Name: White Portfire
Source: Degn
| percent | parts | component |
|---|---|---|
| 80.00% | 8 | Potassium Nitrate |
| 10.00% | 1 | Sulfur |
| 10.00% | 1 | Antimony Trisulfide |
Screen together the finely powdered chemicals until homogeneous.
Excellent portfire composition.
Burns slowly and steadily with a bright white light. Generates little smoke, but lots of molten and extremely hot dross, so the usual caution not to let it drop on your feet (or dry grass!) is advised.
Unlike many "lance" compositions this one has no tendency to form a chimney of ash, or burn unevenly across the face even when relatively thick paper is used in the tube.
Charge into a 8-12 mm ID tube, consisting of several turns of dry paper. Begin by pasting one end of the tube with a drumhead of tissue or kitchen paper, and ram composition into the tube with this end face-down on a smooth surface. It can be funnel and wire loaded, but will burn somewhat faster. A case support is recommended to achieve a good density with such flimsy tubes, or it may be loaded slightly dampened. Dampening with alcohol that has some red gum or shellac dissolved in it makes a very hard lance that can be snapped easily to terminate it early.
No starting fire is required, but you can prime the drumhead with meal slurry if you wish to use the device as a large lance. An alternative might be scratch ignition composition. A scratch ignition surface should be protected by a paper cap for safety. No priming is really required for the traditional portfire use, the composition takes fire quite easily.