Beraq Shells

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Surprisingly there is not yet a topic dedicated to those maltese salute shells.

 

While Fulcanelli (Pyrotechnica 9/11) covers lots of cylinder shell making techniques, I could not find a good description on how to make beraq shells. The inserts are hand made, same here. I know there are several people in here that had a degree of success. I´d love if they shared their knowledge not only on the inserts but also on assembling the shell. I bet there are quite a few special techniques one must stick to.

 

I can only say I´ve always admired the timed ring report breaks followed by the shot. Gorgeous, and not usually seen in my climes.

[flying fish]

karlfoxman has a tutorial but I seem to be having trouble downloading it:

http://www.pyrosocie...-maltese-beraq/

 

He also has a youtube channel. Here are a couple of videos of spiking and pasting the small beraq inserts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vMdCr-FIAs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKJRoy3aZ20&list=UUt-77Ol6mSMHa5pXW87X6Og&index=23

 

The delay is made by piercing the casing and pressing on a BP/binder paste. I've been told that the Maltese use Gum Arabic. I couldn't tell you exactly how it is done as I never have before.

 

Personally I've used 1/4" time fuse or spolettes for inserts and timed reports.

Edited March 14, 2013 by flying fish

[pyroshell]

I too was wondering why this has not yet been a topic. I have been very interested in making some of these, but I have yet to try. Mostly due to lack of information.

This thread might just come into shape with all the right information for me to give it a go.

[Mumbles]

I downloaded Karl's tutorial a while ago. Since it's no longer available from his site, and honestly I haven't seen him in ages, I feel okay about posting it here. There are some inconsistencies with it from what I've read elsewhere. Namely that he drills the hole before filling, and that the hole is formed by drilling and not piercing with an awl. There are other bits, but if I recall correctly, this was also written at a time when his beraq shells were really not all that impressive. His methods and results got better over time.

 

There are so many aspects of this seemingly simple effect that go into it. Preparing the casings alone could have it's own devoted topic. Unfortunately, there are so many rumors and speculations floating around it makes getting quality sourced information difficult. This is all compounded by how secretive the maltese are. Any information one may get from a first hand source has the possibility to be obsolete, misleading, or just plain false. All of this is probably further made worse by regional or club differences, so the real factoids we do hear may not all be applicable to the same method.

 

This is one of my favorite effects, so I'd be glad to share what I've learned on it. I'll probably be adding to this thread in the coming days. There is a lot of detail that goes into them, and there is a lot of information out there scattered about between books, the internet forums and boards, and in people's brains. I'll try to only mention things that I've heard confirmed via multiple sources and that I generally believe to be factual.

 

I guess the first place to start is the casing. From what I've read they are generally made of 2-6 turns of chipboard. I'm not sure how thick of chipboard we're talking here, but the very common 0.025" stuff that most packaging for soft drinks, cereal, and food come in seems like a reasonable place to start. This would give walls between .05 and .150" thick. That comes out to slightly less than 1/16" up to slightly over 1/8". I guess there isn't any reason that you can't go thicker, but perhaps the timing starts to become ragged or something. After the chipboard, there us often 2 layers of thinner paper to hold everything together. I've seen somewhat conflicting arguments of if the chipboard is rolled wet or not, but the outer paper is generally pasted I believe.

 

From there, I've seen more conflicting information. The general consensus is that end disks are placed inside the paper and held down with a tongue fold. There is at least one noteworthy source that says that the ends are made from just a tongue fold of the overhanging paper. I imagine both could work, but I'd feel more comfortable with a disk personally.

 

I don't actually have an information on if the inserts are loaded with flash before or after the casing is dried (if rolled wet that is). From there it is fitted with another disk, and the paper pleated down, or another tongue fold is used.

 

That's the basic casing as far as I've been able to tell. From here on out, there is a lot of diverging information about spiking, piercing, pasting or not pasting, strengthening dips, other finishing techniques that I suspect are quite regional or local in origination. When I have more time, and I'm more ambitious, there is plenty more to add.

 

I also want to hear what other people know about these devices.

beraq_tutorial.doc

[mathiasxx94]

I tried this some months back, but don't expect to much. I have not been into pyro for a very long time, and this was my first try. I destroyed the symmetry by starting off one more ring of salutes. But here is the video and some pictures from the building process:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0osTUqAJC8

Sorry for the large pictures, hope it's okay

 

BTW: I'm not totally sure if this is the Beraq effect by definition as the rings of reports are supposed to go off simualtaneously?

http://i48.tinypic.com/1hv9lj.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/123wsqo.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/vyxibo.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/igivkg.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/qppkbc.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/no8yl1.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/s611rm.jpg

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/2lxatjr.jpg

 

http://i50.tinypic.com/1zwf1ow.jpg

 

http://i48.tinypic.com/154vp8j.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/2ih1csy.jpg

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/44585.jpg

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/2ew1ulh.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/js0i78.jpg

 

http://i50.tinypic.com/1564tft.jpg

 

http://i48.tinypic.com/9jm82h.jpg

 

http://i50.tinypic.com/2mpid8h.jpg

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/r9h4at.jpg

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/2j2t2ts.jpg

 

http://i50.tinypic.com/6ekvur.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/b9go0m.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/119c8xy.jpg

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/xatjjk.jpg

 

-Mathias

Edited March 14, 2013 by mathiasxx94

[Bobosan]

What burst are you using? It looks very large.

 

Nice build pics.

[WonderBoy]

Mathias, nice photos, but that is not what we are discussing here. Btw, what kind of glue is that?

 

Admiral, I am glad you posted this, beraq shells are some of my favourites as well. Sometimes, while I'm in the shop, I'll put one of my favorite videos on youtube and listen to it while I work.

 

I haven't experimented with bera in a while, but when I did, I was in the camp of using one slurry mix (using Barium Carbonate to slow my meal), and varying the thickness of chipboard. This seems to me to be the easiest and most consistent route. In the past I have heard of people talking about adding additional turns of chipboard to increase the thickness/delay, but while researching I have found photos like this:

 

 

 

Where it looks like the casing is "standard" thickness, then stacks of chipboard are glued on to the side to increase the delay.

 

Also, there is some brief discussion on beraq in this thread: http://www.amateurpy...erts-for-mines/

 

 

WB

[mathiasxx94]

My burst here is meal coated puffed rice 5:1, yes it's pretty big, but I am going to use rice hulls now.

 

The glue is just black melting glue. I found that the melting point is lower, I hate to burn my fingers.

 

Sorry if my post was a bit off topic, could someone please give a definition of Beraq shells?

[Mumbles]

WB brought this up, but probably the most difficult part of making beraq is the timing. Well timing them is easy, timing them well is probably not.

 

Timing is controlled by three major factors. Slurry used, thickness of the wall, and diameter of the hole punched all matter and can be manipulated. To a lesser extent I've been told that the pressure with which the slurry is applied to the hole can make some difference. To me, it makes sense to pick one of these and stick with it. The masters might be able to manipulate all of them successfully together, but we almost surely cannot......yet.

 

The slurry is probably what people worry about the most. Most people tend to believe that the slurry is bound with gum arabic, and that various levels of GA can be used to tune the burn rate. I've heard other rumors of things like charcoal, barium carbonate and barium nitrate. I sort of like the idea of barium nitrate. There is a formula known as Glusatz some of you may have heard of. It's close to meal containing a 1:1 subsitution of barium nitrate in place of potassium nitrate. It burns incredibly slow, about 30ish seconds per inch as compared to 2-3 seconds for BP. Ideally one might be able to blend BP and glusatz or just vary the potassium and barium nitrate ratios to get whatever burn rate you want in between. It will take some experimentation, as I don't know if the burn rates are linear, ie if a 50:50 mix of BP and glusatz will burn for about 16 seconds an inch.

