Effect Stars

Dangerous mixture — contains both sulfur and a chlorate. Wet with a shellac/ethanol solution before use.

Particle sizes of metal powders markedly affect the result. Add water and proceed as usual.

Stars fall and burn in an on-and-off manner. The effect is spectacular. Stars must be pumped or cut. Bind with water.

Stars spread pieces of burning metal and charcoal. Much heavier than usual stars — require larger lifter charges. Bind with water.

Bind with dextrin in water.

Bind with dextrin in water.

Dangerous — contains both sulfur and a chlorate. Bind with dextrin in water.

Use a meal powder prime. Adding extra charcoal may slow the burn, giving a better tail. Standard willow method: mix, wet with alcohol/water, screen, dry, mill for 3 hours, then cut stars.

Dampen with 50/50 water/alcohol. Roll over a core star containing NO sulfur or sulfur compounds. Slightly dampen the carbon black with pure alcohol before mixing. Once mixed, the composition should still flow as a powder.

Add water and proceed as usual. Particle size and surface area of reactants has a profound effect on the results.

Particle size of the metal is not critical. Dissolve binder in boiling ethanol, then mix in other ingredients. Stars take a long time to dry — try drying in the sun. Prime with a perchlorate-based strobe prime.

Add water and proceed as usual.

Bind with dextrin in water.

Bind with red gum in water.

Bind with shellac in alcohol.

Bind with shellac in alcohol.

Metal component should be large flake, sieved through a windowscreen (~30 mesh). Use coarse metal only — fine metal will produce a flash, not a firefly effect.

Can also be used as a rocket propellant tail effect. Mix, dampen, granulate through a 20-mesh screen and dry. A beautiful long trailing tail of firefly effect results.

Ball mill oxidizer, fine carbon, and binder for 1 hour. Then add the medium charcoal and firefly metal and mix by hand. Add water to make a dough. Cut into 3/8" stars. Dry 3–4 days. Effect: long tiger tail going up, firefly sparkles coming down.

Wet with ethanol/water (70/30).

Use coarse Aluminum only — fine Aluminum will produce a flash rather than sparks.

Sometimes, Bi2O3 is used instead of Pb3O4. The composition is extremely sensitive, both to friction and impact. It is also quite poisonous and explosive. Gloves and an air mask must be worn at all times when handling this mixture since the mixture contains the very toxic Pb3O4. Add lacquer untill the thickness is like wood putty. Pass the mix through a screen and dry it to make 1mm squares. These will explode with a sharp crack shortly after lighting and can be used as star cores.

Used for the cores of round stars — gives a strong flash of light. Cores burn quickly and are self-propelled if unevenly ignited. Coat with "Brilliant Core Prime" until round to prevent this.

Burns less quickly than the Brilliant Core and produces a silver flame. Used for the cores of round stars.

Add isopropyl alcohol for binding. Cut, round and pumped stars can be made with this composition, but a typical KClO4/Red gum/Charcoal/dextrin prime will be necessary. A final layer of sodium nitrate/sulfur/Charcoal (85/5/10), moistened with NC/acetone lacker (w. about 3% NC) can be added. This adds yellowish sparks. Mealpowder can be used instead if the yellow sparks are not desired.

When very fine powdered ammonium perchlorate was used in a an attempt to try to increase the burning rate of stars an ammoniacal smell and an increase in temperature was noticed. The batch of stars was safely disposed of. By adding 5% potassium dichromate and 1% boric acid the reactions were prevented.

A matrix comet consists of a matrix composition in which colored microstars are embedded. It produces a colored tail when fired. The microstars must be slow-burning while the matrix must be very fast burning. The matrix must either emit as little light as possible or a lot of light in a color that is compatible with the color of the microstars. The following green matrix composition from c1995 is a good starting point for further experimentation.
Exfoliated mica is also called Vermiculite. It is usually obtained from 'mineral products' suppliers in graded sizes from around 5 to 10 millimetres. It requires comminution in a coffee mill, followed by screening. The guar binder, although very effective in low amounts, has a very slow drying profile and a tendency to produce a 'skin' that prevents 'radiant heat source' drying. To dry the comets uniformly requires a fan circulated 'dry air' drier. Large 3" comets might take two months to dry properly depending on the circumstances.

Same application as Matrix Comet #1. Uses a mineral filler and polymer binder combination for different burn characteristics.

This composition produces a silver fire dust. A large silver fire dust flame of short duration is obtained. When the ratio perchlorate to aluminum is changed to 35/65 a small flame with yellowish fire dust of long duration is obtained.

A somewhat reddish-gold effect is obtained.

Produces a brilliant yellow fire dust.

