82 replies to this topic

[Mumbles]

I haven’t tried all of these, I don't think many people would have but for all you glitter buffs here is Robert Winokurs 40 Glitter Formulas.


Winokur #1

Potassium Nitrate 35
Strontium Nitrate 15
Charcoal Airfloat 13
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Sulfur 10
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Dextrin 5

Pinkish magnalium glitter. Hygroscopic, but possibly useable.

Winokur #2

Potassium Nitrate 40
Strontium Nitrate 10
Charcoal Airfloat 13
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Sulfur 10
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Dextrin 5

Pinkish magnalium glitter. Hygroscopic, but possibly useable.

Winokur #3

Potassium Nitrate 50
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Sulfur 9
Charcoal Airfloat 8
Strontium Carbonate 6
Dextrin 4

Pinkish magnalium glitter. Hygroscopic, but possibly useable.

Winokur #4

Potassium Nitrate 50
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Sulfur 9
Charcoal Airfloat 8
Strontium Oxalate 6
Dextrin 4

Pinkish magnalium glitter. Hygroscopic, but possibly useable.<br style=""> <br style="">

Winokur #5

Potassium Nitrate 40
Sodium Nitrate 10
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Sulfur 9
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 9
Strontium Oxalate 8
Dextrin 4

Pinkish magnalium glitter. Extremely hygroscopic, but possibly useable.

Winokur #6

Potassium Nitrate 53
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 16
Charcoal Airfloat 13
Sulfur 9
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 4.5
Dextrin 4.5

A white glitter with a rather high percentage of antimony trisulfide. This typifies some of the traditional white glitter formulae. The high antimony content probably makes it too expensive for regular use today.

Winokur #7

Potassium Nitrate 35
Barium Nitrate 20
Sulfur 14
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 9
Sodium Oxalate 8
Dextrin 4

Gold glitter that uses sodium oxalate to enhance the glitter without the use of antimony trisulfide. Sodium bicarbonate may replace the oxalate with similar results. It is probably too hygroscopic for ordinary use.

Winokur #8

Potassium Nitrate 37
Barium Nitrate 15
Sulfur 15
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 13
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 6
Dextrin 4

Reasonably good white MgAl glitter that uses iron oxide and sulfur to replace antimony trisulfide. While the effect is inferior to antimony, the formula is still useable.

Winokur #9

Potassium Nitrate 35
Barium Nitrate 20
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Sulfur 10
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 9
Dextrin 4

A reasonably good white glitter that uses barium nitrate as both the oxidizer and the ''retardant.''

Winokur #10

Potassium Nitrate 35
Barium Nitrate 20
Sulfur 17
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 14
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Dextrin 4

Excellent white glitter with long tail, and fine grain. Flashes are dense and of the asymmetrical type.

Winokur #11

Potassium Nitrate 40
Barium Nitrate 20
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 14
Sulfur 10
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Dextrin 5
Iron (III) Oxide, red 1

Excellent white glitter with long tail, and fine grain. Flashes are dense and of the asymmetrical type.

Winokur #12

Potassium Nitrate 55
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 14
Charcoal Airfloat 11

Sulfur 8

Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 5
Dextrin 4
Strontium Carbonate 3

Excellent white glitter with long tail, and fine grain. Flashes are dense and of the asymmetrical type.<br style="">

Winokur #13

Potassium Nitrate 50
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Charcoal Airfloat 9
Sulfur 9

Sodium Bicarbonate 9
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 6
Dextrin 4
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 3

Unusual “off-white” glitter with attractive lacy effect especially when viewed close up. Has debris laden flashes.

Winokur #14

Potassium Nitrate 50
Sulfur 11
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 8
Dextrin 5
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 5
Sodium Bicarbonate 5
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 4

Unusual “off-white” glitter with attractive lacy effect especially when viewed close up. Has debris laden flashes.

Winokur #15

Potassium Nitrate 48
Magnalium Granular -325 mesh 14
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Charcoal Airfloat 9
Sulfur 9
Sodium Bicarbonate 7
Dextrin 4

Gold magnalium glitter. Large flashes, good delay and long tail if moving at slow speeds. Good terminal delay. 15 and 16 show the non-critical percentages for this sort of mixture.

