Due to the countless emails I receive on how to make Sparkler Bombs, I have finally put up this short tutorial.

This activity is for responsible people ONLY! Please, no IDIOTS that will blow their hands off! I, David Bauder, assume no responsibility for dismemberment or death by a Sparkler Bomb. They are illegal for a reason, they are BOMBS! Only do this for entertainment and a party enhancer(which it greatly suceeds at).

Below are pictures I took in November of 2004. The bomb that you see being made is most likely the bomb that you see going on off in the video titled "Sparkler Bomb 4". It looks to be a bomb with a sparkler count around 30-35 judging from experience.

I must now go over a VERY important part of this whole sparkler bomb thing! GETTING THE RIGHT SPARKLERS!!!! Since I don't live in a state in which fireworks are legal(Georgia, USA), I rarely get to really see all the different types of sparklers that are out there. From what I have seen in the past, there are ALOT of different types out there. I have actually just learned in the past 3 months that you NEED sparklers with MAGNESIUM in them. When Georgia legalized very low class fireworks a year ago, they did let some sparklers come in BUT from what I see, the manufacturers took the magnesium out of them so they could pass code I guess. You can clearly tell between a sparkler with and without magnesium by just watching them burn. The one with magnesium burns alot brighter and cleaner than the one without magnesium. I haven't tested that many different brands, just a few so don't take that as law.

I also would like to state something that's not necessarily law but just from what I've seen. Sparklers that do not contain magnesium say it on the box somewhere that they don't. The ones with magnesium usually don't say anything about it. Again, this is just from my own personal limited experience that I"m telling you this.

I also am not saying that if you live in a state where fireworks are perfectly legal that when you go to a store and purchase fireworks that you don't have to bother looking at the box because supposedly they do. Actually they don't necessarily have magnesium! I had a friend who visited TN (cough, Isaac, cough) and thought it'd be great to bring back some sparklers. The thought was right but the sparklers weren't. He even asked the dude in the shop if they had magnesium in them and the guy said they did have magnesium. Low and behold, the box had the dreadful phrase "These sparklers contain no magnesium". I was pretty excited too that I was going to be able to set off a sparkler bomb. Oh well, soon!

So, watch out, read the boxes and even then, you might still get sparklers with magnesium.

I also would stay away from wooden sparklers because I think that the wood takes away from the concussion ALOT! Just from experience building sparkler bombs with wooden sparklers.

I'm now going to go over the aluminum foil theory. First of all, I might be all wrong in even using aluminum foil. I got an anonymous e-mail about a month ago advising me that I should just use plain ole' electrical tape and be sure to cut the ends off of the sparklers and fully wrap the entire bomb. Now, for the 2006 Fourth of July video we finally used real fuse to ignite our bombs simply because we can REALLY wrap the top of the bombs if you don't have to worry about the fragile single sparkler that is left sticking out for a fuse. This way more compression is kept inside for an even louder concussion. Like I said, I have yet to take the anonymous tip into action yet but hopefully soon I'll have something to report. I recommend at least trying it for now since I really do hate the aluminum foil part of making these bombs anyway. Actually, if this theory is true, it'll make sparkler bombs that much better because it's the simplicity and cheapness of them that make them so incredibly great.

Also wrap the electrical tape around it EXTREMELY tightly. You want maximum compression. Also be careful not to chip any of the sparkler powder that is on the sparkler itself. If there is a break, you risk the chance of the fuse sparkler, when lit, not continuing to the other sparklers to set it off. You can also use fuse that you can buy when buying your fireworks. This way you can wrap the top very tightly and not worry about chipping that oh so fragile sparkler.