Want To Buy: Baechle's Pyrocolor Harmony, &, Harmaan's Formulary

[AzoMittle]

I'm looking to purchase a copy of Joel Baechle's Pyrocolor Harmony as well as Dan Harmaan's The WiZard's Pyrotechnic Formulary.

 

Harmaan's book is available via Skylighter for $66 however I figured I would check if anyone is willing to sell their used copy for less than that.

 

I cannot find anyone selling Baechle's book. Skylighter says they may have more copies available in the future but couldn't give an ETA.

[lloyd]

Have you checked with AFN? They used to carry both. Pretty much anything in print about fireworks is available from them or ABE books at decent prices.

 

The likelihood of finding any serious pyro who'd be willing to give up either book is slim. I guess you might find someone who had to 'get out', but there are fewer of those than you might suspect.

 

LLoyd

[AzoMittle]

Have you checked with AFN? They used to carry both. Pretty much anything in print about fireworks is available from them or ABE books at decent prices.

 

The likelihood of finding any serious pyro who'd be willing to give up either book is slim. I guess you might find someone who had to 'get out', but there are fewer of those than you might suspect.

 

LLoyd

I checked with both and neither carries either book. Nor does Amazon or anyone else I could find.

 

I'm sure people want a copy as I'm one of those people.

[OldMarine]

Pyro literature is as expensive as the tools and harder to find. So far I've purchased FAST and Pyrotechnia IX & XI. All came from the same estate library sale I ran across on Google Books.

[Maserface]

Pyro color harmony is going to be a tough one to find. I believe each diagram was done by Joel by hand.

 

I was lucky enough to get one from skylighter, and got Joel to sign it

 

Good luck!

[taiwanluthiers]

I think the reason is because pyrotechnics formula has always been a family secret, at least for the big firework families. So there's probably a huge reluctance to release them to the public. Like for example nobody will ever know the composition for Zambelli's stars... Not even those who work for them. Only the family members knows them. Though if someone has enough pocket they could chemically analyze leftover stars to determine its composition.

[lloyd]

Nah... in this case, the books already exists -- there are treasure troves of 'past volumes' available on all that stuff, including (mostly) good formulae that work well.

 

The problem with availability is that it's a niche market. Sales aren't really high, and such books as the two mentioned mostly appeal to 'advanced' amateurs who may already know most of what's in them.

 

OTOH, I might include myself among that class, and I find both (and several others) to be invaluable in my daily work. I likely refer to Baechel once every two months, and The Wiz more like once every two weeks.

 

LLoyd

[AzoMittle]

Nah... in this case, the books already exists -- there are treasure troves of 'past volumes' available on all that stuff, including (mostly) good formulae that work well.

 

The problem with availability is that it's a niche market. Sales aren't really high, and such books as the two mentioned mostly appeal to 'advanced' amateurs who may already know most of what's in them.

 

OTOH, I might include myself among that class, and I find both (and several others) to be invaluable in my daily work. I likely refer to Baechel once every two months, and The Wiz more like once every two weeks.

 

LLoyd

 

 

I think Lloyd hit the nail on the head with his comment about it being a niche market of a niche market.

 

I went ahead and bought Harmaan's via SkyLighter and placed a backorder on Baechle's.