Winokur #16

Potassium Nitrate 48
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Charcoal Airfloat 11
Sulfur 9
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 9
Sodium Bicarbonate 7
Dextrin 4

Gold magnalium glitter. Large flashes, good delay and long tail if moving at slow speeds. Good terminal delay. 15 and 16 show the non-critical percentages for this sort of mixture.

Winokur #17

Potassium Nitrate 47
Charcoal Airfloat 13
Sulfur 13
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Dextrin 5

White coarse grained glitter. Similar to Win 15 and 16 except white in color instead of gold. An excellent effect.

Winokur #18

Potassium Nitrate 50
Sulfur 15
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 13
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 7
Dextrin 5

White coarse grained glitter. Similar to Win 15 and 16 except white in color instead of gold. An excellent effect.

Winokur #19

Potassium Nitrate 50
Sulfur 20
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 10
Sodium Bicarbonate 6
Dextrin 4

Coarse gold glitter with short tail, moderate density, and good delay. The advantage is that it doesn't contain antimony trisulfide, making it a cheaper glitter comp.

Winokur #20

Potassium Nitrate 48
Sulfur 17
Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 12
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Sodium Bicarbonate 5
Iron (III) Oxide, red 4
Dextrin 4

Gold glitter similar to Win 19, with very long delay. Produces no very distinctive tail and tends to produce a “twinkler effect”, very large glitter flashes being widely dispersed giving a strobe like appearance.<br style=""> <br style="">

Winokur #21

Potassium Nitrate 52
Sulfur 15
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 6
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 6
Sodium Bicarbonate 6
Dextrin 5

Medium grained dense gold glitter using baking soda as a burning inhibitor and glitter enhancer. Marginally better than #23.

Winokur #22

Potassium Nitrate 50
Sulfur 18
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 8
Sodium Bicarbonate 6
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 4
Dextrin 4

Medium grained dense gold glitter using baking soda as a burning inhibitor and glitter enhancer. Marginally better than #23.

Winokur #23

Potassium Nitrate 50
Sulfur 20
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 8
Sodium Bicarbonate 8
Dextrin 4

Medium grained dense gold glitter using baking soda as a burning inhibitor and glitter enhancer. Marginally worse than #21 and 22 due to the lack of antimony sulphide.

Winokur #24

Potassium Nitrate 52
Sulfur 21
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 6
Sodium Chloride 6
Dextrin 5

Produces a good gold glitter with excellent color and good delay. Unfortunately, it is quite hygroscopic. Somewhat less hygroscopic than the same formula with sodium nitrate substituted in for sodium chloride.<br style=""> <br style="">

Winokur #25

Potassium Nitrate 52
Sulfur 17
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 6
Sodium Bicarbonate 5
Iron (III) Oxide, red 5
Dextrin 5

A gold glitter with similar characteristics to #26. Appears to be quite sensitive to the amount of moisture used, no more than 8% water should be used when mixing. The low usage of expensive metals makes this a very cheap formula ideally suited for comets.

Winokur #26

Potassium Nitrate 52
Sulfur 21
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Aluminium, (Flake, bright -325 mesh, 36 micron) 6
Iron (III) Oxide, red 6
Dextrin 5

An excellent white glitter with fairly large flashes and a medium short tail when moving at high speeds. Not a very fast burning mixture. Gives a long tail when free falling, and is well suited to willow type effects. Cheap and non-hygroscopic. The low usage of expensive metals makes this a very cheap formula ideally suited for comets.

Winokur #27

Potassium Nitrate 50
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Charcoal Airfloat 9
Sulfur 9
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 9
Sodium Bicarbonate 9
Dextrin 4

A delicate, fine grained, “off-white” glitter that produces small but symmetrical flashes of moderate density and delay. Fallout with this formula is large enough to pose a potential problem. Slightly hygroscopic, but usable. Inferior to #28-30.

