My homemade black powder

[Kiwi Dave]

Do any of you guys tumble your finished powder in graphite? I heard a rumour that the commercial stuff is done that way, presumably to make it flow better. I also understand that pyrotechnic guys sometimes do it to slow down the burn in their rockets or star shells for whatever reason. Also heard of a guy who blew up his tumbler while doing it - probably from static would be my guess. Not planning on attempting it myself, just curious if anybody else does it?

[fishingsetx]

Do any of you guys tumble your finished powder in graphite? I heard a rumour that the commercial stuff is done that way, presumably to make it flow better. I also understand that pyrotechnic guys sometimes do it to slow down the burn in their rockets or star shells for whatever reason. Also heard of a guy who blew up his tumbler while doing it - probably from static would be my guess. Not planning on attempting it myself, just curious if anybody else does it?

I do. It does make it flow better, at least for me. Seems to slow it down slightly and may make it a bit harder to ignite, but so far I havent had an issue with it.

Here is a video I made a while back. Without polishing, you had to shake the funnel pretty vigorusly to get the powder to flow.

https://youtu.be/2UV22yfnGJ4

Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians!

[Boz330]

I never tumbled it with graphite but added it and shook it up. It definitely went through the powder measure easier. Tumbling would help even more by knocking the sharp edges off the grains.

Bob

[Eddie2002]

Got a pound ready to try out but the weather is calling for a week of rain. Just cooked some Carolina Willow down to CC and might as well make some more BP. That way I can see if there is any difference between cedar and willow BP if I ever get out to the range.

[aws1963]

Got to try this sometime.

[Eddie2002]

Been working a 1/4 lb batch using Carolina Willow. I milled the 75/15/10 for about five hours today and lit a spoon full of the green mill powder. Not sure what happened but it was real slow and didn't burn well almost like a match burning and nothing like the last two other batches made with red cedar cc which burned fast. I'm milling the mix for another 2 hours and will check it again. I'm wondering if the mix has picked up a little moisture from the high humidity here in Florida, it's been raining for about three days straight. Going to dry out a little under a light and see if it burns quicker.
The only changes are willow instead of red cedar for cc and higher humidity.

I dried out a spoonful of the green mill powder under a light and gave it a try. It lit up and burned pretty quick so I'm guessing that the humidity had something to do with the burn speed.

[swamp]

Do you mill the ingrediants seperatly? Then mill after mix?
swamp

[Eddie2002]

I grind the charcoal down in a second hand kitchen blender and then add all the ingredients together in the ball mill and mix for about five hours. I think the mix picked up some moisture and needs longer milling.

[swamp]

I mill everything apart, mix and mill again. I want everything as fine as I can get before mixing.

You are right about the humidity in Fla. I have been in CO. so long I can't take the humidity down there.

swamp

[Eddie2002]

That could of been my problem with this last batch, I cooked the cc but left it in the container for a few days and a wet front moved in by the time I ground it in a blender. The potassium nitrate and sulfur are in air tight containers but even then could of picked up a little moisture when getting weighed.The last test of the green mill powder after another 4 hours milling was a lot faster than before without drying so I'm guessing it was a combination of a little moisture and insufficient milling. I'll finish processing this 1/4 lb batch and see how it acts before running another batch with Carolina Willow charcoal.

[swamp]

So far I still have my eye brows. But have singed hair on my hands. Reaction time not as fast as I used to be. Always surprises me how fast the powder is. Always get a kick out of the flash.
swamp

[Eddie2002]

Testing the flash is half the fun of rolling your own. LOL

[Eddie2002]

The 1/4 lb batch made with Carolina Willow worked out fine, just had to mill it more. I'm using a larger mesh #8 screen to granulate my damp pucks with and am getting more medium sized grains with less fines. This batch seems to burn quicker, maybe the willow cc or the grain size but I'm happy with it so far. Haven't got to the range yet, it's still raining every day here in Florida.

[Fly]

Sounds good Eddie. I knew you would get there. It is like anything the more you do the better you get. Just remember to
mill that stuff as fine as baby powder & it will be very fast.

Fly

[Eddie2002]

I'm into my third bottle of stump remover and have made three types of powder so far all of which seems to burn really well with the flash test. Batch one was made with red cedar cc with the recipe of 75, 15, 10 and 1.5 dextrin. I'm not using percentages for the recipe anymore, just how much of each component is going into the mix. The first batch was screened through a kitchen strainer and dried. It has smaller grains which are easy to break up with fingers. It burns fast for the flash test.
Batch two I made a mistake with the weights and the final recipe was 75, 16, 12.5 with 2 dextrin with red cedar cc. I did some research and found that a higher sulfur lowers the ignition point which should be useful for flintlocks. This batch I pressed into pucks and ran the damp pucks through #8 screening to get larger granules. The granules are harder than the first batch but still can be crumbled with fingers. The second batch appears to burn a little faster which could be due to the harder granules.
For the third batch I used the 75, 16, 12.5 with 2 dextrin recipe using Carolina Willow cc. Pucked it and #8 screened it just like the second batch. It seems to burn as fast as the second batch once I got it dried out. The only difference I've noticed is that the willow cc takes a lot more milling to grind up fine.
Think I have enough powder to enjoy a day at the range if it ever stops raining.

[Fly]

Eddie only thing I can add as far as the willow taking longer is you may cook it a little longer. You are milling all three together I hope.

Fly

[Eddie2002]

Fly, yes I'm milling all three together after running the charcoal through a blender. This time the willow powder was so dense the blender could hardly spin. You are probably correct, the willow needed to be cooked longer. It still flashes nicely but took a 12 hour milling to get it blended properly. While testing it during the milling I noticed some hot embers left after the flash which had to be small pieces of unincorporated charcoal which is another clue. Still working the bugs out of my BP manufacturing and having fun doing it. Do you think I should cook the willow cc powder a little longer, make another batch or just use it the way it is and mill everything longer. Thanks

[Fly]

Hey I have always said it just like cooking. You can have mommas recipe but you can't cook as good as her, till you keep trying.
Yep it is a lot of fun.
Fly

[Boz330]

I tried screening the damp pucks once and the results weren't very satisfactory. The powder wasn't as dense as my dried puck powder and performed at a lower level so never pursued that route any farther. Of course this is like skinning cats, many ways to do it depending on what you are looking for.

I have several BPCRs and for the small case capacity rifles I use the puck powder. I have a Martini Henry and the case capacity with the reformed Shotgun shells is 115gr of commercial powder. Because of the bottleneck case, fillers are not a wise option other than something like Kapok which doesn't yield very good accuracy. The screened powder will fill the case but because of the low density doesn't kick you into the middle of next week. By weight it is close to the original arsenal loading of 85gr. In a ML the density isn't really an issue since space isn't limited.

Bob

[Fly]

WOW Bob a Martini Henry I,m envoys. I have never ever seen one in person. Those are cool rifles. Is it original or reproduction? Ether
way that is cool.

Fly