Name: Green Mix
| percent | parts | component |
|---|---|---|
| 75.00% | 15 | Potassium Nitrate |
| 15.00% | 3 | Charcoal (airfloat) |
| 10.00% | 2 | Sulfur |
All chemicals are milled as fine as possible then screened together well.
The ratio is often expressed as 75:15:10 which make the parts percentages. This is just a silly convention which probably stems from modern human's base-10 dogma.
Green Mix burns poorly, and leaves much dross, however this is sometimes an advantage. The hot dross particles have better ignition properties than hot gasses and fine smoke particles hence green mix is often used as prime. It is sometimes made into a slurry before application to improve its own ignition properties. Adding a few percent binder, like Dextrin, will facilitate its application to the object to be primed.
There are many names for green mix, some call it "scratch mix" or "poor powder". There are passionate arguments over the naming of all the variations of black powder, and much historic confusion between the various forms discussed in texts. I've picked fairly common terms for black powder variants, similar to those you'll find in modern texts and online in sites like passfire.com and on groups like rec.pyrotechnics. When in doubt look to the preparation for details of exactly what is meant, contact the author if possible.