Winokur #28
Potassium Nitrate 50
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Charcoal Airfloat 9
Sulfur 9
Sodium Bicarbonate 9
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) micron 6
Dextrin 4
Aluminium, (Flake, Dark, American Dark, -325 mesh) 3

A delicate, fine grained, “off-white” glitter that produces small but symmetrical flashes of moderate density and delay. Slightly hygroscopic, but usable. Dark aluminium is added to solve problems with fallout and increase flash density. Substituting sodium oxalate for sodium bicarbonate results in a similar effect but noticeably less fallout. #28, 29, and 30 are all very similar.

Winokur #29

Potassium Nitrate 50
Sulfur 15
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 7
Sodium Bicarbonate 7
Dextrin 4
Aluminium, (Flake, Dark, American Dark, -325 mesh) 1

A delicate, fine grained, “off-white” glitter that produces small but symmetrical flashes of moderate density and delay. Slightly hygroscopic, but usable. Dark aluminium is added to solve problems with fallout and increase flash density. #28, 29, and 30 are all very similar.

Winokur #30

Potassium Nitrate 50
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10
Charcoal Airfloat 9
Sulfur 9
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 8
Sodium Bicarbonate 6
Aluminium, (Flake, Dark, American Dark, -325 mesh) 4
Dextrin 4

A delicate, fine grained, “off-white” glitter that produces small but symmetrical flashes of moderate density and delay. Slightly hygroscopic, but usable. Dark aluminium is added to solve problems with fallout and increase flash density. #28, 29, and 30 are all very similar.

Winokur #31

Potassium Nitrate 45
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Barium Nitrate 10
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Sulfur 10
Dextrin 5
Iron (III) Oxide, red 4
Barium Carbonate 4

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.<br style=""> <br style="">

Winokur #32

Potassium Nitrate 38
Barium Nitrate 14
Sulfur 13
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 8
Dextrin 5

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Fierce burning. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.

Winokur #33

Potassium Nitrate 43
Barium Nitrate 13
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 13
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Sulfur 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 7
Dextrin 4

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Fierce burning. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.

Winokur #34

Potassium Nitrate 40
Barium Nitrate 16
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Sulfur 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 7
Dextrin 5

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Fierce burning. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.<br style=""> <br style="">

Winokur #35

Potassium Nitrate 36
Barium Nitrate 16
Sulfur 13
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 8
Dextrin 5

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.<br style=""> <br style="">

Winokur #36

Potassium Nitrate 38
Barium Nitrate 16
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Sulfur 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 10
Dextrin 4

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Marginally longer delay than #35-38, but with noticeably lower density and some significant fallout. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.

Winokur #37

Potassium Nitrate 40
Barium Nitrate 14
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Sulfur 11
Charcoal Airfloat 10
Iron (III) Oxide, red 7
Dextrin 4
Barium Carbonate 2

Excellent, cheap white glitter with medium sized flashes. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.

Winokur #38

Potassium Nitrate 40
Barium Nitrate 13
Sulfur 12
Charcoal Airfloat 12
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 12
Iron (III) Oxide, red 7
Dextrin 4

White glitter with medium size flashes. Charcoal is the burning retardant. Excellent star with long tail and large flashes. Moisture exceeding 8% produces inferior results.

Winokur #39

Potassium Nitrate 51
Charcoal Airfloat 19
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 12
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 8
Barium Carbonate 5
Dextrin 5

Unusual and peculiarly attractive effect. Produced dense white, fine trained tail with asymmetric flashes. The delay is quite long, as is the length and duration of the tail. Most flashes are long lasting and have long curved trajectories. The jetting flashes result in particularly elegant effect. Originated from the Jacob’s Ladder formula potentially made by Pain’s in Britain

Winokur #39J

Potassium Nitrate 51
Charcoal Airfloat 19
Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 12
Aluminium, (atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron) 9
Barium Carbonate 5
Dextrin 4
Magnalium, granular, -60 mesh 2.5

Use 2% barium carbonate for first prime layer. Use 6 to 6.5 percent moisture for comets and crossettes. A modification of Win39 made by Tom Rebenklau.



All credit goes to Mr. Robert Winokur for providing the firework community with a range of wonderful glitter compositions.



