Pretty green flame Posted October 27, 2007 Posted October 27, 2007 Name of composition: Golden charcoal streamer Composition type: Charcoal streamer Composition: Potassium nitrate - 53.5%Charcoal (I've tried Pine and Beech, both work well) - 26.5%Sulfer - 10.5%Dextrine - 9.5% This is a basic BP chem golden charcoal streamer. In my humble opinion it is far more beautifull than Chrysanthemum mixes or similar. My chrysanthemums always came out as dim orange sparks. This mix is bright with a bushy tail and golden sparks. Credit goes to A.Fulcanelli
ULTRABUF Posted October 27, 2007 Posted October 27, 2007 Do you mill this or just screen it together? Any pics?
aa92td Posted October 27, 2007 Posted October 27, 2007 sound like a very nice charcoal streamer stars.but in my opinion there is too much dextrin in this formula you can put 5 dextrin and more 5 grams of charcoal for bigger tail.
hst45 Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 PGF, that's very interesting as I happen to have a batch of beech charcoal in the ball mill as we speak! I've never cooked beech before as I have a seemingly limitless amount of poplar here on the farm, but I thought that a batch of beech might be worth a try. What mesh would you suggest?
Pretty green flame Posted October 28, 2007 Author Posted October 28, 2007 @Hst45 & Ultrabuf:Just mill this composition for about an hour in a proper ball mill, rock tumblers may require more milling time. The ingredients should be as fine as possible so milling is the way to got for the desired effect @Aqwa:I wouldn't change the ratios because it seeems to work fine I'll try to get a few action shots and movies up, hopefully today.
Mumbles Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 Is that the formula from the bottom of page 20 of Pyrotechnica XI? If so, your ratios are a bit off, with the dextrin being doubled. Your mixture also adds to 110% The original is:Potassium Nitrate - 14 (55.4)C - 7 (27.7)S - 2.75 (10.9)Dex - 1.5 (5.9) Tot - 25.25 The numbers in parenthesis are the percentages. The two formulas look pretty similar so I wondered. The extra dextrin would help for a stronger star and could be flash broken with less trouble for a spider web type effectt.
Pretty green flame Posted October 28, 2007 Author Posted October 28, 2007 Thanks for the correction Mumbles. I must've hit a wrong button on my calculator when i was doing the math. I increased the dextrine % knowingly though, I wanted an especially hard star for strong flash breaks (Could also be remedied by using less of a stronger binder such as SGRS or Gum arabic )
hst45 Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 PGF, I finally dried a batch of these cut stars and made/shot a 2" canister last night. It's a very nice effect, as you said. I had a really crappy asymmetrical break (trying new spiking pattern) but the stars are great. They are bright, and seem to burn longer than my typical TT and the sparks have a long "hang time", probably due to being harder, what with the extra dextrin. Thanks for the formula.
Pretty green flame Posted June 23, 2008 Author Posted June 23, 2008 how big did you cut the stars? im using a 3" shell Something like 8-10mm (3/8"-ish) should be good for a 3" shell.
pyrogeorge Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Is that the formula from the bottom of page 20 of Pyrotechnica XI? If so, your ratios are a bit off, with the dextrin being doubled. Your mixture also adds to 110% The original is:Potassium Nitrate - 14 (55.4)C - 7 (27.7)S - 2.75 (10.9)Dex - 1.5 (5.9) Tot - 25.25 The numbers in parenthesis are the percentages. The two formulas look pretty similar so I wondered. The extra dextrin would help for a stronger star and could be flash broken with less trouble for a spider web type effectt. Titanium?? In passfire say with titanium..
Bonny Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Are you referring to "Tot" in formula? That is for Total (parts). Anyway it wouldn't be much of a golden charcoal streamer with Ti added.
pyrogeorge Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 No,i refer in total formula.I think that need aslo titanium and Fe.LIke this: Potassium Nitrate -----44Charcoal, spruce, ball milled----- 44 FerroTitanium, 40-325 mesh, 60:40----- 15Sulfur 6 Dextrin 6 Total: 115
Bonny Posted June 24, 2008 Posted June 24, 2008 No,i refer in total formula.I think that need aslo titanium and Fe.LIke this: Potassium Nitrate -----44Charcoal, spruce, ball milled----- 44 FerroTitanium, 40-325 mesh, 60:40----- 15Sulfur 6 Dextrin 6 Total: 115 That's just Tigertail with +15 ferrotitanium... The ratios of this golden streamer are a fair bit different.
comet Posted September 10, 2019 Posted September 10, 2019 Just mill this composition for about an hour in a proper ball mill, rock tumblers may require more milling time. The ingredients should be as fine as possible so milling is the way to got for the desired effect Hello,I want to bring up this old topic for one question:Do you mill ALL of the composition together?Also the dextrin? comet
Mumbles Posted September 10, 2019 Posted September 10, 2019 Yes, you mill everything together. Including the Dextrin is personal preference. It was always fine for me. Some people think it makes the comp more likely to clump in the mill. Probably depends on local temperature and humidity.
comet Posted September 15, 2019 Posted September 15, 2019 Yes, you mill everything together. Including the Dextrin is personal preference. It was always fine for me. Some people think it makes the comp more likely to clump in the mill. Probably depends on local temperature and humidity.Thank you, I'll try this.One more question: I want to make very small stars for 1" shottubes. The stars should be 3,0 to 3,5 mm (including primer).Do you have expirience for small stars with this formula? anything else I should pay attention? Thank you, Mumbles.
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