 

One intelligent suggestion or hint I've seen is to make the slurry or slurry base in good sized batches. No matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to replicate exactly a batch. So only use one batch per timing, as mixing would lead to poorer timing.

 

Usually the slurry is pressed into the hole so as to leave a little worm or bulb sticking out the inside of the wall. I assure you that it throws out plenty of fire. There is generally plenty of slurry smeared on the outside of the tube. This smear is dipped into grain BP to prime and ensure ignition.

 

I would think that the other factors are sort of common knowledge. Thicker walls have longer delays. Again I'm not sure if a wall twice as thick has twice as long of delay time. The hole diameter thing always threw me for a loop though as to why it would make a difference. I always imagined a clean punched hole. Apparently this is not the case. The punching procedure sort of pulls part of the wall with it, making sort of a cone of paper on the inside of the wall. A larger diameter hole pulls more material with it. So not only is the hole wider, it's also longer in a way.

 

I go back and forth on how I'd start to get these dialed in. There are merits for both keeping the same slurry and varying the wall thickness as well as using uniform tubes and varying the slurry delay.

 

A lot of the information out there, and that we'll probably end up talking about is an older style of report. Hand rolled, hand spiked, generally traditional made inserts. In the last year or two I've seen a newer style showing up that seems possibly easier to master. WB has brought up one of the methods for these. They seem to use either machine rolled, or possibly handrolled hard walled casings. It seems that instead of rolling thicker or thinner casings, they paste a "patch" of chipboard on the wall of the report to increase the thickness in that particular area. Now, I don't know if they're still punched or drilled or what other factors go into that. End disks are just glued or epoxied onto the ends of the tube. I've seen some pictures with them just like that, and some where they're still spiked. It is actually only the picture Wonderboy posted above that I've ever seen them pasted too.

 

I would think that this method might be ideal for a dip in some hardening material like glue, as you have sort of a handle in the thicker area to hold onto. It also opens up the possibility of just making overly thick walls and using something consistent like commercial meal D or fuse powder or something that might otherwise be too fast for normal thickness walls.

[flying fish]

I've noticed that in the pictures (the bottom left of the picture WB posted and in Karl's tutorial that Mumbles posted) the spiking is sometimes exposed when it is loaded into the shell. If it is to be used without a final paste wrap, would wheat paste work to fireproof the string? Edited March 15, 2013 by flying fish

[WonderBoy]

I've been wondering if the "patches" could be punched with something like a leather punch so there is not the variable of the tear out, and timing could be changed by simply adding more patches. It seems like it would be difficult to use an awl type device to punch through such a thick layer of chipboard.

 

Here's another photo of the chipboard "patches" on the 2nd and 3rd rows, and from the 6th row to the bottom:

 

 

 

FF, yes wheat paste will work to fireproof the string. I like to slather on a good amount while it is on my spiking horse.

 

Mathias, beraq (singular: bera) are inserts that are timed by punching a hole in the side of the casing and spreading a BP slurry in the hole to act as the "fuse".

 

 

 

 

 

WB

[zAZO9a]

i would love to try this

[pyroshell]

I am going to try this. I have somethings i need to order.

After that i will post build pics and a vidoe of it being fired.

Too bad i have to work this might have to wait for a while.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

This reminds me of Shimizu talking about the music of fire. He, in contrast to the people who came up with the "pyromusical", was aware that a well thought out display will produce its own rhythm, while those "musicals", among very few artistic uses, seem to have paved the way for poor displays where the "music of fire" is surrogated by loudspeakers playing the worst chart hits around. This is the state of pyro.

[AirCowPeacock]

I think there is a fubdemental flaw to coreographing music with fireworks: time delay between receiving the visuals of fireworks and the sound.

