How to Make Magician's Flash Paper

Flash paper is an essential component in any illusionist's bag of tricks. Unlike ordinary paper, which burns relatively slowly and leaves dingy ashes behind, flash paper burns completely in a bright, quick flash and leaves behind no ashes at all. You can purchase this paper directly from magic suppliers, but you might find it to be more convenient or less expensive to make your own flash paper at home.

Things You'll Need

• Toilet paper
• Small saucepan
• Stoddard solvent
• Road flare
• Utility knife
• Gas range
• Spoon
• Shallow dish
• Spatula
• Cookie sheet
• Oven
• Fire extinguisher

Instructions

1. Gather your supplies. You can find Stoddard solvent, also known as white spirit, at stores that sell painting supplies, cleaning chemicals and magic supplies. When choosing toilet paper, choose one with no lotions or aloe. When choosing a shallow dish, choose one large enough to lay four squares of toilet paper inside without overlapping them.

2. Open the road flare and expose the contents. You may need to use a utility knife to do this. Inside, you will find a tube of white crystals or, in some cases, white powder. Set this substance aside, and keep it away from any open flames.

3. Pour about 1 cup of Stoddard solvent into a small saucepan, then add approximately 2 heaping tbsp. of the crystals or powder from the flare. Most flares contain about this amount, so in most cases you will use all of the crystals. But some styles of flares are especially large and long-burning, so it is important to measure first.

4. Place the saucepan over the lowest heat possible on your gas range. Cook it for about an hour or until all of the crystals or powder have dissolved, stirring the mixture two or three times during the process.

5. Turn off the heat and look closely at the mixture. It should have separated into two layers; a thick clear layer on top, and a murky, watery layer on bottom. Carefully lift the pan and skim off the clear layer, pouring it slowly into the shallow dish.

6. Lay four separated squares of toilet paper in the shallow dish. Let them soak in the clear solution for 10 minutes.

7. Preheat your oven to 100 degrees F while you're allowing the toilet paper to soak.

8. Carefully take each square of toilet paper out of the solution and transfer it to the cookie sheet. Depending on the thickness and fragility of the toilet paper, it may be easier to do this with a spatula.

9. Add four more pieces of toilet paper to the dish, and continue the process of letting each square soak for 10 minutes before transferring it to the cookie sheet. Keep this up until all of the clear solution has been absorbed.

10. Place the cookie sheet in the 100-degree oven when all of the squares have been prepared. Allow it to bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, then stay close to the oven so that you can watch it cook.

11. Remove the cookie sheet and allow the paper to cool when you start to see the paper turn slightly yellow. If you leave the paper in the oven too long, one of the pieces could ignite and set off a chain reaction, burning up all of your paper at once.

Tips & Warnings

• If possible, spread your pieces of flash paper far apart on the cookie sheet. That way, if one of them should accidentally ignite in the oven, it might not ignite the others.

• Working with crushed road flares around open flames poses a fire risk, so you must use extreme caution and keep a fire extinguisher at the ready the entire time.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish