Best of AFN V - Picks up where Best of AFN IV leaves off. All the articles that appeared in American Fireworks News newsletter for the 5 years ending April, 2005. Over 200 pages jam-packed with up-to-date how-it-is-done fireworks info! Lots of articles on shell construction, rockets, and so much more!

CONTENTS
Preface to the 5th Edition
Our Love Affair on the 4th

ADVICE & SMALL DEVICES
Practical Use for Highly Energetic Materials Around the Home
Quote of the Month
Disassembly of a Small Festival Ball
M80s, Silver Salutes & Cherry Bombs
Consider the Risk
Hot Chemistry Tonight
Fireworks are Environmentally Healthy
How Things Look to a Pyrotech
Mini Pyro Research
Pyroconics for the Amateur
Bang Buckets
Bucket Preservation Project
Ascending Flowers Effect
Crackling Microstars
Aerolites
Quick & Dirty Smoke Bombs
Sun on a String
More on Cap Crap

STARS & STUFF
Spin Stabilized Stars
The Strobe Star
Strobing Stingers
Pour Your Own White Strobe Flares
Colored Flash Reports
Using Fine Mesh Magnesium in Stars
Fine Firefly Aluminum
Fast Way to Test New Star Compositions
All About Copper
New Flake Titanium is Brighter, Faster
Titanium Sparks Easily
Flour Paste for Shell Building
Picric Acid Remembered
Moisture-Proofing Steel Filings
Red Phosphorous
Priming Chlorate Stars
Cutting Small Paper Plugs
Backyard Radios
Radios or Rats
Fire Balloons - Again
When American Helicopters Ruled
Bamboo Tips
Chrysanthemum Stars
Bentonite Tip
Cattails & Eco Cops
Cleanup Tip
The Willow Wood Caper
More on Dextrin Making
Paulownia Coal - What Is It
Sensitivity Findings
Saltpeter & Long Distance Commerce
Making Polystyrene-Xylene Glue
Gluing Plastic Ball Shells
Avoiding Serious Accidents
Flying-Fish Visco Shell
Hot Melt Glue
Substitute for Hexachlorobenzene

AERIAL SHELLS & RELATED
2" Round Crimson Meteors with Golden Streamer Tails
Mystery Behind Awesome Shell Breaks
Determining Positions for Angle Firing
Closing Oddly-Filled Shells
Popcorn Tip
Aerial Shell Burst Height as a Function of Mortar Length
What Do All Those Shell Names Mean
Mortar Exit Times for Aerial Shells
Coating Paper Mortars for Longer Life
Flowerpots and Muzzle Breaks
Aerial Shell Augmentation Effects
Tapes for Pyros
Effect of Reflected Blast Waves in HDPE Mortars
No More Walking the Finale
Factors Affecting the Precision of Choreographed Displays
Handling Misfires & Duds
Uplifting Thoughts
Using a Cargo Trailer for Display Work
More on Cargo Trailers

ROCKETS
3-Lb. Sugar Rocket
Traditional Black Powder Rockets
Whistle Rockets Using Strobe Rocket Tooling
Proper Use of Clay
Are Zinc/Sulfur Rockets Hot? You Bet!
Quickly Igniting a Flight of Small Rockets
Anti-bamboo Tip
White Strobe Rocket Notes & Comments
Whet Your Appetite for Wet Whistle
Parachute Rockets
Noiseless Flash Tip
Burping Rockets
Fusing Crossette Comets
Unmixed Flash Powder
Improved Rocket Tubes
Drill Bit Tip
Preparation of Clay for Rocket Nozzles
Gel Cap Rockets Revisited
4 oz. Rocket Tip
Parlor Rockets
Instant Reading of Ram Force During Rocket Engine Construction
Tap-A-Jack for a Rocket Press
Wooden Rocket Press Construction

STARS & MISC. MANIPULATIONS
Non-Sparking Magazine Interiors
Straight, Light Rocket Sticks
Building a Star Rolling Machine
Star Testing Device
Field-Expedient Paper Plugs
Drying Stars with a Food Dehydrator
Care & Feeding of a Mortar & Pestle
Toilet Paper Tip
Grinding
Lead Balls for Milling
Cannon Ball Molds Offer Milling Media
Casting Lead
Informal Notes on Hearing Protection
Grounding My Workshop
Black Powder Origin
"Y" Comp Mixers
Importance of Finales
Varying the Speed of a DC Motor
"Fireworks Are Immortal" Poem

FUSE, IGNITION & BLACK POWDER
Black Powder & Horse Dung
Pulverone-Polverone
Choking Quick Match
Reliable Joints for Quickmatch/Visco
"Y" Visco
Visco Ignition Transfer
Chain Fusing Visco
Thermalite Substitute Formula
Ignition Measurements
Fish Fuse in Can Shells
Cut, Prime & Passivate Fish Fuse
Cheap & Easy Quickmatch
The Vital Link - Paper Fuse
No more Banana Boards
Safety Tips of Cross Matching
Time Fuse Length
Electric Matches
Chlorate Compositions in Quick Match
Electric Matches: Ramp Firing Current

INDOOR & SFX
Fireball Effects with Inexpensive Materials
What is Pyrogolf?
Nitric Acid Loves Sulfuric Acid
Ghost Mines & Colored Alcohol Flames
Indoor Pyrotechnic Electrostatic Discharge Hazard
Flame Projectors
Improved E-Match Techniques
Nitrocellulose Flame Projectors
Nitrocellulose Flame Projectors II
Making Guncotton
Method of Producing Flash Materials
Follow-up to above

GOOD STUFF TO KNOW AND DO
Christmas Crackers
The Log Splitter
Electric Firing of Cake Fronts
Your Own Consumer Fireworks Display
Preparation of Silver Nitrate
More on Silver Nitrate
Candle Batteries
Clark's Giant Steel Fountain
Clark's Giant Steel Fountain II
Magnesium + Cab-O-Sil Fiasco
Effect of Varying Reactant Compositions on the Senko Hanabi Reaction
Low Power FM & Fireworks
Explosion of a Ball Milling Jar

SPECIAL QUICK MATCH SECTION
Its Construction & Manner of Functioning
Methods of Slowing Its Burning
Effect of Powder Loss on Its Performance
Effect of Humidity on Its Performance
Effect of Combined Factors on Its Performance
Hangfires & Misfires
Moisture Absorption by Its Components
Survival Time for Strings in Black Match

WE ARE THE PYROS
Of Pyrogeeks & Creation
Nitro cartoons