A reddish fire dust is obtained, which is relatively shortlived. When willow charcoal is used instead of pine, long lived fire dust is obtained. To obtain the fire dust, the potassium nitrate must be soaked into the charcoal. Hence a wet proces must be used for mixing.

A reddish fire dust is obtained, which is relatively shortlived. When willow charcoal is used instead of pine, long lived fire dust is obtained. To obtain the fire dust, the potassium nitrate must be soaked into the charcoal. Hence a wet proces must be used for mixing.

A weak fire dust is obtained since the composition contains no sulfur. It creates a different and lonely effect. To obtain the fire dust, the potassium nitrate must be soaked into the charcoal. Hence a wet proces must be used for mixing.

To obtain the fire dust, the potassium nitrate must be soaked into the charcoal. Hence a wet proces must be used for mixing.

To obtain the fire dust, the potassium nitrate must be soaked into the charcoal. Hence a wet proces must be used for mixing.

A fire dust with sparks from the metal powder is obtained. It looks as if red, yellow and green twinkling fire particles were mixed together. The potassium nitrate, sulfur and pine charcoal are previously mixed densily as in the manufacture of black powder.

Magnesium reacts slowly with ammonium perchlorate producing ammonia and magnesium perchlorate, especially in the presence of moisture. Thus, the twinklers cannot be stored for more than 6 months, and they must be kept in a closed bag. During the smoulder phase, magnesium reacts with ammonium perchlorate in the dark. In the flash phase, magnesium reacts with barium sulfate, producing hot MgO and creating a green flame. The flash is followed by another cycle, since the flash rapidly consumes the reactants in the flash zone.
1) Binder solution: Dissolve 3 parts of nitrocellulose (smokeless powder or celluloid film) into 30 parts (w/v) of boiling acetone. If you're going to prepare these stars more than once, prepare more of the solution, since nitrocellulose dissolves slowly even in refluxing acetone. Approx. 30 parts of the solution (v/w) is used each time. Nitrocellulose is used as a binder, since other binders tend to interfere with the twinkling.
2) Mix the ingredients into the binder solution in the order they appear here. Proceed as usual. Note that acetone evaporates very rapidly and the stars usually dry within a few hours.

Frequenty: 3.1 Hz. Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

Frequency: 3.5 Hz. Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

Frequency: 6.9 Hz. Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

Frequency: 3.5 Hz.Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

The magnalium needs to be treated with potassium dichromate before mixing.

Frequency: 9.7 Hz. Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

Add 25 parts 10% nitrocellulose solution in acetone to 100 parts of the composition, and make cut stars. Roll these stars in "priming composition #8", using the same NC paste until stars are round. Add a final layer of black powder in NC paste to ensure ignition.

Magnesium was treated with cold 10% w/w K2Cr2O7 in deionised water for 2 hours.

Wheat flour can substitute for milk sugar. Produce as 10 mm cut stars; prime with meal powder.

The smoke is more dense than that of dye smoke, but it looks dark yellow against the light of the sun. The smoke is poisonous. Make pressed stars.

Form into cut stars, and dry them well. Place them in a coating tub. Add a slurry of soluble glutinous rice starch and cover all the surfaces with the paste by shaking the tub. Remove from the tub and place them on gypsum powder. Roll them in it until all the stars are coated with the gypsum. Dry in the sun. Repeat these operations untill the layer of gypsum becomes thicker than 1.5mm. It will be necessary to repeat at least 6 times. When done, bore a hole in each star to introduce the fire in it (with appropiate precautions taken). Prime the hole with black powder paste and dry in the sun. Roll a final layer of soluble glutinous rice starch and meal powder over the stars and dry them thoroughly.

Wheat flour can substitute for milk sugar. Produce as 10 mm cut stars; prime with meal powder.

Wheat flour can substitute for milk sugar. Produce as 10 mm cut stars; prime with meal powder.

Wheat flour can substitute for milk sugar. Produce as 10 mm cut stars; prime with meal powder.

Smoke is caused by condensation of sulfur vapor. Form into cut stars, and dry them well. Place them in a coating tub. Add a slurry of soluble glutinous rice starch and cover all the surfaces with the paste by shaking the tub. Remove from tge tub and place them on gypsum powder. Roll them in it until all the stars are coated with the gypsym. Dry in the sun. Repeat these operations until the layer of gypsum becomes thicker than 1.5mm. It will be necessary to repeat 6 times. When done, bore a hole in each star to introduce the fire in it (with appropiate precautions taken). Prime the hole with black powder paste and dry in the sun. Roll a final layer of soluble glutinous rice starch and meal powder over the stars and dry them thoroughly.