Potassium chlorate

One of the eternal debates in pyrotechnics is the one concerning the best blue. Paris Green formulas and New Blue are very strong candidates, but many people have praised less toxic, cheaper and easier-to-get-hold-of copper compounds. In Fireworks like Granddad used to make them there are some formulae that would be of interest even today, at least with some minor changes.

This for instance:

potassium chlorate 46
calomel 23
copper sulfide 23
schellack 6
copper oxychloride 2

or:

potassium chlorate 47
calomel 6
copper sulfide 19
copper oxychloride 6
sulfur 19

What about substituting potassium perchlorate for potassium chlorate and ammonium perchlorate for calomel and red gum for shellac in the above formulae? Wouldn't that be interesting?

I have seen a formula, called the Rossi formula, for H3:

Potassium chlorate 80
Charcoal, airfloat 10
Lampblack 10

Is this more powerful than H3 with only charcoal?

I have also seen "Shimizu bursting charge #46" with potassium perchlorate instead of chlorate, lampblack as the only fuel and potassium dichromate as a catalyst; 70:30+5. This one is said to be one of the most energetic KP burst charges there is, though I fear the poisonous effect of KDK more than I fear the slightly higher sensibility of potassium chlorate in mixtures with no incompatibels.

In this case H3. According to Shimizu and some experienced people in another thread you only need 52% by weight of the powder, which I find excellent. The shell becomes lighter and you save some money too, unless you use BP and have very cheap sources for the precursors.

I bought some just to try it. It seems to find use mostly in AP and or/blue compositions, especially with hygroscopic chemicals or chemicals that aren't stable in the presence of water. It's soluble in alcohol, like shellac and red gum and is chemically similar.

However, on PyroGuide they say that it's not often used because it's a poor and brittle binder.

Anyone experienced with it?

I have some barium nitrate that is very hard caked. The easiest way to pulverize it would be to run it in my ball mill. However, my "replacement" drum is smaller and much less efficient than my "regular" drum, that I use for BP and BP based compositions.

Would the small amount of sulfur present in the "regular" drum present a hazard? I intend to mix the barium nitrate with potassium nitrate and parlon and use it for white magnesium stars; parlon will be used as the binder.

This is not the barium nitrate I talked about the other day, the batch with traces of nitric acid. That barium nitrate is ironically free-flowing though has to be dissolved in water and neutralized and then dried and milled again as well.