Quality of fuse

[subdjoe]

Has anyone any experience with White Lightening Super-Fast ?

Burns HOT at 1/2 seconds per foot.
4mm Diameter, 0.16, (5/32)
Great for linking fireworks together
Use in place of quickmatch.
1 Quantity = 100 feet.

Does it light well from a linstock?  I'm thinking of trying it for reenactments. 

[rampa room artillery]

great stuff,  very fast,  you still wanna take our finger nail and open up the fuse end to expose the powder so its easier to light with linstock. but when it goes it goes.

[subdjoe]

great stuff,  very fast,  you still wanna take our finger nail and open up the fuse end to expose the powder so its easier to light with linstock. but when it goes it goes.

Thank you.  That is exactly the kind of information I need.  I figure for a full sized Ordnance Rifle cut it to 4 inches.  That gives 3/foot and works out to about 8 cents each landed cost.  Beats the heck out of the $1.07 for friction primers.  Save those for timed fire and demonstrations. 

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Not sure about the 4in length.  After pricking the charge to accept the fuse, I like to have the fuse protrude from the vent about 1.5in.  In my 5/8 scale Carronade, that means about a 4.5-5in length (I store precut lengths in an Altoids tin, and they're about the same length on the diagonal).  I'm guessing your Ordnance Rifle will need more length (rough guess - 3in bore +3in wall +1.5in = 7.5in fuse), unless you're not planning to seat the fuse fully into the charge. 

You'll still find it to be significantly less expensive once you work out the right length, and it doesn't have any of the negatives of green fuse.  It burns practically instantly once it hits the vent, and won't gum it up like the green fuse.  I agree with rampa room, that you want to open up the end of it for the linstock (roughly .5in works well for me).

[rampa room artillery]

no need for the fuse to go all the way to the other side of the charge.  it will light it off in the first 1/10 of an inch. and you dont want to push your vent prick all the way to the other side of the powder charge ether. this can cause water to get into the powder charge from the bore. and will make your rounds drop.  just half way is as far as you will ever need to go. so yes 6 inchs of fuse will work fine for a ordnance rifle

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

I don't disagree with you at all that you don't need to fuse through the bore - but here's my thoughts on the matter:

I'm not sure how water becomes a factor (at least not any more so than any other depth of pricking).  I don't load a wet bore, and I don't leave a loaded cannon unfired while I wait for rain or any other water source to mess with it.  I don't know how any residual dampness in the bore from swabbing or fouling would be given any more opportunity to effect the charge by going deeper.  I have had occasions where I needed to fire in the rain, but the depth of pricking has never been an issue, and I've never had a mis- or hangfire while using quickmatch in those conditions.

Though I know it's not necessary to prick all the way through, I don't see why not, at least on my smaller scale cannon.  Using the quickmatch, all I'm introducing into the charge when I insert the fuse is more black powder and a negligible amount of paper.  I've also never had a problem with the projectile settling, though a full size projectile has much more mass, so that may be a more significant issue with the larger bore.  Of course, the crosssectional area of the hole made is only a small fraction of the overall charge area, so I don't know that this would ever pose a real problem, but I haven't had the pleasure of firing larger cannon, so I defer to your experience on that matter.

On a full size bore, I agree that going halfway is probably best - sufficient enough to hold the fuse, even in a breeze, but also easier to prick, and it keeps the fuse from being unnecesssarily long and unwieldy.

As a side note, I have used some crackling fuse, similar to this stuff, but about twice as fast, and it can be quite entertaining for spectators!

[Double D]

If you prick your charge all the way through, you can start a nick on the bottom of the bore.  This nick can tear the charge bag when loading and tear off powder bag when worming.  A piece of powder bag can hold a smouldering ember.  For safety sake your prick should not be long enough to reach the bottom of the bore from the vent.

[dominick]

I've always made the handle on the vent pick so that the point does not reach the bottom of the bore.  The vent pick is also about 1/3 to 1/2 into the bore.

[subdjoe]

Good point about the length, thank you.   I'll also trim down my vent pick a bit. 

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

I guess I should trim mine as well.  I really don't have any reason not to, I suppose.