Hey totse, I’ll get straight to the point, I’m a long time lurker of BB on &T I just thought I’d ask if you guys could see if this guide I found would work for making my own sparklers. The main reason why is a girl I’m with thinks they look cool and I’m going to try and put on a nice sparkly show without buying lots of sparklers. I don’t have a lot of experience with pyro but I’ve been reading up on it and so far made a smoke mix with the KNO3/sugar mix (my dad’s a chemistry teacher so he got some KNO3 from the school he works at, I can’t find it at any hardware stores so far ). Anyway just wondering if anyone could see if this would work or if it’s dangerous/hard or any suggestions to help me improve it.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/demons...t/sparkler.htm
Sparklers are a handheld 'fireworks' that don't explode (pyrotechnic devices). They are easy to make, plus you can use your knowledge of chemistry to make colored fire.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: minutes to make, several hours drying time
Here's How:
1. Mix the dry ingredients with enough dextrin solution to make a moist slurry. Include the strontium nitrate if you want a red sparkler or the barium nitrate if you want a green sparkler.
2. Dip the wires or sticks in the sparkler mixture. Be sure to leave enough uncoated space at one end to safely grasp the finished sparkler.
3. Allow the mixture to dry completely before igniting the sparkler.
4. Store sparklers away from heat or flame, and protected from high humidity.
Tips:
1. Source is L.P. Edel, "Mengen en Roeren", 2nd edition (1936), p.22, as cited from Wouter's Practical Pyrotechnics
2. Parts are by weight.
3. Be certain the sparkler is 'out' and cooled before discarding it. This is easily accomplished by dipping the stick in a bucket of water.
4. Firework use is restricted or prohibited in some areas. Please check your local laws before burning sparklers, whether you purchase them or make them yourself.
What You Need:
• iron wires or wooden sticks
• 300 parts potassium chlorate
• 60 parts aluminum fines, flitter, or granules
• 2 parts charcoal
• 10% dextrin in water solution
• 500 parts strontium nitrate (optional, for red color)
• 60 parts barium nitrate (optional, for green color)

I heard that potassium chlorate is pretty tricky to get a hold of....is that true? In Australia it’s pretty tricky to get much of anything but any help you could give is greatly appreciated. Sorry for such a kewl question but I just thought I’d ask here since there's a lot of people who are smarter than me here.

The formula you've presented looks correct and would be mildly dangerous. Potassium Chlorate is getting increasingly harder to get because of government regulations, but you can make sparklers without it. Use this if you can't find it (supplied by HF in the archives):

Sparkler #11
Source: rec.pyrotechnics. Inventor of this composition is Bruce Snowden. posted by Sweden <sweden@synchron.ct.se
Comments:
Preparation: The aluminum is probably supposed to be atomized, but experimentation is required.

Potassium nitrate.................................14
Sulfur............................................ 3
Charcoal.......................................... 3
Aluminum.......................................... 2
Dextrin........................................... .qs

Also, this is a PERFECT example of what a question should look like. Now that you're no longer a lurker, welcome to BB. If you ever have questions please post here or on the IRC.

Cool, i thought I'd get flamed to hell for asking this. Thanks for your reply. I don't mean to sound like a smart ass but isn't that basically black powder that will stick to a piece of wire? And I'm guessing the aluminum makes it sparkle more and burn a bit slower? Sorry if i sound like a retard but I'm trying to learn as much as i can about pyro and alike before i try anything. That page about consequences and stories from people here have made me be careful

Basically yes ...

First of: Thanks for being such a great newbie! If everybody would put as much effort in research as you have (or even just any), my job would be quite a bit easier.

Yes, a sparkler composition is basically any slow-burning composition that has a bit of extra fuel/reducer added to it to make it the LE equivalent of oxygen negative.
As the composition burns, some of the unburned fuel is propelled away and continues to burn upon contact with atmospheric oxygen.

Me, I like to add some iron filing to BP for an easy sparkler composition. Don't bother with a binder, dip a thin stick in wood glue, then roll it through your composition.

I can personally vouch for that composition, burns a bit fast though. I recommend making sure there is a far longer gap between the sparkler comp and where your hand would get to than on a commercial sparkler.

I also found it was a lot easier to get a decent amount on a wooden stick over an iron wire. Getting the first coat on the iron wire was pretty difficult, as it appeared to slide off quite a bit of the time.

I told you, you wouldn't get flamed!

I cant say I know a massive amount about sparklers but I would have thought it would be similar to a fountain mix stuck to a stick and unconfined.

If you want to experiment and learn you could try different metals.

Iron filings for Golden yellow branching sparks.

Aluminium filings or powder for bright white sparks. Flake Aluminium will burn faster thus reducing the distance the sparks fly but also making the sparkler burn faster. Magnesium powders will also have a similar affect.

Titanium is probably creates the most interesting spark affect with a unique fine branching affect.

You could add Barium if available for a green color or instead use copper powder if available.

Or strontium for a red affect

Sorry if this information does not apply for sparklers these are a few of the things I have experimented with in fountains.

You could try mixing different metals, and color compositions for a lucky dip!

Both the barium and stronium require a chlorine donor such as PVC for a color affect but if possible it may well be worth investigating.

Also bear in mind that many powdered metals and barium are harmful and often very light. Wear a dust mask, gloves and avoid static with the more flammable metals in case a cloud is produced.

Of course most of this is pretty usless unless you go a bit more advanced. For something simple I would go with Aluminum, Iron or Titanium for the best affects. The smaller the particle size the smaller and shorter lasting the sparks will be.

Excellent question! Usually we get retards asking how to make sparkler bombs (which we don't condone)...

I personally haven't made any sparklers, but i was considering making some lances before the 4th, which are sorta like sparkler/flares.

Some of the glitter compositions are said to make nice sparklers, IE:
http://www.vk2zay.net/composition.php?id=5 (D1 glitter)
Open shutter for a while:
http://www.vk2zay.net/device.php?id=191

For some more sparkler compositions:
http://www.jackerypyro.com/formulary.html
Log on to the Formulary as a guest and go to view, then enter sparkler in the title bar and go to the bottom of the page to search.

http://members.shaw.ca/gryphon223/PFP/
Go to "Other" then look under sparklers.

And after you've got a working compositions, you can start making fountains as well!

Thats what i was worried about getting flamed for. I figured just mentioning sparklers would be a bit of a bad idea because sparkler is usually followed by bomb.

Thanks to everyone for helping out, I'll give it a go soon, its school holidays now so i might go around to a couple of shops and see if i can find anything. Just wondering though, would it be easier for me to look around at a bunch of different places for the different supplies i would need or just to buy it off the net? I'm not sure how tight import laws are in Australia but it'd probably be easier for me to buy things off the net than to get things from bunnings and other gardening/hardware stores.

From what i found in a little search on google is that fountains are the same sort of thing as what i was asking about but in a tube with something over the top to hold it in (one of the things i saw said to use playdoh over the top of the little container with some playdoh on the bottom, but the kid looked about 13 so i didn't want to trust him). Is that basically what it is though? Just the same mix in a confined-ish container?

Thanks again for all the help and being nice about me being a newbie and stuff, not expected at all! Thanks again

hmmm..................