looking for a blue that wont be washed out

[tappsfireworks]

Hey guys like the tittle says, I'm just looking for a good blue that wont be totally washed out when used with ruby red and emerald green.

 

my chemicals available are:

 

Potassium perchlorate

Potassium nitrate

Barium nitrate

Copper oxide

Sodium bicarbonate

airfloat charcoal

Magnalium -80 mesh

Parlon

PVC

Charcoal

Red gum

Dextrin

Sulfur

 

I know some of those have nothing to due with making blue but i just figured i would list most of what i have.

Edited June 29, 2012 by tappsfireworks

[Potassiumchlorate]

Pihko KP #2.

[tappsfireworks]

ill look that one up thanks. I've tried shizimu 49 blue but it just seemed kind of bland next to the other 2 very prominent colors.

 

Also a blue with a low MgAl content would be best but i understand i'm teetering on an organic blue then, which will most likely be overpowered.

[Mumbles]

I know of no decent blue that will stand up to the high metal content of those two formulas. Enough metal to compete would almost certainly destroy the blue color. You'll probably have to find new favorite reds and greens to get a blue that can stand out.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I have been wondering about that too. This far I have just made single colour shells. If I were to make shells with blue combined with red and green I'd probably not use metal at all. For green I don't use metal anyway. For red it'd maybe even be a strontium carbonate red.

[Bcorso85]

Blue is tough because for 1) a good blue is a matter of opinoin. 2) Blue is a (cool) burning temperature when other bright colors burn hot. I think Potassium Chlorate is right and find some cooler burning greens or reds with no metal. With your chracoal and red gum you can fuel some nice organic colors. What do you think of making a silver tip or strobe at the end of the blue? Thats a nice look.

[Potassiumchlorate]

There are a few copper compounds that will actually give off a good blue at high temps, but they are merely for experimentation, like this one. If I understand correctly, this is a perchlorate equivalent of "Chertier's copper".

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rds_KhCR19Q

 

Remember: in Russia copper perchlorate burns you.

[Arthur]

Blues are best helped with cool flames and Hexamine is a nice fuel for big cool flames.

 

In one of our competitions the first blue was ammonium perchlorate copper 11 oxide, hexamine and parlon with a binder, the second rated blue was co-incidentally almost the same but a KPerc comp with hexamine parlon and copper11oxide

 

Because hexamine burns to all gaseous products the flame is big and soft and hence cooler than especially metal flames. The military use it for field stoves because it leaves no ash behind to get you caught. The plastics industry also uses it, but so does the explosives industry (for HE manufacture) so be careful about sourcing it!

[Potassiumchlorate]

Well, that's a matter of taste again. If you want a really bright blue you should go for a resin fueled one. If you want it "darker" blue, then sulfur, lactose, hexamine is the way to go. And personally I use chlorates, because they are both cheaper and give a bigger flame even with "cool" fuels (hexamine is probably dangerous with chlorates, so I just use resin fuels). Edited July 1, 2012 by Potassiumchlorate

[tappsfireworks]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I ended up going with the altered version of pihko that mumbles posted in a different thread and I'm only mixing it with D1 or charcoal stars to make sure it's noticed.

 

So I shot my first 3" shell lastnight and it was beautiful! (for my first at least) this is my first season making my own shells and it was really surprising how rewarding it is to see a shell work as intended after all those hours of work put in. I'll be uploading a video of it shortly. It's a 3" plastic ball shell filled with D1 and blue. I didn't have any strapping tape on hand so I used duct tape with an outer layer of foil tape to preventa flower pot. I'll post my video shortly

[Siegmund]

I was going to recommend the Pihko but I see several others beat me to it.

 

I was also going to suggest trying an organic red rather than a metallic one. Last summer I made red and blue and used them together in star mines and got comparable brightness and burn times, but I'd have to look up which red I used - reasonably sure it was KP+SrCO3+red gum based but couldn't tell you what proportions or what else was in it without checking.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I think that barium chlorate greens could be combined with organic strontium nitrate reds, whereas blues should be combined with the strontium carbonate ones. Barium chlorate is too deep to be used with a carbonate red (the red might look washed out), but organic blue should be combined with carbonate red.

[Mumbles]

You wont be disappointed by the blue and charcoal streamer effect. D1 isn't my favorite, but I'd bet it'd also look quite nice. You may find that you have to use proportionally more blue than glitter to get the color balance you want, perhaps 2:1 blue:glitter stars. It's all personal preference of course.

 

As far as blues go, you can use some small amount of metals to brighten up the star. I've seen blue formulas in person that contained upwards of 5% or so MgAl that were still quite blue. There are certainly some tricks and tweaking involved. The formulas are for the most part quite normal looking perchlorate based blues containing a small percentage of metal. These pair quite nicely with other colors made in a similar fashion. They will not overpower completely organic reds or greens, and still pair well with those colors containing a similar amount of metallic fuels. Again, it may be necessary to use a proportionally larger amount of blue stars compared to red stars in order to get the contrast to show up as you'd like it. To put things in perspective, I was once told to make a red, white, and blue shells to use 1/2 blue stars, and 1/4 red and white stars.

[tappsfireworks]

Ok guys I think I have the video on YouTube now... Correct me if I'm wrong I tried doing it all from my phone so it may not work.

 

 

 

Again this is my first shell so constructive criticism is appreciated.

[psyco_1322]

That was a very nice shell. If you could get more blue stars in there, I would try. Other than that, your break looks good right there, I wouldn't change a thing.

[50AE]

Resin fueled blues are have lighter blue, but brighter. Lactose/sulfur blues are deeper, but timid and vanishes if a brighter star appears. It's a matter of personal taste. Make many compositions and choose what you like.

 

Personally I dislike chinese cakes blue, looks timid and so deep that it appears like violet to me.

Edited July 4, 2012 by 50AE

[Potassiumchlorate]

I just tried this, which is a Shimizu composition where I use potassium chlorate instead of potassium perchlorate.

 

Potassium chlorate 66.5

Copper(II)oxide 13.4

Red gum 9.9

Parlon 5.4

Dextrin 4.8

 

This is pretty bright up close, looking almost like electric sparks. It's probably deeper - but not dim - ejected from a shell.

 

I'm a bit surprised that the original composition just has 5.4% parlon, since it's a potassium perchlorate composition.