20 replies to this topic

[Night Owl]

As in the title I really really miss hand firing, kinda makes me sad that we seem to be moving away from this, some of the best timed shows Ive put on were hand fired, this is what drew me into pyro, the high that we get when their hand fired, it would be good to see haw many of us still do hand firing? and your thoughts on this to.

[Arthur Brown]

Still hand fire smaller stuff but standing by a big tube, no, I'd rather use an ematch and wire. At the moment six inch shells are on the borderline May get hand or e fired. I'm not too keen on standing by a 16 with a portfire thinking that a low break is possible and I don't run that fast!
In fact on my last show the cakes were hand fired along with the 2", 3" and 4" shells, but there was a wire to the 6" tubes. I have cable reels with 100m of twin flex ready for the job.

However for timing I often see better e fired shows and you can move the signal to a new location faster than you can move me! With the precision of single shot cat4 tubes and their suitability to do rhythm timed sequences I thing that well used and well featured e firing systems have a LOT to commend them.

[Atom Fireworks]

If it were up2 me i would hand fire ever single shell, that thump makes you feel alive, it certainly gets your adrenaline going. Its obviously not as safe as firing by wire but its much more fun.

[Mortartube]

I prefer hand firing. The feeling you get is much more exciting than e-firing. I feel that hand firing gives more enjoyment to the firer at perhaps the detriment to the audience, timing wise etc. But e-firing does the most for the audience but leaves me cold. It's so soulless and clinical.

I admire a well designed hand fired show more than a precision e-fired show. Both need artistic input, but precision shows IMHO often rely more for their power on effects bursting on the beat of music rather than the effect itself. Very few shells for example are fired on their own (unless they are really big and of a particular design), but more often a mass of one type is fired. This detracts from the beauty of the individual effect, which used to be the thing to look at. Now larger shows often concentrate on quantity and the beauty can be diminished amongst a mass of bursts.

Hand fired wins with me for feeling and also the skill of timed fusing a finale, rather than pressing a button for instant effect.

[phildunford]

Ditto Dumper Truck.

I know you can't do a serious 'timed to music' show without e firing, but nothing beats doing it by hand for sheer fun!

With reasonable precautions, it's probably safer than crossing the road.

Insisting on e firing on all occassions is just more 'health-and-safety-gone-mad'.

[portfire]

Hand firing...Can't beat it! I agree e-firing a show does have the edge with music but you can't beat been 5' away from a 8" lifting

Are we all just a bunch of adrenaline junkies ?

[pyrotrev]

Whilst I like the buzz of hand firing, in terms of being able to watch the display, monitor audience reaction and learn from it electrical firing has to have the edge in terms of delivering the best show to the audience. Accordingly I tend to reserve hand firing for "fun" shows done for friends

[Night Owl]

Whilst I like the buzz of hand firing, in terms of being able to watch the display, monitor audience reaction and learn from it electrical firing has to have the edge in terms of delivering the best show to the audience. Accordingly I tend to reserve hand firing for "fun" shows done for friends

I must admit when Ive lit a good hand fired finale Ive dropped to to ground on my back just to get the best view ever:) adrenaline junkies r us:)

[The Legendary Graham]

I personally dont like pyromusicals, and much prefer hand firing. Fireworks are their own music, and like stated earlier saturating the sky with multiple shells of one variety is poor compared to seeing individual special shells.
i have a good knowledge of the fireworks i hand fire and can better time a show with them by watching them and lighting them accordingly rather than setting them up as que's.

Big shells

All shells hand fired 5 6 8 10 and 12"

[portfire]

I think this is where e-firing comes into it's own



I want one!!!

[Arthur Brown]

I like the thump of a fair size lift going off. I also like the feeling of safety NOT being in the midst of a big area of shells. E fire is the only way for some aspects of fireworks, Hand fire is the short term cheap way of firing. Somewhere in the middle is the way the art of the display and the means of achieving it come with preference either way.

[The Legendary Graham]

Nothing cheap about what i fire, compared to most companies we fire far more than anyone for the price, also bigger shells and larger bore cakes, and considerring the huge ammount of experience i have i can hand fire one hell of a show, also some crafty fusing with shells to cakes ect makes far more possible than your limited experience can.

Give me free reign on a pile of fireworks and ill show what they can do, not just light fuse stand back wait a bit light next, get scared of a lift and ruin the whole thing.
Ill stop there some people get my back up, trying to moderate the whole firework community as though they really have some clout, paper tiger.

[portfire]

If your not too far away TLG drop me a PM, I'd love to help out!!!!!!

[Night Owl]

Nothing cheap about what i fire, compared to most companies we fire far more than anyone for the price, also bigger shells and larger bore cakes, and considerring the huge ammount of experience i have i can hand fire one hell of a show, also some crafty fusing with shells to cakes ect makes far more possible than your limited experience can.

Give me free reign on a pile of fireworks and ill show what they can do, not just light fuse stand back wait a bit light next, get scared of a lift and ruin the whole thing.
Ill stop there some people get my back up, trying to moderate the whole firework community as though they really have some clout, paper tiger.

My thoughts here to Graham, glad to see hand firing still alive and well, I was getting worried for a while, giz a job LOL, seriously though yes Ive also lit upto 12" with an old fashioned portfire and the feeling is like nothing else I can think of and I wouldnt swap it for nothing, and yes light and stand back is not the way to hand fire as we know its light, move to next fuse, then light again:)

Edited by shell shooter man, 22 April 2010 - 10:08 PM.

[Rick]

A fair amount of professional companies have electronic firing as policy; part of their quest to reduce risk to operators to as low as reasonably practicable.

It is therefore not always the decision of the display crew as to whether a large shell is hand lit and in my experience where electronic methods have been used there has been no noticeable detriment to manliness (or ladyness).

Rick