Skylighter Fireworks Tips Newsletter
January 25, 2007 -- Issue #79

THE FLYING FISH FUSE SPARKLER

We got this great little homemade sparkler project from Kevin Shelley. Thanks, Kevin. You can even use the special deal right after this article to get the flying fish fuse for free! Here’s how he makes this fast, neat sparkler using Skylighter flying fish and falling leaves fuse.

I'm writing to you to tell you how fantastic the flying fish and falling leaves fuses are! There are any number of uses for these things, and I just thought I'd write about something we've been making with them: custom sparklers.

The way we make these sparklers is to obtain a bundle of wire marking flags from the local hardware store, after which we strip off the plastic flags. These will become the wires for our sparklers. We then clear-tape or tie lengths of fuse to the thin metal sparkler rods. Taping is a little faster, but tying can be pretty quick too, once you get in the groove on the 'assembly line. We are careful to space the tape/string so that the lengths of flying fish fuses or falling leaves fuses maintain a close relationship with the metal rods.

Using this technique, interesting surefire homemade sparklers can be quickly assembled. The variety of sparklers can be increased by mixing lengths of different flying fish and falling leaves fuses on the same metal rod. When mixing different fuses, we tape the ends of the different fuses in close proximity with one another so that the ignition train can jump the junctures. Using the red and strobing white falling leaves fuses, and the silver crackling flying fish fuses, your can assemble your own versions of the ever popular 'morning glory' sparkler-type novelty firework, with the exception that the end is way prettier than that of the morning glory.

More than one fuse can also be run 'full length' down the sparkler rod, which increases the singular effect of whichever fuse you use for this approach. The crackling fuses make an extra enjoyable experience when doing this (even to the point of being a little scary to firework tenderfoots). The green falling leaves fuse (GN1050), which is amazingly bright already, really responds well to doubling or tripling in this manner. It's like holding a miniature road flare in your hand. The red falling leaves fuse is also good. Although I'm unfamiliar with the other, new falling leaves fuses, I'm sure that they would also be excellent in this application.

We also tape several foot-long lengths of crackling fuse together and then light the whole bundle. The racket is wonderful, and near the end of the burn the entire assembly sometimes takes to the sky.

Hope you're having an excellent selling season right now, Harry. I'm doing my part to introduce the good folks of in my new home in North Carolina to the joys of the fuses.

--Kevin Shelley

Get a lifetime supply of free flying fish and falling leaves fuses from Skylighter. See the special offer which follows.


Get a lifetime supply of different aerial effects fuses absolutely free. Skylighter's Flying Fish and Falling Leaves fuses are a quick and easy way to make aerial shells without the muss, fuss, and expense of making stars. Just cut them in 1 to 1.5 inch pieces and put them into your shell with your burst charge. Normally, no priming is necessary. Just use the fuse pieces as they are when cut. Be sure and read the rules (or you’ll be sorrrreeee) by clicking here: http://www.skylighter.com/offers/14F

Order by Midnight Sunday, January 28th, and get $95 in Free Bonus Products in addition to your free fuses. You can get as much as $555 in free products with this special offer. This is about 80 mesh, granular crystals, free-flowing material (#CH5302), technical grade. It's perfect for making black powder, rocket propellant, black-powder based stars, anything that needs potassium nitrate. You may want to mill it, but you can do that quick and easy with a simple coffee and spice grinder from Wal-Mart. But order right away, so you can get the free bonus products for ordering early. Just go here for all the details:
http://www.skylighter.com/offers/14N

Remember, if you take advantage of either of these special offers before midnight, Sunday, January 28th, you’ll get even more free stuff. Wait ‘til after that, and you’ll just be whining about what you missed. In late December, we launched a new blog at:

http://www.blog.skylighter.com

The idea for this particular blog is to give you more of an insider’s look on the goings on both inside Skylighter as well as in the fireworks industry. I try and post there every few days with new and interesting topics that come up.

In case you don’t already know, blogs offer some advantages over reading our newsletters in email form or on our web site. For one thing, our blog is participatory. You can post questions and comments at any time there. I will try and answer any questions you ask as quickly as I can.

You can also get Skylighter’s blog sent to you automatically by using the Feeds that you see on the right side of the page there. This is great, because you’ll know as soon as I post anything new to the blog.

If you haven’t seen the blog, take a look at the posts I made during my trip to China earlier this month. Strange and wonderful things were happening there.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think and what you’d like to hear about. If you don’t, I’ll just tell you what I think you oughta know.