Colored Matrix Comets

[pyrokid]

Hey Guys

I'm hoping to start a discussion about colored matrix comets.

I've only done one test, and it was a very primitive one - organic red cut stars in a C8 matrix composition. Unfortunately, the stars burned at the same rate as the matrix composition, so a colored tail was not achieved.

Internet searching has revealed two formulas:

Potasium chlorate, passing 200 mesh...............50

Barium benzoate, passing 100 mesh.................23

Barium carbonate, passing 200 mesh................10

Exfoliated mica, pass 80 mesh, hold 120 mesh......10

Bentonite clay - wyoming, passing 200 mesh........6

Guar gum fine WW250F, passing 200 mesh............1

and

Potasium perchlorate, passing 100 mesh............50

Zirconium silicate, passing 325 mesh..............30

Polykarbenite-3 - Armex, passing 200 mesh.........10

Barium carbonate, passing 200 mesh................9

Guar gum fine WW250F, passing 200 mesh............1

 

Unfortunately, both of these formulas contain some chemicals that many pyros don't have. It's my hope that a good matrix composition that would support the use of plain colored stars could be figured out in this thread.

Most discussion of matrix comets that I've seen has been limited to dragon eggs and strobe stars. These two types of stars both seem well suited to being used in matrix compositions, since they both have a smolder phase. However, normal color stars don't have this.

 

Playing this over in my mind it occurred to me that a slow burning relay or delay comp might be layered over the color stars to replicate the smolder phase mentioned above.

 

The idea seems to have potential, since people successfully create strobe/dragon egg matrix comets with simple BP based matrix compositions.

 

However, a charcoal spark tail would detract from the color star tail. The requirements of the matrix composition are that it burns quickly and with few lingering sparks.

I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts on this!

Edited September 6, 2013 by pyrokid

[dan999ification]

After testing my de matrix stars I've settled on c6 with 25% hot bp as the base, it leaves almost no tail but does burn fast leaving short but dense matrix, i got 60+ ft from a mine and a bit more in a can shell. as soon as I make something I will

Test my theory I've been hooked on the idea myself.

 

One idea I had was to prime the stars then use a thin layer of glustaz to achieve the delay the eggs have or if they need no prime since they are small and the base is hot retarding the stars with extra carbonates may be an option.

 

So you saw swishers colour/de comets then

 

Dan.

 

[pyrokid]

Thanks for the info, Dan. I haven't seen the color/crackle comets, but they sound cool. Your glusatz idea sounds good, I'll have to give that a try. It would be interesting to play with coating the stars with dark relay mix and then seeing the color tail chase the comet! You brought up an interesting point about slowing stars down. In large comets it isn't an issue, but for small comets the color duration gains importance. Edited September 7, 2013 by pyrokid

[Mumbles]

A friend of mine has these types of comets down. He regularly wins PGI competitions with them. He tends to use a matrix composition that leaves a tail though, so I can't help you there. He does sort of what Dan recommended, but for very different reasons. He said that the secret to his matrix comets is a heavy prime. Heavy in the sense of density, not in the sense of thick necessarily. I don't recall what he uses exactly, but it's a mix of barium nitrate, sulfur and something else. Glusatz would probably work just fine. He claims that the dense, slowish burning coating on the outside of his stars help to separate from the matrix composition better. Having seen the before and after results, whatever the reasoning is, it works.

 

Using a cored comet will burn up faster and help to dump stars too.

[pyrokid]

Brilliant, thanks!