41 replies to this topic

[Maxim]

I'm going to post the below formula on behalf of Seymour who made it up on the spot while round mine last summer. It really is the best blue formula around and I have tested the veline one, some of the ones of pyroguide and "pyro science" blue (which is better than others too but not quite as good as...)

Seymour's KP blue

KP – 58

Lactose – 15

Parlon – 9

CuO – 8

Red gum – 4

Sulphur – 3

Mgal – 3

[martyn]

I'm going to post the below formula on behalf of Seymour who made it up on the spot while round mine last summer. It really is the best blue formula around and I have tested the veline one, some of the ones of pyroguide and "pyro science" blue (which is better than others too but not quite as good as...)

Seymour's KP blue

KP – 58

Lactose – 15

Parlon – 9

CuO – 8

Red gum – 4

Sulphur – 3

Mgal – 3

Forgive me for being thick but I have a question.
What are you using as the binder, are you using acetone or alchol to activate the parlon or red gum, or are you adding an amount of dextrin or something else to be the binder?
Cheers

[Maxim]

The red gum serves as both part of the fuel and the binder. Parlon acts as the binder and the chlorine donor. Use only acetone to activate the binders in this composition

[martyn]

Thanks

[MDH]

I'm fascinated. I can make this for certain right now, except for the red gum (and honestly, I don't plan on buying any soon). Can that be substituted? Also, can we see this composition in action on video either as a star or a loose pile?

[seymour]

I'd expect it to be pretty similar if you add 5% Dextrin to replace the 4% Red Gum, and then you can bind with water, which has it's own advantages.

I'm humbled my Maxim's high opinion of this formula, but I know there are better formulas out there!

[Maxim]

Well Seymour, im up for trying anything blue formula you are willing to throw at me

but for now im still convinced that this is the best one (at least one that doesnt use ammonium perchlorate which is harder to get hold of)

Heres a video of a blue mine that almost blew my head off (This should teach everyone to ALWAYS wrap electrical tape or something substantial around the connection between the visco and quick match! The wind blew sparks from the visco into the quick match and it all went off a bit too early)



While it was a close call, you can see that the blue is clearly a cool blue and not off-white like the veline one or many others.

[cooperman435]

I prefer Acetone bound as it makes it better waterproofed and faster drying too.

Id advise using red gum as it also helps the damp mix not stick to your tools :-)

[MDH]

An interesting note, maxim... Since 2004 I've been putting folds of masking tape over the tip of my fuses and igniting the tape first. It gives me another 15 or so seconds to remove myself from the area and get a nice view of my creation!

That is definitely quite a nice blue. I might use it in the future, but add a small amount of barium nitrate (my friends often see purely copper blues as purple. I see blue, but has anyone else noticed people saying this?)...

[Potassium chlorate]

I prefer Acetone bound as it makes it better waterproofed and faster drying too.

Id advise using red gum as it also helps the damp mix not stick to your tools :-)

What kind of stars do you make? Rolled are the best in performance no matter the binder(s), but when it comes to the actual star-making I find parlon in acetone easiest to cut.

By the way, ethyl acetate might make the parlon less sticky than acetone, though it's awfully expensive in some countries.

[Potassium chlorate]

I'd expect it to be pretty similar if you add 5% Dextrin to replace the 4% Red Gum, and then you can bind with water, which has it's own advantages.

I'm humbled my Maxim's high opinion of this formula, but I know there are better formulas out there!

AP Blue (New Blue) is very nice. And it might still be true that some Paris Green compositions are the best, but I'm not convinced of this yet. The problem is that for really finding out what a star looks like, especially a blue one, you have to test it in a shell.

But this is one of the nicest I have ever seen made with such "simple" chemicals. Considering that there is MgAl present, I would say that it's extremely good, since you usually lose in colour "depth" what you gain in light emittance when adding a metal fuel to a blue composition.

[Creepin_pyro]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but blues are a very subjective thing...

Someone's 'perfect' cool chlorate/lactose blue might look way too dim to others, MgAl blues too washed out etc etc...

There's no way of comparing colours from individual videos with different sources. There are alot of factors here which can't be controlled without shooting side by side or at least using the same camera and manual settings.

I think we need to have a competition... anyone got some land spare?

[AdmiralDonSnider]

I´m with creepin_pyro on the comparision problems. Another factor is what is regarded as a good blue; the main advantage of paris green stars, aside from their hue, was the easy ignition, high wind resistance, large flame size, high burn speed etc. Today "best" seems to be identified with "deepest", or "brightest", solely. Thanks for the formula though, really love the input.

[Potassium chlorate]

This one gives an enormous flame envelope:

potassium chlorate 70
Paris Green 15
hexamine 15

One slight disadvantage though (apart from the difficulties to get hold of Paris Green in most places in Europe and its toxicity): chlorates aren't stable with hexamine.

Edited by Potassium chlorate, 17 January 2011 - 10:05 PM.

[Creepin_pyro]

One slight disadvantage though (apart from the difficulties to get hold of Paris Green in most places in Europe and its toxicity): chlorates aren't stable with hexamine.

One of the great things about being a hobbyist is that you can ignore (to some degree) the usual industrial constraints of price, stability, toxicity, long-term storage, ease of manufacture etc, and obtain superior results.

Here's a really nice blue:

Source - unknown
'Some oldies from rec.pyrotechnics' - Warimoto

60 parts of ammonium perchlorate
10 parts of sulfur
10 parts of dextrin
12 parts of polyvinyl chloride (if you use Parlon, add further 2 parts of dextrin)
20 parts of copper(II)oxide

Yes, I know, that's a lot of dextrin... it works though.