My homemade black powder

[Fly]

Joe pick up all the pawlonia you can. I find it here & there, but it is the holy grail of charcoal. Bob lives in Kentucky & I told
Bob about a ole fireworks buddy from Kentucky that had it growing all around his area. He sent me a lb many years back &
it was assume. It is a jap tree I planted one in my front yard. When you grind it into powder you better not sneeze. That stuff
is soooooo light it is unbelievable. I have some drying now with my black willow.

Fly

Fly

[indian joe]

Joe pick up all the pawlonia you can. I find it here & there, but it is the holy grail of charcoal. Bob lives in Kentucky & I told
Bob about a ole fireworks buddy from Kentucky that had it growing all around his area. He sent me a lb many years back &
it was assume. It is a jap tree I planted one in my front yard. When you grind it into powder you better not sneeze. That stuff
is soooooo light it is unbelievable. I have some drying now with my black willow.

Fly

Fly

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[Fly]

Fly
I knew somebody was gonna tell me that !!!! Its a thousand miles from home but I go right past the place at least a couple times a year - looks like I come home with a tree on the roofrack next visit !! ......so ... this is a plantation that was abandoned and failed maybe ten years ago (or longer) what do I look for ? what size is best ? trees were up to about 8 inch trunks - there would be plenty of smaller stuff - how fast does it deteriorate after it dies?
thanks

Here you go my brother. They are a gorgeous tree, in the spring the flowers bloom into a light purple. The leaves are huge. Very fast growing.
https://www.google.com/search?q=roya...w=1492&bih=770

Fly

[Boz330]

I figured Fly would jump on that post. There used to be a grove of trees near where I deer hunt but they were dozed several years back when the bottom fell out of the Pawlonia wood market.
I like about finger diameter branches for CC. You have the tree of heaven nailed that is exactly right. If you can lay your hands on the Pawlonia I would go that route. I thought about getting a Pawlonia tree and just planting it. They grow fast enough that you would have some in the first year but they are pretty pricey around here, and I get good results from the TOH and I have way more than I can use.
Check this out; http://www.fastestgrowingtrees.com/ Watch the picture and it shows the growth rate of this tree.

Bob

[partsproduction]

I love the way all the "Gonna kill yourself!" guys faded out.

I am concerned with safety though and batch size has to do with that. The big killer powder mill explosions went along with tons of stored powder.
A pound of good BP could do a heck of a number on a guy, so obviously the safety aspect includes avoiding sparking and separation of finished batches. Other than safety it seems like a good way to become powder rich at little cost, so rich one can give it to friends face to face with no witnesses (Lawsuit protection, no proof for relatives to use against you.) plus shooting a ton more yourself than you otherwise might at $25 a pound. Also, when marxists in government are closing the gaps on our second amendment rights we'll be able to carry on secretly, that's huge for me and why I also bought Prime all mix.
I bought a bunch of willow charcoal for artists but now am wondering if it's the best type willow, aw well, it'll do for now.
A good research project would be making several small batches using exactly the same everything except the charcoal wood type and test them, recording the data so it can be replicated. My bet is that the BP companies did that a century ago but never published it.

[Fly]

That's already been done. There is no way anyone can test all the difference wood out there. I went threw a phase doing that & used
up a bunch of KNO-3 years back. Being I was heavy in to fireworks making I still could use much of it in my fire work effect. Many have
tried reinventing the wheel in making BP. I think it is just the nature of humans.

But something to consider is BP has been around hundred's of years & came from China. I don't ever try to discourage people in trying new
charcoal. That part of the fun, but it seems we all come back to the basics. Black Willow has been used in the US for many years & threw the
civil war. It is one of the best I have ever used for two reasons. It is very fast & burns cleaner than many.

In fire works we never cared if it burns dirty so we used white pine a lot for lift & burst powder. But in a firearm it is nasty dirty. I will give you
a list I have had good luck with. Silver maple very fast & a little dirty but not bad. As Bob said Tree of Heaven very good. Cedar very fast but a little
dirty. Pawlonia as addressed above a little dirty but very fast. Cotton wood very fast but to dirty for me. For the guys in the great north west I,m
told the big leaf maple you have there is very fast. Can't comment on how dirty it burns for I never shot any but the fireworks guys tell me they love it.

Those are the ones I have been around. I hope this helps. Remember there is more bad ones than good for fire arms so take that in account before wasting your KNO-3

JMOHOP Fly

[indian joe]

That's already been done. There is no way anyone can test all the difference wood out there. I went threw a phase doing that & used
up a bunch of KNO-3 years back. Being I was heavy in to fireworks making I still could use much of it in my fire work effect. Many have
tried reinventing the wheel in making BP. I think it is just the nature of humans.

But something to consider is BP has been around hundred's of years & came from China. I don't ever try to discourage people in trying new
charcoal. That part of the fun, but it seems we all come back to the basics. Black Willow has been used in the US for many years & threw the
civil war. It is one of the best I have ever used for two reasons. It is very fast & burns cleaner than many.