[Hoppy]

I've heard about people using ice picks... but my guess is as good as yours on that BP/gum arabic slurry for timing. For now, I'll try a few different methods per break in the 6 or 8" multi I'll work on next and see what might work the best until further notice.

 

Mumbles, I'm waiting patiently for your additional details you were going to provide sometime soon!

 

----------------

I think there is a fubdemental flaw to coreographing music with fireworks: time delay between receiving the visuals of fireworks and the sound.

 

This comes up often and many agree with that statement. The problem still is people are not accounting for the fact of light traveling at a different speed than sound.

 

 

[nater]

I think there is a fubdemental flaw to coreographing music with fireworks: time delay between receiving the visuals of fireworks and the sound.

 

That is taken care of when you script the show. The high end systems and software can take this into account. Obviously, if you expect a very large and spread out crowd there will be issues.

[flying fish]

Hoppy, are you planning on something for the next shoot? (Like half of an 8" round shell? )

 

I'm thinking I might experiment with the stacked chipboard method to see what kind of consistency I can get. As someone suggested a leather punch for making the hole...I may build a little fixture to stabilize a punch in my press. Figured it's worth a try.

 

I'm more interested in the color inserts but I'd like to try to make them by this method, if it works..

Edited March 27, 2013 by flying fish

[AirCowPeacock]

That is taken care of when you script the show. The high end systems and software can take this into account. Obviously, if you expect a very large and spread out crowd there will be issues.

 

What I mean is that the fireworks make alot of sound and disturb the music even if the visuals are perfectly aligned with the music.

 

I've seen the large crowd problem solved by using personal radios, such as car radios.

[zAZO9a]

i was talking to a freind of mine few days ago about trying this and worrying bout the timing.. he said that although it might have little to do with how they do it. but he has seen some turkish shells that look similar,,i know turkish fireworks,,who woulda ever thought..but he says that after they spike it they punch the hole..then put in blk-match cut it flush, and then apply bp slurry over the match and hole.. take a very small fold of paper lay it on top of bp layer an let it dry.. then put a small dab of delay powder over the fold of paper. and the timing is dependent on the number of folds in the paper and the application of small brushed alternations of bp and delay powder...im willing to try this in on a small scale ..will let you know how it works out..may even get the lil women to try uploadin a vid..i think this in small increments may not be accurate but may work atleast

[zAZO9a]

ive thought about it quite a bit .. thinking that it cant be that simple am not sure how to carry out experiment with it but i use firecrackers made of slightly larger tubes

 

 

 

 

 

 

have givin this some thought. and decided to use fire crackers that are shorter but bigger round and time it.i am waiting on ti-sponge i want to see if tacking it in the tube top to bottom where its evenly distributedt da length of the tube with a small amount of glue will shoot it with a little more sound and flash.. but will use the crackers normally first..rremember i have nay=bores..lol...

[Mumbles]

I've heard about people using ice picks... but my guess is as good as yours on that BP/gum arabic slurry for timing. For now, I'll try a few different methods per break in the 6 or 8" multi I'll work on next and see what might work the best until further notice.

 

Mumbles, I'm waiting patiently for your additional details you were going to provide sometime soon!

 

...

 

 

Is there any particular aspect you were interested in? I think I covered all the basics. They're relatively simple in concept. I think I covered the casings and the slurries. Other than that it's just a variety of methods of closing mostly. Anything more than what I've posted is verging on blind guesses or how I'd go about doing things.

[psyco_1322]

Does anyone have a link to one of those factory videos that shows them making beraq? I know there is one that shows them smearing the paste in the cases.

 

Anyone?

 

Edited April 15, 2013 by psyco_1322

[psyco_1322]

Some experimental beraq. Showing the fusing method.

 

http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/gallery/image/2129-beraq/

[dan999ification]

What no hand rolled cases,

 

I do have some links, one on rolling cases one on spiking and I can't find the one where they punch the cases once full, when i get time I'll take a look.

 

Dan.

Edited April 22, 2013 by dan999ification