Making Black Powder

[Babbott213]

I wonder how well Privet would do for charcoal for BP? It’s a fast growing tree/shrub that seems to be taking the Southeast over. I have hundreds of them here on the property now.


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[Claypipe]

Should you decide to do the following, you do so at your own risk to life, limb and/or property. Read thoroughly three times.

River willow makes the best charcoal for this endeavor. Cut it, strip the bark, set it in the sun to dry. Clean out a metal latex gallon paint can with hot water and ammonia. Be sure it is spotless. Drill a small 1/8" hole in the center of the lid. load the can up with willow sticks, set it on an out door barbecue grill, and let it cook. A jet of hot gases will issue forth from the hole in the lid. Don't have the grill too near to any structures, or your self, in case the lid decides to fly off. You will know that the batch is done, when there is no longer any gases issuing from the hole in the lid. Use the first batch of charcoal in your grill to prepare the second batch for your use in this endeavor.

PLEASE NOTE: a person performing the follow tasks should wearing a personal grounding device, to prevent static discharge.

A rock tumbler, a box of .50 lead balls, that have been degreased with Dawn dish soap, will work nicely as a powder mill. Make sure that it is grounded to prevent static electricity from building up. 24 hours to mill charcoal, allow to set 6 hours for dust to settle, add next ingredient, repeat, add third ingredient, repeat. You now should have serpentine powder. To corn your powder, you need to add that final secret ingredient, and perform the final procedures of sifting and grading your work.

[Vdubman27]

Oh great now another thing I want to do lol

[303Guy]

I've made black powder once or twice. I won't brag about my first attempts but I can advise on what not to do. Like drying it in the kitchen oven.

Ok. so I got more savvy and made some decent stuff that I loaded in my 44 mag which worked but I suppose I should have compressed the stuff in. Also in my shotgun which worked quite well. I do not recall ever trying it in my Brit. I can say that cleaning the guns was a bit more labor intensive than with smokeless.

My source of charcoal was simply BBQ left overs. I just selected the black unburned bits, bearing in mind that those bits had been heated. I crushed it up somehow, added the other ingredients plus some water to make a paste, ground it all further then dried it (not in the oven). I have no idea how it would have compared with store bought black powder.

[fishingsetx]

BP is really easy to make once you have a few proper tools. The stuff I make is almost identical to the goex I have, maybe just slightly hotter.

As for ingredients I use, they are easy to find except you will need to source the sulfur. I get it at work when the truckers unload, they always spill a bit on the ground so there is usually a couple pounds laying around.

For the salt Peter (kno3), I buy stump remover from tractor supply. Just check the msds for the brand you are looking at and verify its 100% kno3.

For charcoal, I use red cedar pet bedding chips, a gallon paint can with a hole punched in the lid, and a crawfish cooker. Heat it over the burner, light the smoke coming out of the hole, and when it cant be lit anymore, its done.

Measure and grind the materials seperately in a ball mill,

mix them for a couple hrs in the mill

press the milled/mixed powder into pucks using a press and die

Break up the pucks and grind them in a ceramic coffee grinder

Sift them through a couple screens for size

I also toss the sifted powder back into the mill with no mill balls and add a little graphite and tumble for a couple hrs then sift again.

For a mill, I use a harbor freight rock tumbler with some 1/2" copper tubing cut into 1" pieces and filled with lead.

For a press, I use a harbor freight bench top press

For a puck die, I bought one from a guy on here.

I bought the sifting screens and coffee grinder from amazon.

It's not a hard process, just takes time.

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