You can get potassium nitrate for making black powder really cheap, if you can find prilled or hard nitrate. "Prilled" nitrate comes in little spheres, around 1 mm or less in diameter. Make Black Powder Using Cheap Potassium Nitrate Prills...
Almost everybody who has lit one of these Titanium sparklers has jumped up and down stiff-legged and begged for the formula. Well my fellow pyro addict, thanks to the gracious permission of the AFN staff I'm going to show you...
For those of you who are having problems with your stars failing to ignite, here's a star you should make to regain your confidence using a production method that has worked every time for me – with beautiful results. The...
White Strobes by Ned Gorski A question was asked on rec.pyrotechnics about formulations for strobe comps that do not use dichromate. Here are some nitrate-based compositions. #1 works particularly well, and by tuning the amount of 200-mesh vs. 60-mesh MgAl,...
Okay, this is way cool! Imagine lighting one of these of at your Fourth of July family gathering. Easy to put together too. You just need some wire, a couple of rocket drivers and two rocket sticks. If you're even...
From Best of AFN III In an encyclopedia I found that magnesium powders are used in bright star compositions, but could not find any details concerning components and their respective quantities. Troy Fish mentions star compositions containing magnalium powders in...
With thanks to the fine folks who put together Best of AFN II This is an examination of the fundamental black powder compositions known as Chrysanthemum 6 & 8. A brief discussion of these compositions can be found in the...
New to rocket making? Here's the perfect rocket project for you to start with. It uses basic rocket tooling that you can make in a few minutes at home. These sugar bottle rockets were invetnted by Dave Sleeter. He wrote...
The Stolen Secret to Making Glittering Microstar Mines A "mine" is a fireworks device which fires burning stars or other fireworks, like small shells or spinners, etc. up into the air from a mortar (typically on the ground, but sometimes,...
Project from Best of AFN Vol. II The sizzling colored comets described in this article have brilliantly colored heads, have short white tails and produce a sound much like frying bacon. They are very simple modifications of standard potassium perchlorate...
Making the Spider Web Shell – AFN Vol. 3 One of the most spectacular yet simple to make fireworks shells is the Spider Web. It is also one of the most inexpensive shells. Some companies call this shell the Octopus,...
Having Fun with the Kiddos - Quick & Dirty Spolette Rockets Most of us are familiar with that small thick walled convolute tube used as the timing element in traditional canister shells. Well, I had a lot of fun with...
