16 replies to this topic

[Mumbles]

It sounds like you just didn't mix it very well. It sounds like you just mixed this by hand. With something so fluffy you really need to screen it together to have any hopes of it mixing fully. It is the same way when dealing with lampblack. Even in compositions where there is only a little bit, you can see it constantly floating to the top until it is well dispersed with a screen. Even if you think you mixed it fully by hand or shaking or stirring, I can just about guarantee that it is far from fully homogeneous.

[cooperman435]

Id agree fully with the poor mixed theory, as Balsa charcoal is so ridiculously light and fluffy it takes a while to become integrated into the mix properly and stop separating its self out.

Ballmilling I found weird results with it when I tested it years ago and discovered that minimal milling was needed as it was so fast to begin with but if I milled for less than an hour it was still slow when burnt as mill dust with lots of charcoal dust thrown in the air, however when granulated was insanely fast and cleaner burning

If milled for around two hours it sudenly became fast as mill dust but not much faster as granulated

I put this down to the moisture during granulation incorporating the previously free (well milled) charcoal into the mix properly, and the extra milling managed to do it eventually too.