What to use as fuel?

[Mattias]

I have seen this performer that does amazing fire clouds but I can't figure out what he use.

Here's a video of him doing it.

 

I have made a few tries with lycopodium but havn't gotten nearly the same size clouds as him.

Anyone have any Ideas?

 

Sincerely Mattias

[dan999ification]

titanium powder for the sparks? the sword is somehow engineered to release the fuel on demand. he is able to put some fugal force on the swords without discharging sparks and clouds.

 

dan.

Edited December 9, 2013 by dan999ification

[Mattias]

I think you are right about the titanium powder. But whats making the fire?

My guess was lycopodium since it's a powder mixed with titanium.

But it was way smaller. Is there a better chemical than lycopodium?

[dan999ification]

I'm not sure about better, If the ti and lycopodium were mixed and discharged together I would expect the size of the cloud and spark dispersal to be controlled by the amount of comp discharged and the speed at which it is thrown. Getting enough comp in the air seems to be the challenge, the sword must be made for it.

 

Can we see your setup?

 

Dan.

[Mattias]

Mine was just a pipe with holes in the end.

I tried different sizes and numbers of holes.

[Mortartube]

I reckon the sword blades are tubes with some holes in them. The handles of the swords contain lycopodium and/or fine ti. I think he probably presses a button on the handles to release the powder as the effect doesn't happen every time he waves them about. The flames are probably paraffin, alcohol or a similar flammable liqiud soaked into an absorbent coating on the blades.

[dan999ification]

+1

I thought of a few ways, if you got clever with the construction of such a sword.... You could include a small propane or butane tank.

The handle contains the gas bottle, above that is the powdered comp chamber partly filled to allow the comp to aerosolise, then the hollow sword wrapped in Kevlar cloth, leaving a few holes exposed.

You'd have the biggest clouds but may not meet regs.

You could also run it on compressed air which may be of benefit to cloud size.

 

Dan.

She said no

Edited December 10, 2013 by dan999ification

[FlaMtnBkr]

I think you guys are way over complicating things. It looks like a liquid petroleum product to me. When he swings it liquid flings off some and gets a bit more oxygen from the 'wind' (similar to blowing on a fire). You can tell towards the end the fuel has burned off a bit as the flames aren't as big and it isn't flinging off much. Maybe isopropyl alcohol as I think it burns fairly yellow but probably more like gasoline. At least that is what it looks like to me based on some dumb things I did with gas soaked rags when younger.