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Magnesium Flares


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#46 seymour

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 04:52 AM

I'll second everything that Chris M said! The best way we can get away with what we do is make it so that anyone looking would think we are setting off a legitimate firework. Fountains, small shells, small mines, candles, and smallish rockets all should look like a store bought firework to 99% of people.

Flares may not be familiar to many people, though I expect that so long as you set it off safely (in a large garden, or field) you should be able to do it openly without getting any unwanted attention (often random people watch, sometimes applause, from my experience!)

Even if you are setting off larger fireworks, if it looks like a professional firework, people will assume it is, and they should not have a problem with it, so long as you are being sensible.


Deciding what you can and cannot set off in your garden is up to you, since you know the size of it, and your neighbors/family/flatmates better than us. I personally have good neighbors, and fountains and micro-mines are completely tolerated. On a few occasions we have had a joint early November party and small shells have been fired.

It is better to be cautious than not.

Once I went to a restaurant where they served birthday cakes with some sort of gerb (spat short lived sparks) stuck in, I was quite astounded as to how they managed to produce a few wisps of smoke and no smell whatsoever.


Sounds like Nitrocellulose and Titanium to me. Many indoor pyro is based on Nitrocellulose, since it is completely smoke-free when burning (though effect-giving additives add a little smoke.

Due to cost, and some practical difficulties, it's rarely used in outdoor stuff.
The monkey leaped off it's sunny perch and flew off into the night sky.

#47 martyn

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 09:00 AM

Once I went to a restaurant where they served birthday cakes with some sort of gerb (spat short lived sparks) stuck in, I was quite astounded as to how they managed to produce a few wisps of smoke and no smell whatsoever.



off topic sorry, but

is it just me or do the words restaurant and spat in the same sentence make you feel a bit queesy.
Reminds me of those hidden camera type tv programmes :wacko:

#48 darkfang77

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 01:03 PM

lol i hear you there buddy, the most discrete times,..around the 5th nov and new years eve ^_^


5th Nov is not too far away, I'd better start some more research on what I wanna make, then let it off on 5th Nov, can we get away with it on Halloween?

I'll second everything that Chris M said! The best way we can get away with what we do is make it so that anyone looking would think we are setting off a legitimate firework. Fountains, small shells, small mines, candles, and smallish rockets all should look like a store bought firework to 99% of people.
Deciding what you can and cannot set off in your garden is up to you, since you know the size of it, and your neighbors/family/flatmates better than us. I personally have good neighbors, and fountains and micro-mines are completely tolerated. On a few occasions we have had a joint early November party and small shells have been fired.


I'll be honest with you, I live close to a city centre which is all but dead at night, all the shops are bust due to recession, but the pubs are doing better than ever.
But get this, there are more than three or four pubs less than 100m away from where I live, this makes it very difficult to find a timeslot where everyone is drinking and not outside smoking.

Even at 3-4am I still get tipsy people screaming their lungs out less than 30m outside my door! Fortunately this only happens occasionally,
I usually test my flares at 12pm ish, its silent then. Does your revised formula produce a lot of smoke? :blush:

off topic sorry, but

is it just me or do the words restaurant and spat in the same sentence make you feel a bit queesy.
Reminds me of those hidden camera type tv programmes :wacko:


Ha! I wish I could video the event in the restaurant mate.
The birthday guy was waving the cake around (with gerb stuck on at an angle), and joyfully sticking it into his friend's faces (ha! scared you there didn't I?), he was like a table away from me, he was waving it so close I thought he would set someone's hair on fire!

Thankfully the effect lasted only 30 secs at most.

Edited by darkfang77, 01 September 2010 - 01:03 PM.


#49 starseeker

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 07:35 PM

Another good time to test is when it is tipping with rain etc and everybody else is inside watching telly,

#50 darkfang77

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 08:38 PM

Another good time to test is when it is tipping with rain etc and everybody else is inside watching telly,


Possibly, but are we not forgetting that

Magnesium fire + H20 = H2Woah and explosion.

I'm done with flares for now, I'm researching what I need to make sparklers now.

#51 starseeker

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Posted 02 September 2010 - 05:36 PM

Possibly, but are we not forgetting that

Magnesium fire + H20 = H2Woah and explosion.