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Posted by: FrKoNaLeaSh101 Posted on: February 4th, 2005, 9:45pm
I have tested Winokur's #23 glitter. It is basically exactly as Blind describes it.
"Medium grained dense gold glitter"

I plan on trying some of the BaNO3 ones soon to make some white/silver glitters....I am getting sick of the gold fish glitter. I still have yet to try D1 glitter though. but I can vouch for #23 glitter as a pretty dense gold spritzel tail.

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Posted by: Crazy_Swede Posted on: February 5th, 2005, 9:38am
Regarding
Quote:
It is basically exactly as Blind describes it.
I doubt that Blindreeper really has tried all those formulas. As I recall, the descriptions came from Winokur's monograph, printed by Pyrotechnica!

One should know that many of his formulas burn a bit slow and sluggishly. Mr. Winokur later actually admitted that he often added some commercial coarse-grained black powder to his compositions to get a more fierce burning comet with a longer tail!

I think I have posted my own glitter formulas at least two times before on this forum, use the search engine if interested. They are inspired by Winoukur but burn faster and with longer tails.
Posted by: blindreeper Posted on: February 5th, 2005, 3:01pm
Yes you are right, I didn't write those descriptions. I just thought it would be of interest to some people and inspire them to modify to get a better effect.

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Posted by: chris17 Posted on: October 23rd, 2005, 7:22am
Has anyone had any luck with Winokur 26? I replaced the flake Al with Spherical Al 325 mesh and rolled to stars, but they seem to be very hard to ignite. I didn't prime them so maybe that would make a difference?

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Posted by: Mumbles Posted on: December 27th, 2005, 5:18pm
I am looking to make some Winokur glitters for new years. Number 34 to be exact. I used one before, #16. I trust that the formula will produce a good result. The purpose of my question is to see if I should ball mill the components(sans the Al) together before hand, or if I could get away with simply mixing the chemicals? I am running out of time, and I would really love to be able to mix them and have the effect work.

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Posted by: rooster Posted on: December 28th, 2005, 4:14am
In my D1 glitter, I always milled the sulfur and the KNO3 together, because it would make the mix a free-flowing powder, whereas the sulfur would cake alone and make clumps in the composition(hard to roll).

If you are rolling these stars, you have to make sure all the ingredients are enough mesh, so the comp stays together. If you are pumping or cutting(not recommended for glitters) it doesn't matter too much.

I would not mill the whole mix sans aluminium. It totally destroys the glitter effect, at least for the glitters I have done. The glitter grains become so fine and fast burning you won't be able to distinguish them in the tail. Mix the chems as coarse as you can while still making the composition able to work with.

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Posted by: _Po_ Posted on: December 28th, 2005, 7:20am
I milled Fish Golden Glitter sans the Al and it worked fine. It could be that they're the only glitter stars I've seen and don't have a good comparison, but they seem fine.

I just milled the comp until it was fine (looked roughly 300 mesh), then mixed in the Al by hand.

Here's how they turned out:

http://www.geocities...ost/glitter.mpg

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Posted by: Mumbles Posted on: December 28th, 2005, 12:22pm
I have some hand mixed ones. I made a small 10g test batch to see how they preform. I plan to light a small starmine with them tonight.

[justanotherpyro]

I tried and tested #23 and it worked great with one exception. Just like my TT stars, there was left over slag that liked to fall from the sky and hit the ground. I milled my C for a long time, but there were still the molten balls that hit the ground.Has anyone else had this problem with these glitters? My carbon is the stuff from a bag at Walmart. They aren't briquets, they are lump charcoal pieces.


Seeing as how my glitters worked very well, and didn't consume all of that available fuel, can anyone forsee a problem with cutting the C from 10 down to 5?

[aquaman]

From C 10 to 5 and KNO3 50 to 55? Try one of the two or both and see. It's way to cold where I live to be testing things right now.

[justanotherpyro]

I saw that some comps have dark Al added, to decrease fallout. Does this just make it burn hotter so it burns up all of the extra C fuel? Or is the fallout actually red hot Al?

