Best way of enlarging a blue chlorate flame?

[Potassiumchlorate]

Hardt Blue #4 is:

 

Potassium chlorate 62

Copper(II)oxide 13

Red gum 9

Parlon 11

Dextrin 5

 

That's unusually much parlon for a chlorate comp. Most chlorate comps usually just have 5% external chlorine donors.

 

This will burn faster but will have a little less chlorine in it, since there is 29% chlorine in potassium chlorate but 68% in parlon. I also go up to 14% copper(II)oxide, which will probably increase the burning speed a bit further:

 

Potassium chlorate 68

Copper(II)oxide 14

Red gum 9

Parlon 5

Dextrin 4

 

But will it have a smaller or larger flame?

[taiwanluthiers]

You can find out by testing it in a star gun I suppose...

 

I found a formula for this thing called "royal blue" which was a mix of potassium chlorate and perchlorate (says it would decrease sensitivity) and it used lactose as fuel, copper carbonate as colorant, and parlon and dextrin. Says it gives good blue and I assume that the copper carbonate actually helps to prevent acid formation. I haven't tested it yet but honestly when I shot a shell full of veline blue it doesn't actually look that bad. The color is almost violet.

[Potassiumchlorate]

Veline blue is pretty OK, actually. It's a pretty standard perchlorate blue with a MgAl to make it a bit brighter.

[taiwanluthiers]

The problem with Veline blue (apart from difficulty lighting them) is price. Perchlorates are expensive here, so is MgAl (they have to be ordered and its not as cheap as dark Al).

 

So I really want to give the chlorate blues a try because chlorates are much cheaper. I hope its not touch sensitive though like if a shell hits the ground without exploding it explodes immediately.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I use chlorates myself both for the price and for the superior performance in most compositions. I don't add any metals to chlorates anymore, though. For blue you don't really need metals anyway.

[dangerousamateur]

I don't add any metals to chlorates anymore, though

Why not? To dangerous?

[Mumbles]

Even simple chlorate/resin stars are prone to going off from impact if a shell comes back down unexploded. We're talking the force from a fall from several hundred feet of course, and not off of a table or something.

 

If you want to see the development process for that royal blue formula, it's in the Passfire forums, particularly by Bill Ofca. It may help to give some insight into why it was made the way it was.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I haven't registered myself on Passfire yet. I have discussed a bit with Bill here, though. Too bad he's rarely on the board.

[taiwanluthiers]

I have been trying to search for that thread in passfire, but the search function is buggy and I have no idea which thread it is...

 

I was thinking it might be in the old forum posts but that's where the search function bugged because there are massive amounts of posts there.

[Potassiumchlorate]

Oh, if I could get hold of some more Paris Green, I'd make this one:

 

Potassium chlorate 61.5

Paris Green 20.5

Red gum 8

Chlorowax 5

Dextrin 5

 

I have also tried to "lace" other compositions with Paris Green. I have made Bleser Aqua with Paris Green instead of copper carbonate:

 

Barium chlorate 53

Potassium chlorate 12

Red gum 10

Copper(II)oxide 8

Copper carbonate 8

PVC 5

Dextrin 4

 

IMHO this is slightly better with Paris Green than with copper carbonate. It also ignites very easily.

[taiwanluthiers]

I tested some chlorate stars with a gun today and it lit very well, all I did was pop an unprimed star into the gun and fired it and it lit up just fine. Veline would never light without a heavy coat of prime. As far as looks goes they look pretty similar to me. Veline is obviously safer being its more difficult to light and has no issue with impact or friction sensitivity. I made a small batch and I am trying to test its stability before I try and make anything serious with it...

 

I used Bill Ofca's Royal Blue by the way but didn't use any potassium perchlorate (it's all chlorate).