Once a shell or rocket reaches the proper height in the sky, a burst of black powder distributes the visual effects. In the vast majority of fireworks, those effects are stars.
Stars are hard pellets of a pyrotechnic composition that are primed to ignite when a burst charge shatters the shell they are contained in. There are several different methods to make stars, and they can take a variety of shapes. The most common method is to roll composition onto cores as will be demonstrated in the following video. With the rolling process of making stars, they can be made to change color mid flight by starting to roll with one composition, then switching to a different one for the outer layers.
Another common process for making stars is to ‘cut’ them. To do this, a large amount of composition is wet with water or whatever solvent is required to dissolve the binder until the entire mass becomes the consistency of clay. It is then spread out on a sheet like cookie dough and a ruler or spatula is used to dice it into squares. The square stars once dry do not fit as nicely into spherical fireworks shells as rolled stars do, but they work quite well in canister shells and star mines. They are very quick and easy to make, and so I prefer to use them whenever I can. Here is a video showing the process, which I realize severely needs to be remade at a better quality:
There are a handful of other methods for producing stars, such as pumping or screen cutting. Those methods will be detailed at a later date. One of the above two methods will produce stars fit for use in nearly all fireworks.
Hello NightHawkInLight,
Is it possible to use boilie-making equipment to make stars? Something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEZpYnoBczs
Is it safe to squeese wet star-mixture this way?
Regards, Dejmos
P.S. The “like-bar” is so annoing. It will be better if you move it. Now it stands in front of the text and one who don’t have Facebook or Tweeter or etc. can’t remove it.
I’ve never seen one of those, very cool. I suspect it would work for stars, though the skin would have to be peeled off each one before use. It is safe to squeeze wet star mixture, so long as it doesn’t contain any of the incompatibilities I list on the Safety page. Sorry about the like bar, you must have a very narrow screen or be zoomed in for it to be over the text. There is no where else I can move it.
I didn’t understend “the skin would have to be peeled off each one before use”. Could you explain, pls.
I have 21″ CRT monitor and I don’t zoom the page, neither use full screen on my browser. How can I close the bar? I can’t read the bottom of the pages.
I was mistaken about the skin remark, disregard that. I assumed a sausage skin was being used to make the balls in the video. I’m not sure what like bar you are seeing, I have it set up so that it should be floating to the left of the text, nowhere near where it would cover anything.
OK, I’ve understand what the “skin-mistake”
was caused from. No, there isn’t any skin or other cover on the “sausage”. It is made simply by squeesing the mixture through the nozzle. This set of tools is used to make “boilies” – a type of fishing baits. There are authomatic sets too, two specially shaped cylinders rotated by motor or by handle.
“I’m not sure what like bar you are seeing”
I mean the facebook and tweeter bar. It’s not floating and it covers the text down left on the page. I use Crome and Mozilla, the problem exists on both browsers. At this moment I can’t see the last row of what I’m writing.
But if it’s difficult to fix it, don’t bother. It’s not so big problem. I can copy-paste the last few rows and read them in Notepad
Thanks for sharing this material!. I have only a question.. What kind of charcoal did you recommend to make Chrysanthemum stars and Tiger Tail stars??
Pine charcoal makes the nicest stars.