By Ned Gorski Introduction "Garnitures." Kind of an old-fashioned word, not heard very often in conversation. But, as used to describe the class of fireworks components we are about to look at, I'll be darned if I can find a better word. From "Traditional Cylinder Shell Construction, Part I" by A. Fulcanelli, found in Pyrotechnica IX: "Garnitures. The general term "garniture" refers to the contents of a shell (e.g., cut stars, pumped comets, serpents, whistles, reports, tourbillions; essentially anything that will fit in a shell."
Learn how to make your own homemade firecracker with these simple instructions.
Bill Schmidt, a very accomplished fireworks builder, active in the Crackerjacks club, and a former President of the Northern Lighters, approached me a few years ago with a book idea. He has been making fireworks for many, many years. When he first started, he would buy his supplies for Westech, a company in Utah owned by Ralph Degn. In those days, there was a lot less useful pyrotechnic literature around. To help bridge that gap, Ralph wrote a number of project-oriented papers he called "Technical Reports," which he supplied to his customers. Bill had used these TR's, as they were...
Folks forever believe there is only one kind of cross-match fuse, which is "right." In particular, there are people who think that the legendary Thermolite is the holy grail of cross-match fuses. And there is a peculiar breed of pyro who has been brainwashed that ONLY the crossmatch fuse method they read about in such-and-such a book is right. Well, that isn't necessarily so. So, when you've run out of now-impossible-to-get Thermolite, here are some possibilities for you, some of which, you may be surprised to read, you can actually purchase at Skylighter. Quickmatch: the Chinese-made flat quick match fuse...
Double-voice crackers (DVCs) are effectively a mortar shot without a mortar tube. You can pump these out really fast, and have aerial effects in no time! In this article, we are going to use flying fish fuse for the fuse you light, the internal time-delay fuse, and the burst effect “stars”. Bring your best black powder to this project! These little crackers work best with HOT and FAST black powder. Low-grade BP makes for sluggish performance, and only sends the payload up a couple tens of feet into the air. For this example, we are using GOEX FFF black powder....
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, in stage effects, they are mounted on frames or poles). Microstars are just tiny little fireworks stars. They're ridiculously easy and fast to make. One thing makes this a great project: you don't need to make black powder to fire the microstars up. This saves you money, time, and hassle. All you need is...
