Optimal charcoal mesh size range

[oldguy]

Title & description says it all.

Looking for mesh size range for charcoal long hanging sparks.

[Mumbles]

It's all dependent on how big your shells are. For 3" shells for instance I probably wouldn't use any coarse mesh charcoal. In bigger shells you can start adding some 80 mesh charcoal. Only in the biggest shells or large comets do I see anything much coarser than that. Lampblack can be added to extend the tail without posing a huge fallout risk. I hear honey locust charcoal makes some extremely long tails too.

[oldguy]

Thank you Sir.

[guntoteninfadel]

Ok, completely noob question but do you substitute lampblack for some of the charcoal or just add lampblack? I think I am getting pretty good sparks with the ag bp but all test to date have been in daylight. Hope to send up something at night this weekend.

 

 

[Mumbles]

Typically, one would replace part of the charcoal with lampblack, though just adding in extra should further extend the tail some. I've seen some very nice tiger tail stars with 5-10% of the charcoal replaced with lampblack.