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Also known as and HE's (high explosives), these explosives detonate. They detonate via heat, shock or friction. Primary explosives are very sensitive to those things, but secondary's are usually not. A practical and safe way to detonate a primary would be to put it in a casing put an electrical fuse in it and detonate it with an electrical ignition set up. Secondary explosives generally need a large explosive wave to discharge. They need a blasting cap or booster to detonate it. A blasting cap only filled with with an LE would not normally do the job, but sometimes a correctly made cob might be able to detonate a more sensitive secondary like PETN. But usually a blasting cap is filled with a primary, such as AP, inside a film can aster. You'll defiantly want to use electrical ignition when using secondary explosives. The reason being, secondary explosives are more, well..."explosive", meaning they have the highest energy outputs of any explosive. High explosives are very complex and dangerous. I would suggest
having a firm knowledge of LE's and chemistry, take a chemistry class
or two, before you try and make your own HE's.
There is a lot of good sites out there with really
good information on a lot of High Explosives, Megalomaniac's being the
best. Here are the links: |
| Abbreviated BP and called gun powder, meal powder or lift powder, black powder is one of the most basic low explosives. Simply throw all of the ingredients into a ball mill with NON SPARKING milling media (lead is usually used). Check the progress after a few hours. If it seems to be uniform color and you can not make out the individual particles, it is half done. The powder that you now have is called green powder. It can be used for lift charges or fuses. If you would like finished black powder, you will need to moisten it. Place the green powder in a pan and moisten it with water, just enough to make it clumpy. Load this mix into a hydraulic press and compress it until it makes a solid cake. Allow it to dry completely. After it is dry, smash it into smaller pieces by placing it in a bag (cloth bags seem to be the most durable) and hitting it with a hammer. Pulverize it to the desired consistency. Meal powder is very fine powder while the charge used for large cannons is quite chunky. |
| This way is slightly easier but produces powder of lesser quality. Mostly it doesn't reacquire a ball mill in case you don't have one. First, fill a beaker about half way with alcohol and heat that up. Don't boil for obvious reasons. Add the ingredients and stir until it's well mixed and has the same color. Then dump it into a baking pan or something and put that in the sun to dry. This lets the alcohol evaporate. The thinner it is spread the easier the next step will be. Then next step is to crush it. Don't use metal tools because they might make a spark which could ignite it. Crush it as well as you can. You can crush it in the pan with a baseball bat, and then crush it even more fine with a mortar& pestle. Once this is finished the black powder is ready. If you don't mind waiting longer for it to dry, water will work in place of the alcohol The key to good black powder is to have the ingredients as fine as possible. |
| Flash powder is not hard to make...if you have the materials. Most of them can be found only at chemical stores and online pyrotechnic stores. First put the ingredients on a sheet of paper. Now you have a decision. You could either put it in a bag and shake it not recommended, because of static, or you could gently lift opposite corners of the paper until the composition is well mixed. Both ways are efficient. If you use the baggy idea you might want to use "Static Guard" to insure that no shocks will ignite it. Once this is finished your flash powder is ready for use. This composition is a little shock and friction sensitive, so be careful. There are many alternate formulas for flash powders, some of which use more commonly available ingredients. They will probably come soon. |
| Grind ingredients with a mortar and pestle separately. If you do grind them together it might explode due to that this mixture is friction and shock sensitive. Grind them as fine as possible, and then sift the ingredients through the sifter to get out any clumps that may have formed. Pour both of the ingredients on a sheet of paper. Now you could either put it in a bag and shake it not recommended because of static, or you could gently lift opposite corners of the paper until the composition is well mixed. Both ways are efficient. If you use the baggy idea you might want to use "Static Guard" to insure that no shocks will ignite it. The sheet of paper method is more appropriate for this formula due to the fact that this mixture is friction and shock sensitive. Once this is finished your whistle mix is ready for use. Whistle mix is slightly weaker than flash when loose and can be used in salutes as a substitute for BP or flash. |
| Simply Mix the sugar and KNO3 together. Being the easiest way it is unfortunately also the least in quality. |
| Mix the ingredients together. But this time dissolve it in either Valhalla or water. Then let it dry or you can warm it up until it is malleable. This is the second best way to make a smoke comp. |
| This is the best way. This time add 3-5 more percent of sugar and equal it out with 3-5% less KNO3. Mix this together, heat over a stove at low-medium temperature, and when it is a thick brown mixture it is ready. This way is the best and is recommended if you are making rockets. |
| Mix the sparkler powder and the black powder in a 7/3 ratio, respectively, with a tiny bit of dextrin (around 5% by volume) and enough water to make it moist. Roll this on the foil with a rolling pin to make about quarter inch thick roll. Then cut off 1/4 inch cube pieces, roll those into balls, and prime them with about 2mm of a black powder coating (while still moist, roll them in some meal powder). Once they are dried they are ready for use in roman candles, mines, etc. There are many, many more possible compositions for stars. More will likely appear soon. |