Bleser silver flitter 14

[psypuls]

Bleser Silver Flitter #14

Potassium perchlorate 33 Aluminium (dark) 61 Dextrin 6 Add 25% alcohol / 75% water (cont. 2% boric acid)

 

Hi all

I am planning to make some of these but I couldn't find much information about the process

 

Should I add boric acid in the water first then wet the Aluminium German Dark and lastly add the kclo4 for a safe mixing with a wooden spoon?

 

Going to pump 8mm stars, and prime with Meal +7Si +5Red gum and denatured alcohol spray.

 

Does this sound ok? Anything in particular that I should be aware of with this mix?

 

Best regards

psypuls

[Mumbles]

There are a few things you should be aware of. Firstly, the dark aluminum called for, is not the same as german dark or indian blackhead. You ideally want something coarser than what would typically be used for flash. What the formula originally calls for, which was subsequently lost in transcription from the book, is american dark. This is about the same mesh as bright flake Al. There was a german variety as well, but again, not the same thing as blackhead type aluminums. There is something currently on the market from Eckart that is about as close as it gets. It's Eckart 10890. You may want to look for that, or consider using perhaps a blend of blackhead and bright flake to get the longer tail as intended. I feel that you won't be as impressed by it if you use all blackhead.

 

Secondly, most of these types of formulas are often bound poorly by just dextrin. The boric acid won't do anything by the way. I'm not saying it's going to hurt, but it's not going to functionally do anything to prevent reactions. These high aluminum formulas containing coated flake Al are notoriously hard to wet. Blesser talks about rolling these formulas without any special techniques, but I've always found it better to wet the composition with thin wheat paste instead of just water when cutting or pumping. The wheat paste gives good adhesion when it's wet, and it combines with the dextrin to give hard final stars.