing. Fuse isn’t available to purchase where I live.

One thing I tried recently was using heat shrink and meal powder.

Cut some some heat shrink into manageable lengths. Fill with meal powder. Cap the end with a skewer or something small enough so it doesn’t spill out. Put it in a frying pan just hot enough to shrink the heat wrap (don’t use a lighter or open flame to do this obviously). 
 

The heat shrink will lightly compress powder filling in air gaps so the end product burns mostly Parallel  (described above). 
 

Dont try go too small or there isn’t enough of an opening to ignite the fuse. Or you could try sticking a piece of BM in the end or priming the end with slurry and let it dry.

Edit: realised I made it with meal powder from lump charcoal and not pulverone.

Edited February 15 by Bju90
Correction

[dgsh009]

7 hours ago, Bju90 said:

I’ve been trying to do the same thing. Fuse isn’t available to purchase where I live.

One thing I tried recently was using heat shrink and meal powder.

Cut some some heat shrink into manageable lengths. Fill with meal powder. Cap the end with a skewer or something small enough so it doesn’t spill out. Put it in a frying pan just hot enough to shrink the heat wrap (don’t use a lighter or open flame to do this obviously). 
 

The heat shrink will lightly compress powder filling in air gaps so the end product burns mostly Parallel  (described above). 
 

Dont try go too small or there isn’t enough of an opening to ignite the fuse. Or you could try sticking a piece of BM in the end or priming the end with slurry and let it dry.

Edit: realised I made it with meal powder from lump charcoal and not pulverone.

thanks my friend, but this method is maybe make poison smoke because of burning heat shrink and probably not reliable of free gaps.

[Zumber]

On 2/9/2025 at 12:59 AM, dgsh009 said:

i want the slow burn BM for general purpose
 for example make delay between the mortar shots by this kind of BM.( like this picture below)

Many years ago when I had no access to visco, I was using black match in place of visco. Cut some 1 inch wide strips of thin trace paper and cover it over Balck match tightly and use this match in place of Visco.

Paper is wrapped only to prevent powder falling at folds or bends and it is not intended to prepare quick match, paper should be thin and it should burn alongwith black match otherwise it will resist flame and aid in propagative burning and turns this match into quick match. I have not used this match to very small cakes ;half inch id or 1 inch id.

I have used this to fire above 1 inch id tube shots.

[dgsh009]

On 2/16/2025 at 11:07 AM, Zumber said:

Many years ago when I had no access to visco, I was using black match in place of visco. Cut some 1 inch wide strips of thin trace paper and cover it over Balck match tightly and use this match in place of Visco.

Paper is wrapped only to prevent powder falling at folds or bends and it is not intended to prepare quick match, paper should be thin and it should burn alongwith black match otherwise it will resist flame and aid in propagative burning and turns this match into quick match. I have not used this match to very small cakes ;half inch id or 1 inch id.

I have used this to fire above 1 inch id tube shots.

thank you my friend