Gold Lampblack Star Mines
Originally published in Best of AFN IV:
On the 4th we shot some 3" mines using a gold/lampblack star mix that was a combination of Bleser's lampblack and Allen's gold star compositions:
| Potassium Chlorate | |
| Potassium Nitrate | |
| Barium Nitrate | |
| Sodium Oxalate | |
| Air Float Charcoal | |
| Lampblack | |
| Dextrin | |
| Red Gum | |
All the oxidizers were "hand milled" to -60 mesh. Then all components were diaper mixed and the comp was dumped into a Ziplock freezer bag for wetting. I used approximately 20% water/ethanol (50/50) to wet, kneading the bag in the usual manner. Then the comp was formed and cut into cubes of about 10 mm.
The mines used about 60 grams of stars, with about 25 grams of Elephant brand Cannon powder.
Mine bags were rolled of 3 turns of newsprint over the required former, and the stars were dumped in. The Black Powder was contained in a tissue bag, with quickmatch. The mine bag was clove-hitched around the quickmatch. Plenty of bare match was left for a safe retreat.
The effect is a gold head with trailing charcoal/lampblack sparks (or fire dust). The fire dust looks more gold than a regular lampblack star, but that could be an artifact of the gold head.
-BD