Additional info on Winokur # 20 Glitter, or as i call it... King's Glitter!
This has been the most amazing glitter formula i have ever seen, and used for years. Pretty much non-toxic materials and the result gives you glitter stars with flashes so large and loud, the almost look like strobe or ''softened'' crackling comets. My all time favorite! So i nick-named it ''King's Glitter''. The formula:
Potassium Nitrate 48
Sulfur 17
MgAl 200 mesh 12 (like portland cement)
Charcoal (pine) 10
Sodium Bicarbonate 5
Iron Oxide red 4
Dextrin 4
All ingredients must be very fine, if you use fertilizer grade KNO3 and/or Bicarbonate, ballmill it first to a very fine powder. Sieve the ingredients and ''diaper'' them to a homogeneous mass. It is critical when you make stars out of this, to use a minimum amount of water. Too much water somewhat kills the effect. Personally i always use a starplate when making these babies. Add just enough water/alcohol (75/25) to make it a little bit damp, just enough to hold it together when you squeeze a hand full in your palm.
VARIATIONS:
The color and size of the spritzels (exploding sparks) can be altered by using different types of charcoal. On average the ''heavier'' coals, (oak, beech etc) give more golden sparks but also a very long delay. It may also cause less spritzels to form. I also tried Willow charcoal and it gave slightly smaller ''whiter'' sparks. Enough room to experiment!
PINE COAL
This charcoal is my favorite because the natural growing cycle of the pine tree gives soft wood followed by a layer of hard wood during season changes. The charcoal resembles this. The soft charcoal mostly works ''onboard'' the burning star and helps to drive off the spritzels. The more hard charcoal acts in the process of forming the actual spritzels.
Altering delay:
The amount of Sodium Bicarbonate can be altered to change the delay. By increasing/decreasing the Bicarbonate by 1% one can finetune the delay. This might come in hand when you want to make smaller stars and bigger comets with this formula.
More Bicarbonate = longer delay
Less Bicarbonate = shorter delay
For further reading on understanding glitter i strongly suggest:
GLITTER chemistry & techniques by Lloyd Scott Oglesby