Getting started in this hobby

[JergBergle]

Good morning everyone! I'll preface this to say I'm sorry if this sounds jumbled - it's hard to know what to start asking about first.

 

Just a quick question on how to get started or where to look to get started here. Meaning proper licensing, storage, training, exams, etc.. I understand that each state is different and what you intend to do in said hobby will require more or less training to do it, so let me explain my situation. (I live in rural Pennsylvania)

 

Now maybe this effects the road I will have to travel down to become legal here, but here's what I'd ideally like to do:

 

- I'd like to be able to make my own black powder, black powder compositions, and star compositions (all of course for my own use), but with work, life in general, and the lack of people I know personally that have experience in the craft I don't really wish to make anything more than fountains, smoke devices, sparklers, star mines, and cremora fireballs - really nothing more exciting than you can buy at a gas station here. Maybe years and years down the line I'd like to try my hand at making aerial shells and the like but for safety's sake (and money's sake) I have near zero interest in doing that.

 

-I have no interest AT ALL in making flash powder/salutes or even BP rockets and especially not whistlers. I'm not chemistry illiterate, but I am well aware I lack the experience and proper tooling to even begin to attempt it. (And sensitizing flash with Sb2S3??? LOL)

 

-Personally I find the chemistry to be the most appealing and exciting part of this whole thing and am long long past any teenage desire to see things simply make a loud noise/blow things up (although I can most certainly appreciate the time and ingenuity that goes into a modern fireworks display) The idea of a little oxidizer and CHALK(!!) with some binder reacting on an atomic level to create a brilliant orange flame or seeing videos of firefly aluminum falling through the air twinkling like lightning bugs in a summer field is much much more appealing to me.

 

- I especially don't want to sell anything.... AT ALL (Obviously...but I'd thought I'd clarify anyway). And as for putting on "displays" I can't see myself stringing but two little coffee creamer fireballs together at once. If I spend all that time to make them I want to appreciate them one by one. Maybe years even decades from now after accumulating much more knowledge about the art my views might change (who really can tell what will happen in ten years time?), but for now all I'd like to do is the most basic of basics.

 

-Lastly and maybe most importantly I want to do this legally because I just don't have the money or time to pay a lawyer for court fees because a SWAT team broke down my door and shot my dogs because of some sparklers. I know that's an oversimplification of the law and how it's carried out, but with modern nebulously defined anti-terrorist legislation and the political climate in general in the USA you really can't be too careful. Please, Uncle Sam, if you give me a license I'll throw all the money you'd ask for for a yearly fee.

 

Please let me know what you think or if you have somewhere to point me to get started. I'm sorry if i missed a glaringly obvious sticky topic somewhere that answers all of this, but I figured I'd eventually have to spell my intentions out to SOMEONE somewhere so I might as well do it now.

 

Thanks in advance, guys and gals, and I hope to hear from someone with probably more experience than years I've been alive (or anyone really)

 

PS. If it's necessary to explain anything further I'd be happy to do so! Sorry if I missed any typos or the like, also.

Edited July 31, 2016 by JergBergle

[OldMarine]

Here's a link to the ATF "Orange Book". It's basically the bible for a federal license. I don't know about your local regulations but here in Tn they're as clear as mud. I just make sure I work safely and test far from populated areas. A fellow pyro here is researching the hoops we'll need to jump through here to get legal and so far, nada.

Good luck and be safe.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.atf.gov/explosives/docs/publication-federal-explosives-laws-and-regulations-atf-p-54007/download&ved=0ahUKEwiPx6ab753OAhVL7yYKHQBLBo0QFggbMAA&usg=AFQjCNEzR15U9I1rce7ntTqoXSD9hJUPgA&sig2=gUIjwnn1YQ48N8VEsV0OEg

Edited July 31, 2016 by OldMarine

[JergBergle]

Awesome, thank you! I'll give that a read through and start from there. In regards to laws, I feel the same way about PA reg. - I'm sure its spelled out SOMEWHERE, but the most helpful thing I've found so far in regards to the specificities of PA law was "don't cut open fireworks" haha. I mean it's sound advice but not very in depth.

[mikeee]

Owning a black powder firearm or signal device usually justifies the making/owning of up to 50 pounds of BP.

Having a signal device/cannon also justifies the use of visco fuse.

[dynomike1]

The good thing about the federal part is you don't have to have a lic to build of shoot on your own property. State i don't know. If you are planning on getting into this hobby, make plans for a ball mill or you will never get good BP. You probably can't buy BP cheap enough.

[JergBergle]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I do indeed own a signal cannon and a few muzzleloaders, but I think I'll be keeping the BP on hand <10 pounds haha. Is there anywhere or anyone else I can go to ask or read about or local and statewide laws regarding fireworking as a hobby?

[uncrichie]

Owning a black powder firearm or signal device usually justifies the making/owning of up to 50 pounds of BP.

Having a signal device/cannon also justifies the use of visco fuse.

 

The Federal exemption allowing the storage of up to 50 pounds of BP for the use in antique/replica arms is for commercially made BP only. State and local restrictions on storage weight may be less. Your mileage may vary. Kurt