Name: Meal/NC Paste
| percent | parts | component |
|---|---|---|
| 80.00% | 8 | Meal |
| 20.00% | 2 | Nitrocellulose Lacquer (syrupy) |
Mix meal and NC lacquer, adding acetone as required to achieve the desired consistency.
Keep well sealed, tends to settle on standing and will require stirring before use. Often needs a bit of a top-up with acetone to make up for evaporation, if you over do it, just let it stand with the lid off to thicken.
A little amyl acetate may be optionally added to the acetone. It helps dissolve the NC faster and makes it smell better. It is by no means required however!
Meal/NC is much harder to ignite than meal slurry and will often form a fire-block if painted onto surfaces intended to be ignited by lift gasses. It tends to form a smooth surface with a higher ignition temperature than normal blackpowder. (Dusting with corning dust before it dries can help.)
It is however an excellent "flammable glue" for holding fuses into devices which dries very quickly compared to water slurries. This is an important feature for expedient construction. In particular I find nothing worse than a stick of blackmatch going all soggy and having to be held in place until the moisture evaporates from the prime. With the NC lacquer binder it not only tends not to soften the match, but gets fairly stiff almost immediately as it skins-over.
You can make excellent blackmatch or cracker fuse from Meal/NC but it is an expensive method.