Gold star formula

[Twotails]

Name of composition:Gold star formula

Composition Type:Star, pressed, rolled or cut.

Color/Effect:Gold trailing stars

The Composition:

13.5% Potassium Perchlorate

13.5% Potassium Chlorate

15% Potassium Nitrate

49% Lampblack

9% Nirtocellouse (weighed dry, then re-desolved in acetone)

Any Precautions/Incompatabilities: Contains Chlorates, chlorates are shock, and friction sensitive, keep away from sulfur/sulfides/sulfates. you have to work fast, acetone dries quickly

 

Precedure/Preparation: (for pressed or cut stars) Grind Nitrate, perchlorate, and chlorate separatly, screen nitrate chlorate , perchlorate and lampblack, through a 100 mesh screen a few times untill one color. add NC a little at a time, working it into the consistancy of tooth paste. cut, let dry, no prime it needed(i'll revist this in a second)

 

(1)Rolled stars: follow exact directions like above and dry comp in a thin sheet, crush into a fine powder and roll as you would another star ( wet rolling media, apply dust, ect)

(2)Rolled stars: Follow exact directions, exept dont add the NC. make a thin solution of NC ( should be thin enough to spray out of a spray bottle), roll as you would another star ( wet/dry/wet/dry)

 

every fourth layer should be left to dry slightly, it shortens drytime.

 

These are hand cut round stars ( i cut them, then rolled them slightly, and when i put them in the shell, i dusted them with burst) if they look cracked, or bunpy the will still work.

 

 

[NightHawkInLight]

Stars look ok in the blurry camera, but I don't know if they're worth using three oxidizers over. I'll bet a very similar effect can be achieved with any one of the three. I need me some lampblack.

[Twotails]

I Thought the same thing, I made three batches a few nights ago (each a 100g batch, so, with 42% oxidiser, 49% lampblack, 9% NC(prepped as above))

 

results

Nitrate star- nothing special, like slow, sputtery BP, left unburnt matter behind

 

Perchlorate star- More zing then nitrate, still looked like it missed somthing, it dosent have the nice tail as in the video

 

Chlorate star- Fast, also almost no tail, left unburnt matter behind

 

 

Each i repowderd, and mixed together, and i have it drying in cubes. i now have 270g of this star^^

 

i'll try and see if i can add better color to them, maby with copper, or strontium.

[Ralph]

just wondering other than in coloured stars (were you have a colourant as an oxidiser) and in glitters and strobes (were you have a high and low temp oxidiser) is there any point in mixing oxidisers

[NightHawkInLight]

just wondering other than in coloured stars (were you have a colourant as an oxidiser) and in glitters and strobes (were you have a high and low temp oxidiser) is there any point in mixing oxidisers

That's hard to say. Obviously the use of mixed oxidizers helps the tail in this star. You would need a pretty darn good pyro sense to know that a particular tailed star is going to work better with mixed oxidizers, and how much of each.

[Ralph]

yeah definitely the thing is though in my mind i see no reason mixing KClO₃ and KClO₄ what are peoples thaughts

[Mumbles]

It works in some cases. For instance, one trick to making pastel colors is to replace part of the perc with KNO3. I use the same sort of trick to finely tune my slow flash. Start replacing KNO3 for perchlorate, and it slows it down. It's also pretty common to add perc to nitrate based comps to make them burn a bit faster, and brighten the tail. I've seen chlorate added to perchlorate comps to make them burn faster. This is one of the first times I've seen 3 mixed though. I bet you could get by with either perc or chlorate in addition to the nitrate.

 

I wont argue with what works though.