In fire works we never cared if it burns dirty so we used white pine a lot for lift & burst powder. But in a firearm it is nasty dirty. I will give you
a list I have had good luck with. Silver maple very fast & a little dirty but not bad. As Bob said Tree of Heaven very good. Cedar very fast but a little
dirty. Pawlonia as addressed above a little dirty but very fast. Cotton wood very fast but to dirty for me. For the guys in the great north west I,m
told the big leaf maple you have there is very fast. Can't comment on how dirty it burns for I never shot any but the fireworks guys tell me they love it.

Those are the ones I have been around. I hope this helps. Remember there is more bad ones than good for fire arms so take that in account before wasting your KNO-3

JMOHOP Fly

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[partsproduction]

I guess I'm forced to buy charcoal then, the choices here are really pine (From crates we get bars of metals in) and fir, also, there is some kind of trash wood that grows around every logging operation a few years after they pull up stakes. It may be poplar, how is that?
Another source I just thought of is cabinet makers, maybe they'd have silver maple.

[Nobade]

I guess I'm forced to buy charcoal then, the choices here are really pine (From crates we get bars of metals in) and fir, also, there is some kind of trash wood that grows around every logging operation a few years after they pull up stakes. It may be poplar, how is that?
Another source I just thought of is cabinet makers, maybe they'd have silver maple.

The cedar lizard bedding from Walmart works pretty well and is already shredded up.

[Fly]

I guess I'm forced to buy charcoal then, the choices here are really pine (From crates we get bars of metals in) and fir, also, there is some kind of trash wood that grows around every logging operation a few years after they pull up stakes. It may be poplar, how is that?
Another source I just thought of is cabinet makers, maybe they'd have silver maple.

Well being you live in Oregon you have Big Leaf maple up there. Now I have never shot it in a gun, but I know it is very fast, very fast. I do not
know how dirty it will burn though . I would love to know. If not go with Nobades advice.

Fly

[Boz330]

Distribution of Tree of Heaven it is in Oregon; https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...g&action=click

Bob

[Fly]

Bob I never dreamed it grew out west. The state that blew me away was AZ. I spend a lot of time in Tucson & don't remember
seeing any as the map shows. But then I never looked. Thanks for posting the map. Now we have sumac that grows here & looks
much like that but is not Tree of heaven.

Oh well Fly

[Boz330]

It looks a lot like Sumac and stinks as well. It is real fun skinning the bark back.

Bob

[redhawk0]

There is lots of talk about willow...I have a white pu$$y willow...would this do? I have some Silver Maple and have found some Tree of Heaven in the area too...but not much...has anyone done any "mixing" of wood species for charcoal? Yes...I'm a newbie...but I've learned so much from this one thread...I'm gonna give this a try in the Spring when the weather breaks here in the North East.

[EDIT] - Oh...and one other wood I have on hand. American Elm...its cut already and the wood is very "stringy" when split. Seems to have a very open grain. Any thoughts?

redhawk

[Fly]

Elm? can't say but I would think if it were much good it would have been used as commend as it is.If you have the thee tree above
then I would use those.
Fly

[grullaguy]

I have shot maple bp. It is much faster than Goex, but does leave a crud ring that is felt when seating the next ball. That said, I still like it.
I live nearer the coast where the maples are common. I am not a tree expert and can't name the type of maple that I used. People often cut them out of tree farms as a nuisance tree and within a few years, a clump of new trunks have sprouted out of the stump. Those are what I used to make my powder several years ago.

I had just wanted to confirm that I could make powder, but have not made any since.

[partsproduction]

I've seen many mentions of cast bullets used as tumbling media, but yesterday I found a bar of brass in the metals area of the shop and cranked up the CNC and made it into 5/8" diameter balls. There are 73 of them and that used up all the 5/8" brass barstock I had.
Tumbling willow artists charcoal now!

[indian joe]

There is lots of talk about willow...I have a white pu$$y willow...would this do? I have some Silver Maple and have found some Tree of Heaven in the area too...but not much...has anyone done any "mixing" of wood species for charcoal? Yes...I'm a newbie...but I've learned so much from this one thread...I'm gonna give this a try in the Spring when the weather breaks here in the North East.

[EDIT] - Oh...and one other wood I have on hand. American Elm...its cut already and the wood is very "stringy" when split. Seems to have a very open grain. Any thoughts?

redhawk

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[partsproduction]

OK, I have about 1 lb of mix tumbling in a Thumler's Tumbler Model B, with 73 solid brass 5/8" balls. The components were weighed on a gram scale and everything except the sulfur pre tumbled (It was already like flour in the bag). I added about a tablespoon of water and plugged it in. Does this sound like something iffy enough to place 50 feet away from the house, I mean, will the moisture content diminish overnight? The tumbler has a rubber lining all around inside.
Thanks

[indian joe]

OK, I have about 1 lb of mix tumbling in a Thumler's Tumbler Model B, with 73 solid brass 5/8" balls. The components were weighed on a gram scale and everything except the sulfur pre tumbled (It was already like flour in the bag). I added about a tablespoon of water and plugged it in. Does this sound like something iffy enough to place 50 feet away from the house, I mean, will the moisture content diminish overnight? The tumbler has a rubber lining all around inside.
Thanks

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