[justanotherpyro]

I've concluded that the fallout is Al. The Al melts instead of burns and falls molten to the earth. I will try adding some 600 mesh MgAl to try and solve the problem.

[justanotherpyro]

I tried the MgAl split 50/50 with the Al in winokers 23. It actually made the fallout worse. It gave the glitter more symetrical flashes, and it rained down molten MgAl. I think my MgAl may be shitty though because of the issues I have had with it, and the Mg came from a motorcycle engine cover.

[psymon]

Tried number 26 with a 35mm film can shell & approx 10 stars 1cm cylinders. Excellent effect for cheap chemicals. One of my most favorite compositions. No need to prime stars. Noticed that plenty of commercial shells use glitter a lot. I will try some of the other formulas. Only problem is testing out shells during the late spring/summer months means that its really late before it gets dark.

[al93535]

I have been looking for a good glitter. I have tried win 39, and it does give a nice tail with some glitter. But so far I really like win 20 the best, raiderzon tried it and then I did, and I must say I love this glitter! Lots of bright glitter almost like strobes!

I just tried win 10 and I didn't like it much at all. I am going to test win 22 real soon as well. I think I will also try #26 now.

Also, I have found the type of charcaol plays a big role in the glitter effect. I got no glitter in quite a few comps using pine charcoal. As soon as I switched to a mixed hardwood charcaol I got lots of glitter!

[justanotherpyro]

I have gotten a good glitter with pine C but better without other C. My problem with glitters I believe is the Al. I grind it down from Al foil which is not pure, and it leaves unburnt fallout. My third test was glitter with 50:50 Al grund from Al foil, and 600 mesh flash Al. All that did was destroy the glitter effect. Still the fallout.

[Mumbles]

If you have fall out, try ball milling the non metallic/sparking ingredients. This generally means keep Sb2S3 out as well.

I made a 250g batch of #39 tonight. I proceeded to spill about half of it on the floor. Thanks to Al93535 I have some nice screens to filter the rice hulls, dirt, and paint flakes out. There is still a bit in there, but we shall see how that affects it. I've never made this composition before, but I will let people know what I think.

[justanotherpyro]

What does the iron oxide do for the glitter reaction? 11 and 12 are similar except for the iron oxide.

[psymon]

Doesnt the Iron oxide and Aluminium create a thermite type reaction? I have only made #26 using iron oxide and aluminium and it works great.

[d4j0n]

What effect does the antimony trisulfide type compositions give? Are the fumes from the burning stars dangerous?

[Mumbles]

The antimony causes the flash delay. That is essentially the difference between a snowball, and a glitter. A snowball has no delay on the flashes, while a glitter will have a delay before the flash providing a prettier effect in my opinion. It may also help to brighten the flashes once they do go off.

[d4j0n]

So I pumped 1/4" stars with winokur 23, and it seems to burn extremely fast. Is this supposed to be a fast burning composition? It burns alot slower in a loose pile.

[Mumbles]

Yes, I've noticed that same difference before. I'm really not sure which one is which. If anyone has a copy of Pyrotechnica 2, it would be nice to look up the correct one.



[edit] Found the problem. #31 was doubled up for #39. I'll fix it.

Something I never got was that I've seen gold win 39. I think this person had their formulas mixed up to. It was gold and they described it as "cheap", which generally means no Sb2S3.

[cplmac]

I made Degn's White Flitter, no strobe or glitter/flitter effect at all. Looked beautiful though. And it did leave some slag as well. Seems like it fused some of the flake aluminum rather than burning it all.

[Mumbles]

I see no reason they couldn't be rolled. Everything is pretty fine and uniform.

cpl, it's probably different in the air. Many tailed stars leave large amounts of slag on the ground. Since you seem to be a fan of the comp, perhaps you should start a new thread for it.

[Mumbles]

Does anyone have a physical copy of Pyrotechnica II? I am looking to make some Win 13, but it only adds up to 91. I'm not sure if this is correct or not. 13 and 14 are supposed to be pretty similar, so I was almost wondering if there shouldn't be 5 or so parts BaCO3 in it.

[asilentbob]

Sorry

But on a side note, since these compositions are so great, perhaps they should be stickied.