I'm done with flares for now, I'm researching what I need to make sparklers now.

I did not mean to take it outside and leave it for a few hours before testing,obviously keep it covered until you are ready,when you have lit the fuse i do not think the water is going to have time to react with the Mg.

#52 darkfang77

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Posted 03 September 2010 - 04:42 PM

I did not mean to take it outside and leave it for a few hours before testing,obviously keep it covered until you are ready,when you have lit the fuse i do not think the water is going to have time to react with the Mg.


I was referring to the bit where you said I should test flares when it's pouring rain, I thought water and magnesium fires were bad?
I only make the end product when I intend to use it same day...

#53 Potassium chlorate

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Posted 04 September 2010 - 09:49 AM

This is an underwater flare from Ellern. I have posted it before in another thread, but it might be of interest here as well:

Mg 16%
Al 12%
Ba(SO4)2 40%
Ba(NO3)2 32%
"This salt, formerly called hyperoxymuriate of potassa, is
used for sundry preparations, and especially for experimental
fire-works."

Dr. James Cutbush

#54 dr thrust

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Posted 04 September 2010 - 11:00 AM

what keeps it waterproof and binds it?

#55 Potassium chlorate

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Posted 04 September 2010 - 01:07 PM

He doesn't tell, but it is most probably supposed to be contained in a plastic or metal container of some sort. He just gives the composition as one of the few examples where magnesium sulfate is used as an oxidizer.
"This salt, formerly called hyperoxymuriate of potassa, is
used for sundry preparations, and especially for experimental
fire-works."

Dr. James Cutbush

#56 Potassium chlorate

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Posted 05 October 2010 - 05:43 PM

I just tested the "reddest" composition I ever saw; Bleser Red Magnesium:

Strontium nitrate 55
Magnesium 28
Parlon 10
PVC 7

Do you think it would be possible to get even more out of strontium sulfate, and how should the composition be changed then?
"This salt, formerly called hyperoxymuriate of potassa, is
used for sundry preparations, and especially for experimental
fire-works."

Dr. James Cutbush

#57 MDH

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 01:18 AM

Have you tried a simple mixture of strontium sulfate, magnesium and parlon? If so - would you film it? I have my hands a bit full these days with a halloween display I'm working on, so I only have time to prepare the compositions that I know work already. I'd say see how much oxidizer and chlorine donor you can add before it doesn't burn evenly anymore - push it to the limit. Get as much red out of it as possible.

#58 Potassium chlorate

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 06:38 AM

Oh, I don't have any strontium sulfate. I don't know any pyro supplier in Europe who sells it either, so I'll probably have to make it myself, if I should try. I thought one of you guys might have tried it, though.

I do have barium sulfate, but I don't think it can beat the barium chlorate anyway.

The best green colour I ever made in both light emittance and colour depth was a slight modification of Hardt Green #6:

barium chlorate 50
potassium perchlorate 18
parlon 12
magnesium <63µm 12
red gum 6
charcoal airfloat 2

It must be parlon bound due to the use of pure magnesium.

I tried to exclude the potassium perchlorate and replace it with a higher content of barium chlorate (60) , more parlon (18) and a little bit more of red gum (8), but it didn't work well. Though keeping these ratios and replacing the red gum with shellac makes it almost like the composition with pot perc, though, but it's still very close to destroying the colour.

If you don't mind the emittance but only want the best colour depth, the expensive but simple 9:1 barium chlorate/shellac is still unbeatable.

But, yes, if I made/bought strontium sulfate, I would of course film the result. :)

Edited by Pyroswede, 06 October 2010 - 01:46 PM.

"This salt, formerly called hyperoxymuriate of potassa, is
used for sundry preparations, and especially for experimental
fire-works."

Dr. James Cutbush

#59 MDH

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 05:48 PM

I would then recommend a strontium acetate / copper sulfate route. The copper acetate, of course, has its own uses as well.

#60 starseeker

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 08:55 PM

I just tested the "reddest" composition I ever saw; Bleser Red Magnesium:

Strontium nitrate 55
Magnesium 28
Parlon 10
PVC 7

Do you think it would be possible to get even more out of strontium sulfate, and how should the composition be changed then?

I have recently made a batch of these and they are stunning.




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