Skylighter Fireworks Tips Newsletter
June 14, 2006 -- Issue #75

A 40-foot container of products from China just arrived. There are some great new items as well as some old friends back in stock. Here’s a sampling of the products we received from China last week. More in the next newsletter. The old items first:

Old Items Back in Stock

Fast Yellow Visco. This is by far the most popular fuse we have ever sold. It burns 10 times faster than standard visco fuses, ¼ second per inch. We have been out of it since last May. If you have some already on order from us, your’s has already been shipped to you. If you have wanted some, you should order it right now. Every time we order more of it from China, we double our previous order. Nevertheless, the stuff is so useful for chaining fireworks together that we have never been able to keep it in stock on a regular basis. Hopefully, we have at least enough to last through the July 4th holiday. But you never know.
GN1100, 100-foot roll, $16.85.

Quickmatch. 65foot rolls of flat quickmatch containing 5 strands of blackmatch. Very high quality, plastic wrapped, so it will be waterproof when used. No need to foil-wrap this quickmatch! Cannot be shipped, warehouse pickups or convention deliveries only.
GN3001, 65 feet, $12.95

Framed Screens. We have them in five sizes. These are a great and convenient bargain. Get ‘em while they last. Check ‘em out on the Tools page.
Framed Screens, $12.95 each.

New Products

Super Fast Paper Fuse. This is the fastest fuse we can ship to you. It burns 3 seconds per meter (39 inches). Definitely a great fuse to use for chaining consumer fireworks together. Although it does burn very fast, it is not waterproof at all. Very limited supply.
GN1205, 100-foot roll. $11.75

New Flying Fish Fuses.
Our factory in China continues to develop really cool new flying fish fuse effects. When I test burned these fuses in March, all of us were whooping and hollering at how good the effects looked in the air in daylight! The guys at our fuse factory are without a doubt the Academy Award winners of Chinese fuse makers. Try all the new ones. You’ll love them.

Green Crackling Flying Fish Fuse.
GN1041, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $23.00

Lemon Crackling Flying Fish Fuse.
GN1042, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $23.00

Orange Crackling Flying Fish Fuse.
GN1043, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $23.00

Red Crackling Flying Fish Fuse. My personal favorite.
GN1044, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $23.00

New Falling Leaves Fuses
Falling leaves fuses are designed to be cut into short, one to 1.5 inch lengths and used in aerial shells. They will float lazily to the ground. Use them as you would colored stars. Some beautiful new colors.

Blue Falling Leaves Fuse.
GN1049, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $18.60

Lemon Falling Leaves Fuse.
GN1051, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $18.60

Orange Falling Leaves Fuse.
GN1052, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $18.60

Purple Falling Leaves Fuse.
GN1053, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $18.60

White Strobe Falling Leaves Fuse.
GN1056, 100 feet cut in 1 meter (39 inch) lengths), $18.60

New Supplies for Making Ematches Faster and Easier Than Ever
Homemade fireworks igniters, electric matches, ematches, or sometimes called squibs: we just made it quicker and easier for you to make your own electric fireworks igniters. We have two new products, which just came in. Using these two products, you can make an ematch in just over a minute each. See the web site listings for more information, and details on how to use them.

Ematch Heads With Lead Wires. We have these made for us in China. They consist of an ematch head/chip with one-foot lead wires already soldered on. We recommend you use them with our GN5050 Electric Match Dip Kit to make your own homemade fireworks igniters. They even come with removable plastic shrouds on them, just like commercially made ematches.
GN5040 40 in a pack, $17.94

Electric Match Dip Kit. This kit contains all the pre-measured chemicals you need to make your own electric matches. We recommend you use either Skylighter’s GN5040 or GN5030 ematch heads. Just follow the easy directions and you can be turning out ematches within 10 minutes. Each kit contains four bottles of pre-measured chemicals. All you do is mix two bottles and dip according to the instructions to make electric fireworks igniters. We spent over a year getting this special dip kit designed for us. It is safer than most formulas and contains no sulfur. Makes enough pyrogen for 300-500 ematches.
GN5050 4 bottle set, $39.95


As some of you may know, there is now an official shortage of key fireworks chemicals. In a nutshell, the US government has been working very hard to restrict the amount of key fireworks-making chemicals available in the marketplace. I won’t bore you with the details. But what this means to you is that some of the most common fireworks chemicals, which have always been available, may not be in the future.

We have been fortunate enough to secure a large surplus stock of some items, which should keep us supplied for a while. But that was a one-time buy, and we cannot depend on being able to continue getting supplies of some items. For this reason, I highly recommend you buy as much as you think you will need for the future.

This is a for-real shortage. It is not temporary. It is not going to go away. Other suppliers are having the same problem. It is industry-wide. From now on, my advice to all of you is to lay in as much of whatever you need for the future. I believe the government and this administration will continue to do everything in its power to prevent you from being able to get these chemicals.

Special note to M80 and Boomer Makers: STOP. Gentlemen, I started my fireworks life as a cherry bomb and M80 enthusiast. And I still love them. And you can certainly make whatever you want legally-IF you will take the time to get a BATFE Type 20 High Explosives Manufacturing License. See Skylighter Newsletter Archive for more information on how to get licensed.

But if you want to make M80s and the like without an ATF license, you are out of luck. As you may have found out already, you are simply not going to get the necessary ingredients from Skylighter any more. The reason is simple: The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Justice Department have declared a kind of war on hobby M80 makers. And they are doing their best to shut down the fireworks supply businesses in this country in order to stop anyone from making M80s. So, now the guys who want to make M80s threaten the entire hobby of making fireworks.

So, what does that mean to you? It means, if you’re trying to stock up on M80 chemicals, fuse, tubes, plugs, etc. we are going to turn you down.

I’ll get very specific. If your order history suggests that you are making is M80s, we will turn your order down. We have been and will continue to decline any order for any M80 chemicals or components. If you order only one or two chemicals, whose primary use is in flash powder devices, (i.e. potassium perchlorate, dark aluminum), your order will be declined. If you try to send in multiple orders several days apart, one chemical or component at a time, your order will be declined. There are other reasons your order would be declined as well.

3 Strikes and You’re Out: If we decline you three times, you will never be able to order anything from Skylighter. Nothing. Ever.

My friends, I love a big bang. But I love being in business even more. So those of you who continue to try and beat the system here by ordering M80 chemicals and components are now a threat not only to Skylighter and the few remaining other chemical sellers, but to the whole hobby of fireworks and amateur rocket making.

Do yourself and the 30-odd thousand of us fireworks makers a favor--those of us whose legal hobby is making fireworks and amateur rockets. Stop making M80s. Find something else to do. Buy one of our books and learn to make the kinds of fireworks, which take some skill. You can do it, and you can still (knock wood) do it without an ATF license.