Getting Supplies

Pyro supplies are always hard to find for the beginner, so I have made a page to hopefully help them in their search. This page is going to be under construction for a while, but I have a few basic things here now. If you see anything wrong please email me.

Pyro supplies are usually classified into two groups, chemicals and non-chemical supplies. I will talk about chemical supplies first.

Chemical Supplies

The first four chemicals that the beginner needs are potassium nitrate, sulfur, charcoal (and maybe a little dextrin which can be easily made). These four chemicals will get you started on many beginner projects. For example you can make rockets, fountains, meal powder (gunpowder), match (homemade fuse), quick match (quick homemade fuse ;-)), even simple stars, roman candles and arial shells.

Potassium Nitrate

Potassium Nitrate, or saltpeter, is commenly avialable in the US ( I don't know about other countries, but I assume it is there, too). It is sold as Saltpeter in larger drug stores. They may not have it on the shelf, but they might have it in the back, or can order it for you. This can be rather expensive if you need a bit of it though. You can also get it through large garden and fertilizer supply houses. I have even heard of it being sold from golf-course supply houses. I have never personally bought any from these stores because I do not live near any large towns. It is my understanding that it has a few impurities, but will still work for pyro projects.

Sulfur

Sulfur is also avliable through drug-stores. It is called "flowers of sulfur". I have seen it in a few large and small drug stores. This type of sulfur is not as pure as what you can get from pyro suppliers, but this type will usually work. You can also get it from garden supply houses like the Potassium Nitrate, but like the Potassim Nitrate it is not very pure. *Note: NEVER mix sulfur or any sulfur compounds (antimony trisulfide) with any Chlorate compound it will create a very unstable mixture that can go off unexpectedly at any time. Many appendeges and lives have been lost because of this.*

Charcoal

Charcoal is one of the easier things to come by. You can use the charcoal sold a stores for outdoor grilles, but it has disadvantages. Besides having to grind it to an acceptable size, this charcoal often contains many impurities, such as clay. This reduces the quality of anything you make out of it (meal powder, rocket feul) causing it to burn slower. There is another method although I have never tried it (I've been meaning to, I'm just an amateur, ok). The most popular way of manufacturing charcoal and the is to put some wood (certain types are better) in a metal can, punch some holes in it, and put in a fire. After a while come get the can. Don't open the can right away as it might rouin your charcoal, instead, wait for it to cool down. What you have should work as charcoal to start out. Paint cans usually work good because the metal cans are expendable. This process can be improved, but this is the basic procedure.

Dextrin

Dextrin is a very popular water soluble binder. It is used to hold certain compositions, like stars, together. Fortunantly, it is also easy to make. You can make it by putting some cornstarch on a cookie sheet and putting it in your oven at 350-375. About every hour you should stir it to allow it to cook evenly. After a few hours it should start to turn tan. You can test it by puting a little in some water and adding a few drops of tincture of iodine (the kind you get in drug stores) to it. If it turns a dark-purple color and stays that way then you need to cook it some more.

Other Chemicals

There are many other chemicals used in pyrotechnics, but are harder to obtain. I have heard that you can get Aluminum dust from painting stores, and you probably can, but I have not had such luck. There are ways to make some chemicals like Potassium Perchlorate ( I will soon have a page about this) and Potassium Chlorate, but they are a little more complicated, to me anyway. Acetone, Xylol, and Alcohol are all solvent used in pyrotechnics that can be found in hardware and home improvement stores. Some people grind thier own iron, aluminum, magnesium and other metals, to get metal filings. All of these chemicals and ones that you probably can't make can be obtained form mail-order type companies like Skylighter, Firefox , or Iowa Pyro Supply.

Non-Chemical Supplies

Paper Tubes

Paper tubes are closer than you think, if you just look closer. They can be salvaged from places such as carpet stores, grocery stores, or use toilet rolls or paper towel rolls. I have used the latter for rockets and had success. I cut the roll to form a little sheet of cardboard and then re-wrapped it into a smaller tube and wrapped tape around it to hold it together. This gave it enough strength to last a flight anyway. I have also salvaged tubes from Fourth of July fountains that worked pretty good. The most promising may and the best way to get paper tubes is to make them yourself from Kraft paper or even brown grocery bags. I know have a little page about that. Click here to learn how to make your own paper tubes.

Clay

Clay is one of the easiest pyro supplies to obtain, at least for me. I live in the country and have a natural clay "deposit" not far from my house. Because of this I do not really know how hard it is to obtain other wise, but assume it is easy. I have heard you can use kitty litter, oil absorbant for shops (for accidental spills), and you can probably get it from pottery shops. You can also use Plastir of Paris for some applications. Just be sure that when you use this it isn't in exploding fireworks (salutes) or ones that might explode (rockets). Plaster of Paris becomes very hard when it dries, and creates a chance of shrapnel if used inproperly. I'm sure if you look around there is a place to get clay near you. I have also read that you can make it more durable by adding a little powdered shellac, and then dampening it with alcohol before you ram it.

Note: This section is in no way complete but will hopefully help you to get started. I hope to add more to it later and any suggestions are welcome.