Up at my BILs over the weekend and we always get to play with something that smokes, this time around it was my shout. id read somewhere that linen rag dipped in linseed oil was the way to keep the flame alight. So it was time to prove the point.
We had a piece of 3-4mm thick 120mm long steel bar. We cut it most of the way into four. Then heated the end (sorry no forge just good old modern acetylene) and bent it into half thus giving us 2 pair of parallel legs. Grabbed an old steel blunt arrow point and bronzed it between the legs. then plied the legs out a bit to form that classic fire cage arrow point shape.
The pre prepared rags were dry and a little stiff but still perfect for winding in and out of the cage. But would it really stay alight in flight? Only one way to find out.
Loose!!
They flame up slowly and with no volatile aggressive behavior. They burn slow too, we got near on 4 shots out of the one rag. A perfect black night with no moon to spoil the fireworks and plenty of space to shoot.
The fire arrow has a wonderful hypnotic flickering flight. And yes she did not go out!! which was a good thing as it would have been darn hard to find the arrow otherwise.
Id used an extra long arrow to ensure the flame was clear of the bow and my hand and although it was a tad heavy it flew quite well and predictable.
I can only imagine a dozen or more of these things in simultaneous flight... awesome!!!
that's right that's not the answer to the bushfire problems down there. 