johnqi119 Posted December 4 Posted December 4 Hi, im new to pyrotechnics, and the first problem I have encountered is being candian. it is really hard to find materials for anything; Alumium powder, nitrates, and many of the oxides are all restricted materials or is just not availible in Canada. If any Canadians are reading this how do yall get your materials?
DavidF Posted December 5 Posted December 5 To address the question that was asked in the original post (and I'm Canadian): Most pyro suppliers won't ship to Canada. Don't even think about Skylighter. They won't even allow a Canadian credit card to be used to ship to an American address. Fireworks Cookbook will ship some things (like airfloat charcoal, dextrin, etc...) They might also ship some of the metals. I used to buy my potassium nitrate from a hydroponic supplier. They used to sell it in 500 gram tubs and also in 20kg. bags. I bought a bunch when the restrictions were coming in. For the perchlorate, I was able to clean out some old stock of perchloric acid and make my own quite easily. I was able to get some barium and strontium nitrates of good quality, but not cheap! Some folks run electrolytic cells to make their own chlorate and perchlorate, but that's above my pay grade, and chlorate is not the ideal pyro chem for newer pyros to play with. It all depends what you are doing. You can do a lot with some potassium nitrate, sulfur, charcoal (which you can make yourself), and some metals. You can make rockets, black powder, and stars with just these items and some binder. Woodysrocks will ship pyro and rocket tooling to Canada. I believe Pyrocreations may ship to Canada as well. I bought a lot of my stuff when things were easier to get. When you start to get into colors, getting the chems starts to get difficult. The problem with pyro is that there's always that 'one more thing' we want, and the spending never stops! I'm in Ontario, and I used to buy some chemicals from a place in Toronto, but it's been sold and has opened under a new name. What province are you in?
johnqi119 Posted December 6 Author Posted December 6 I live in BC next 10 km next to the Border, do you think i can just go and pick up some nitrates from hardware stores? or is that explicitly illegal? I might just buy a small ball mill do grind my own aluminum powders; its too expensive to buy to be economical for rocketry.
Arthur Posted December 6 Posted December 6 I one had a very pleasant visit to NV USA for pyro fun. Clearly home by airline limited what I could take home -all white powders look like coke! Only you know what the customs regulation is like between USA and Canada.
johnqi119 Posted December 6 Author Posted December 6 i have thought about just synthesizing potassium nitrate at home, but you need ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride; but if i had a large abount of AN and 2KCLO why would i need potassium nitrate?
FrankRizzo Posted December 6 Posted December 6 (edited) John - Can you get calcium nitrate up there (often sold as 15.5-0-0 fertilizer)? How about sulfuric acid drain cleaners? Edited December 6 by FrankRizzo
DavidF Posted December 7 Posted December 7 Wow, it seems that they've really tightened up on availability of potassium nitrate! I would still try to find it through hydroponic sources. I wouldn't personally suggest pyro newbies make their own chems, but the calcium nitrate, potassium sulfate and potassium chloride are readily available on Amazon. Sulfur too, but it's pellets that need to be ground. I'm guessing that the calcium nitrate and potassium sulfate would be good starting materials for making the potassium nitrate, and others would probably have good tips on making it that way. Potassium nitrate stump remover might be easier to get and re-crystallize than starting from scratch making it.
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