[Leo Todeschini]

Hi All,

I was working on a TV show in the US last year and I had to make fire arrows and happened to film it.

I used a recipe based on one from 'The Booke of the Firewerk' a 15thC work on fire and its uses. I have used this recipe for years for making (and used to sell) incendiary charges for arrows and various jobs through the years.

The basic recipe is 60% KNO3, 20% sulphur and 20% pitch, but I find a little oil will soften it and a little sugar will help it light.

It carries its own oxygen and fuel and so it is hell to put out. Smothering it doesn't work and larger pieces like an apple sized lump or bigger, will even burn under water.

This video shows around 50g packed into in a thin tube with cross holes drilled through, and mounted to a modern ali shaft.

Unlike Hollywood fire arrows, they appear to go out when shot and just leave a smoke trail until they land when they start to burn again.

What is very effective about these is that they give a long duration burn of up to a couple of minutes of very hot jetting flame which spits out red hot liquid potassium nitrate which is of course an oxidiser. Altogether a very effective incendiary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSrUnzyBEVk&feature=youtu.be

Tod

[Bjorn Hagstrom]

Scary stuff when that starts raining down your ships decks or the rooftops of your town.

And I just love to see that boyish grin on your face when it lights up..what is it about burning stuff that will knock back any mature man to a giggling 12-year old?

[Glennan Carnie]

Ed Warner did a lot of work on fire arrows a couple of years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL4vnolCwLI

[Mark Moore]

It would be totally cool to see one explode on impact! .......mcm