My homemade black powder

[Boz330]

I was crushing and grading some pucks today since my customer failed to show. Thought I would take some pictures of my process in-case anyone is interested.
A puck before breaking it up.
Here the puck is crushed with a baseball bat.
Next the broken up puck is dumped into a kitchen sieve.
The chunks and powder that didn't pass the sieve are put into a ceramic coffee grinder and ground up. That is then graded through the sieve, and a 20 mesh screen. What doesn't pass those 2 go back through the grinder.
I only keep what stays on the 30 mesh screen which seems to shoot the best for me.
The powder that passes the 30 mesh screen is wet down and pressed again and the process starts all over again.

Bob

[Fly]

Hey Merry Christmas buddy.Great pic's.

Fly

[waksupi]

Next question for the topic, how do you make a "moist" shooting powder?

[Boz330]

Next question for the topic, how do you make a "moist" shooting powder?

Don't have a clue but I would guess that it has to do with the type of wood used to make the charcoal.
From what I remember reading that is what made some of the 19th century CC work better than others since the fowling didn't get hard.

Bob

[Fly]

Next question for the topic, how do you make a "moist" shooting powder?

I never ever heard of that.Clue me in if you would.
Fly

[waksupi]

Over the years, different powders have had a moist, or soft fouling, as opposed to the hard fouling like GOEX has. Compare goex and Schutzen, and Schutzen is more towards the moist side. I think it was the old Curtis and Harvey that was known as a real good moist powder. The question is, is it the charcoal, sulfur, or nitrate that makes the difference?

[Fly]

I truly think it is the charcoal.I noticed that with differant powders in the past & never really gave much thought
to it other than the humitity was the reason.But if you think about it sulfur is sulfur & Kno-3 is Kno-3.But differant
charcoals & very differant.

I was testing cottenwood coal, for I read the south used it in the Civil war.That was almost the most dirty ****
I ever shot.I was VERY fast thow.But not worth the trouble.White pine is another, that is very fast but way too
dirty.We use both the cotton wood & white pine for our fireworks, for we care less how dirty it burns.

When you said wet, I thought wet shooting powder, "DUMB A$$ ME) .

Fly

[Nobade]

From what I have gleaned from reading the writings of the mad monk, it has to do with how much creosote is left in the charcoal. Evidently if you can control the temperatures the charcoal is made at you can char it while preserving some of the creosote. That is supposed to lead to moist burning powder. I suspect that in order to do that at home you would need to build some pretty sophisticated machinery first. Possibly use steam to char the wood rather than fire to get more control over it. I know that my way of making charcoal in a can on the gas BBQ grill doesn't gave any kind of fine control, I just burn it on high until it quits gassing off and call it good.

[andyt]

hiya i would like to introduce myself , i,m andy and i,m from the uk and this is my first post on the forum .

i,ve been following this thread for a while now , and if i could , i would like to make a recomendation on some reading matter , that would help a lot of aspiring powder makers out a fair bit by answering a lot of your questions

i bought a book from the u.s about 3 years ago called , blackpowder and how to make it . by randy & leigh ellis . library of congress number TX 2-430-837 . L & R PUBLISHING P. O BOX 3081 EVERETT, WA.98203

now this book is the dogs do dahs on the subject of making blackpowder for use in firearms

it will answer all your questions on the subject of powdermaking and if you follow the instructions you will make a powder that will equal or beat swiss powder , it is consistant , cleanburning and above all else shoots very accurate groups .

i dont know if the book is still in print or how much it now costs , but it is well worth the $$$ i paid for it .

another good read is the book by ian von malitz called black powder manufacture , optomizing , and testing . published by the american firework news magazine , this book has very good chapters on the manufacture of good quallity charcoal .

keep up the good work boys , and above all else have fun and be safe , and may i wish you all a very merry christmas , from a very wet and windy u.k

[Fly]

Can you guys in the UK buy kno-3?Is it legal there to make home made BP?

Fly

[waksupi]

Welcome aboard, Andyt.

I wonder if a recirculating retort would work? Two separate containers, one containing already made charcoal, and the container being fired. Connect with a tube, so the expelled gases from the fresh wood, is introduced into the second retort? That would capture most of the creosote in the finished charcoal. I may have to give that a try when green up comes.

[andyt]

hi fly

yes we can buy kno3 here but its expensive roughfully between £50 to 60.00 for 25 kg bags , as to being legal you are only aloud to manufacture 100 gram test batches .

here you must have an explosives ( aquire and keep ) certificate to buy and store blackpowder and we are resticted on the amount that we are allowed to keep , my certificate allows me to store only 5kgs of powder in my magazine . how much does store bought blackpowder cost in the states as here its an expensive £30.00 a pound and thats if you can get it locally .

[Fly]

Well it all depends on what kind of powder.Swizz is around $25 lb.US Goex can be had for about $15 average.
I make my own for under $2 lb & it's much faster.I'm also into firework making, so I buy my kno-3 in larger
supply for that.

But no way can I sell black powder, that's a no, no.We just use alot more in our sky effects, than a shooter
ever would.
Fly

[Hotfxr]

After doing a lot of research, mostly this thread, I have refined my BP recipe (many thanks to Fly for the charcoal) to the point where I have powder that burns as fast if not faster than Goex fffp. I am compressing the powder into pucks, however when I break them up it still reverts to powder after a few days. I am tumbling a 57-15-10 mixture for a couple of days then adding 2%dextrin and tumbling for 2-3 hours more, damping the mixture then compressing it. Any advice?

[moon]

Not worth it,very dangerousIMHO

[waksupi]

Moon, I've got to ask, have you read this thread?

[Fly]

Moon, I've got to ask, have you read this thread?

Waksupi my friend, you said what I was about to.Thanks!
Fly

[Beagler]

when mixing dry ingredients is it by weight or volume? I gots all the stuff to make it just wondering how to measure it out.

[Boz330]

when mixing dry ingredients is it by weight or volume? I gots all the stuff to make it just wondering how to measure it out.

You mix by weight. KNO3 is pretty dense where as the charcoal is very light and fluffy.
Hotfxr, not sure what you are doing wrong but I have some puck powder that is more than a year old that is still intact. For the pucks I don't use Dextrin, just compress them. I use a 50-50 alcohol, water mix. Some use just water. What measurement are your numbers, grams, oz, gr? At first glance that seems like a strange ratio, but I'm sure you have a reason.
Moon, this thread is a long read but there is a tremendous amount of info by folks that have been there done that and still have all of their appendages. It is not for everyone but there are safety precautions that should be adhered to just like running a chainsaw or other dangerous pursuit.

Bob

[Freightman]

Driving on our roads is far more dangerous!