Japanese Pine Charcoal

[AdmiralDonSnider]

There are quite a few figments in a pyro´s mind. One could be paris green, another one jap pine charcoal. I´ve come across some remarkable lines with regard to that type of charcoal, so I´m starting to wonder what it is that makes jap pine charcoal so special. It seems to be quite superior to all we´ve got at hand in terms of spark beauty, at least if you believe Shimizu:

 

"A mixture of pine charcoal, sulphur and potassium nitrate in the weight ratio 30:10:60 burns producing pretty orange red fire dust. This characteristic is generally seen with other charcoals but pine charcoal produces the most pretty fire dust of all." (FAST p.119)

 

and is specified in quite a lot of formulas.

 

Now does anybody know what kind of pine they´re using to produce this charcoal? Must be a special species. I´ve tried pinus pinea growing in the mediterranian, but the sparks were bad.

 

Other than that: Any ideas where to get a hold of true jap pine charcoal? Some forging enthusiasts seem to import pine charcoal from japan to make special blades; don´t know if this would be worth a call...

[petroleum]

I dont know what type of pine charcoals they realy use. For charcoal mixes I use pine charcoal from Pinus Sylvestris what I can get in Baltic States. I prepare the timber in a summer and dry it a couple of weeks in the sun. After that i bake it in iron barrel. Using this charcoal I have got good results in C8, C6 and other charcoal mixes (real charcoal fire dust, good sparkly orange tail). But it must be considered, that such type of mixtures must be ball milled and wet mixed to observe good result. Dont use any organic resins in charcoal mixes. I think taht only with dextrine and water real charcoal fire dust can be observed.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Thanks for your response. I´m not sure about the use of a ball mill however; it really depends what you want the mix to do, how close a star is observed etc. I don´t like the appearance of some ballmilled streamers which only seem to display a thin orange tail without visible sparks; they are much better at a distance than handmixed charcoal mixes, but I prefer the bushy look of the latter at close distance. Don´t have extremely much experience here though...

 

I really need to side-by-side test some charcoals in the near future, using Shimizus 30:10:60 as a test comp. Even if handmixed the spark quality should show quite clearly. Just need to find some means for the test e.g. horizontal spolette-type test-tubes and starguns. Any ideas how to test it best, apart from building a shell for each type of charcoal?

 

I´ve about 15 different kinds at hand, most of them homemade and untested, including oak, peach, apple etc.

[NightHawkInLight]

For testing use small mines, and video tape them from an equal distance and on similarly dark nights.

 

I use white pine in my streamers, ball milled comp, and they are absolutely beautiful to perfection(to my taste anyway). Here is a video of my tigertail at close range:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx2g96i0jj4

[ExplosiveCoek]

What kind of binder did you use on those stars? Looked very nice indeed, just like the chinese/japs !

[NightHawkInLight]

What kind of binder did you use on those stars? Looked very nice indeed, just like the chinese/japs !

Staflo liquid laundry starch, the best water soluble binder in the world imho. It's awesome stuff. I simply dampen any comp with it until it's just shy of the moisture required for making stars, I then make up the rest with water. Drys quickly and is rock solid.

[Seymour]

Some of the best sparky charcoal I have used is the pine charcoal widely for sale in New Zealand under the "solid energy" brand. I am reasonably confident that it is Pinus Radiata (Monterey Pine).

 

 

And that's what it looks like in Tigertail...

 

I know this is a bit off topic from the genuine Japanese stuff, but I don't think it can hurt to share alternatives. While I'm very interested in finding out what the Japanese use/used, I consider that to be an academic thing, and don't think finding out would change my charcoal use.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

 

I use white pine in my streamers, ball milled comp, and they are absolutely beautiful to perfection(to my taste anyway).

 

They look really good. Hmm, seems that ball milling streamers could be worth a closer look...

 

 

Some of the best sparky charcoal I have used is the pine charcoal widely for sale in New Zealand under the "solid energy" brand. I am reasonably confident that it is Pinus Radiata (Monterey Pine).

 

I know this is a bit off topic from the genuine Japanese stuff, but I don't think it can hurt to share alternatives. While I'm very interested in finding out what the Japanese use/used, I consider that to be an academic thing, and don't think finding out would change my charcoal use.

 

Definately. I did some research on pine species yesterday and found that some are quite peculiar to the japanese islands e.g. pinus densiflora, pinus thunbergii, pinus parviflora etc., many growing in mountain areas.

 

I´ll probably use comets to test out the aerial appearance of different charcoals. A february project. I´ll post the results...

 

Thanks for your inputs!

[petroleum]

There is 2 inch starmine with C8 stars. This comp was prepared using charcoal of Pinus Sylvestris timber from Baltic States. The comp was ball milled for 2 hours and mixed using wet tehnique.

Edited January 17, 2011 by petroleum

[Mumbles]

I've been reading about some experiments with "potassium nitrating" charcoal. Essentially charcoal is soaked in a KNO3 solution, and it is supposed to extend the tail and create a bit more of a red color. This is primarily by Ned Gorski. I know he makes primarily pumped and rolled stars. I believe this may help to replicate some of the benefits gained when cutting or even toro style rolling. It used to be common practice to wet charcoal streamer compositions, granulate them and ball mill again to make fine but not powdered particles for rolling.

 

I would think that ball milling would at least begin to approach the intimacy provided by the wetting level of cutting. Lampblack can also help to extend the tail and give a very attractive red spark trail.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Yes lampblack can give a very nice long lasting spark tail, especially combined with pine charcoal, not too fine not too coarse (about 80 mesh and smaller 0-200 microns)

 

For more objective experiments, you'll need to test pine stars in a shell, not on the ground or in a starmine watched too close by.

[WSM]

Yes lampblack can give a very nice long lasting spark tail, especially combined with pine charcoal, not too fine not too coarse (about 80 mesh and smaller 0-200 microns)

 

For more objective experiments, you'll need to test pine stars in a shell, not on the ground or in a starmine watched too close by.

 

In fact, mention has been made of using hot water when making charcoal or charcoal/lampblack stars; mainly for the purpose of dissolving some of the nitrate so it will better incorporate into the charcoal pores/cell structure. The nitrate seems to crystalize into the charcoal structures as the star dries. The faster the star dries, the smaller the crystals are and the more nitrate that gets incorporated into the charcoal.

 

The better fire dust breaks apart into larger particles of composition as it burns and flies through the air, letting air help the burn get brighter as the star particles fly.

 

WSM