I just bought some of these flash feathers made by Panda magic with the thought of using them for a flash paper to dove effect. "A must have for any dove magician" the ad says…

After giving it a try, I would recommend that no one uses them for that effect or holds them in your hand to light them since THEY EXPLODE and they burn abnormally hot for flash paper. The "explosion" shoots about two feet away and can go either up or down. There is also an audible "boom". See the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O89-T1Qu......eload=10

I don't practice with live birds (especially when using something potentially dangerous like this and I don't know exactly how it will work) so none were hurt, but I did burn my hand quite badly. I guess this is my own fault for holding it the first time without knowing, but if you are close enough to light these things at all, you aren't safe. I took precautions and lit 3 more to make sure the one I had wasn't an anomaly, and unfortunately they are all the same.

I have been using regular flash paper for a long time, so I'm just going to stick with that. To do this effect properly, the paper needs to burn slowly, like when Lance does it in his act. I just figured I'd say something here though before somebody ends up like that clown that lit the dove on fire last year.

Best,

Allen

Hi Allen,

Good idea - I used to use these too but they are WAY TOO INCONSISTANT and very dangerous. I was just using it to produce a silk and I very frequently found that I'd end up burning my hand on them because they'd burn slow then without warning literally explode in your hand. I'm not sure what was causing it but my guess was it was the glue or adhesive used to hold the "quil" portion of the feather. I now have gone back to my old way of just cutting flash sheets into feathers. Good idea making this a post as a warning...

Safety is important!

Hey Dan,

Glad someone else noticed this too. My first thought was that it could have possibly been just because the quill is rolled up, but the glue seems to be a better explanation. Either way, I cannot see these things being useful for anything. I am definitely going to try making some of my own by just cutting up regular flash paper!

Allen