My homemade black powder

[Boz330]

Bob your in a area I have never tryed.But the sulfur helps with ignition.If it were
me I would not try it in your hunting for now, it might cost you a buck.

But when you do test it, let us know your findings my friend.

Fly

PS I have never tryed the sugar ether.Did you use the same amount as the sulfur?
I have been told it does not smoke much.

I got the recipe from this thread. I think Perotter put it up. This thread is so long now it is tough when you have to look for something. These loads were cartridge so the ignition wasn't an issue. I'm going to do a little looking and see if I can find it.

Bob

[Boz330]

Here it is;

Bob
1.
KNO3,Charcoal & table sugar. A mix of 72/14/14 the yield of gas is 2.1 & solids is 0.35 per unit of weight.

2.
KNO3 & table sugar(normal white powder) the yield of gas is 2.25 & solids is 0.32 per unit of weight.

3.
BP the yield of gas is 1.57 & solids is 0.36 per unit of weight. Sulfur produces very little gas.

The 1st one I don't believe is optimized. In Europe some guys mix it 75/15/10, but it would have less power than the one I listed. Keep in mind that vel & the amount of gas/solids aren't a 1 to 1 relationship.

Neither of the 1st 2 may not work in traditional ML's. But do work in cartridge gun & cap & ball revolvers. I think they may work with inline MLs. I'm really a BP cartridge man & use the white powder. The 1st one most likely burns faster & ignites easier than number 2, because charcoal is a burn rate catalyst.

I don't have time to do more testing of the 1st one in the near future. I have a little more to do with primer compounds now & want to get back to DIY smokeless powders(my real interest). I might get some time to figure out a better ratio.
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[Nobade]

I have been doing some more work with compressing pucks recently. As per Fly's post, I started leaving the pressure on my die for 5 minutes instead of taking it off as soon as it reached full compression. This does make a difference! The density of my powder went from 13.5 grains/CC up to 14.2 grains/CC measured with a Lee dipper and weighed. I am not sure what the maximum theoretical density of black powder is, but this newest batch is as heavy as any commercial powder I have tested. It also makes incredibly hard pucks - I can barely break them up with an aluminum baseball bat and an aluminum rolling pin. They are noticeably harder and tougher than before when I didn't leave the pressure on for so long.

In addition I have decided homemade powder is better for flintlocks. If I try to flash a pile of commercial glazed powder with a match it sometimes takes some doing to get it to light off. Have to hold the match to it and stir it around a bit. But the unglazed homemade powder is another story. Get a match anywhere near it and it is gone in a puff of smoke. I guess the glazing makes an insulating layer that has to be gotten through first to get it to light. At any rate my flintlock rifle fires much faster than it ever did and is a whole lot more enjoyable with homemade powder than it was with commercial.

Any other developments out there in powder making?

[Boz330]

Any other developments out there in powder making?

No but mine filled the freezer again this year. Headed back out for the weekend for another if possible. Took a good size doe at 90yds. Mums the word since it was with a cartridge.

Bob

[Fly]

Noblade your dam close enough.1.7 g/cm³ is what american powder makers use.Guys
it is all about the weight of the powder, as to the power of a given a BP.My test have
shown screened powder to be the ticket.

Bob likes the corned, as does Noblade.What ever way you chose to go is not wrong as long
as it is consistent.It's about preforming the same every shot.You can alway ajust for power
from how much you use.

We want every shot hitting the target the same.Corning is a great way to make powder.
I have been messing with screened, for I'm lazy & wanted to see if it could be consistent.
Yes it can, but you must be much more carefull.

Fly

[Hotfxr]

What a great thread. I want to thank everyone who has written about their trials and tribulations in making BP. Since I first found this forum a few weeks back, using some Charcoal from Fly (thanks Fly) and adapting mixing methods from the different mambers here, by BP burns at least four times faster and looks much more like the stuff you buy in a can that ever. Living in the "nanny" state, I can get Goex or any of the commercial brands shipped to my house, but with the hazmat rules and fees, it is over $100 per pound. Now I hope to perfect my methods and be able to produce BP that is at least as consistant as what I can buy. I think I am going to like this forum.

[brushhippie]

I finally got a chance to put mine on a digi scale and chrono this weekend and was way more than thrilled with the results. I did what Fly said and just loaded the cylinder full and this has been my load. The load turned out to be about 14 grains, by weight, and was giving me 1000 fps! I was hoping to be in the neighborhood of swiss speeds but never dreamed I would be beating them. We also loaded a CVA caplock .50 with up to 75 grains and got over 1400 with that, where it took 120 grains of swiss to get the same results. Thanks again fly my friend!

[Fly]

Thanks for the kind words Hip, but for some reason I can't log in the Gultch with my password.See whats wrong.

Fly

[brushhippie]

I got it!

[Fly]

Guy's my bud Brushhippie has made a two videos on making black powder.He has never posted the
YouTube site info here.I think being I helped him, I guess he thought he would step on my toe's (wink).

But we all help each other.I don't know how to make the video so watch Hips.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVo_...ature=youtu.be

Fly

[Nobade]

I had read in a book about old time gunsmiths a mention of using corn stalks for making charcoal for gunpowder. I grew some corn this year so I thought I'd give it a try and see what happened. It is interesting stuff - takes very little time to make charcoal compared to wood, and is very light weight. I made a gallon can full of charcoal and that was barely enough to make a kilo of gunpowder. The powder seems to work fairly well, flashing a small bit of it looks like it is about as fast as Goex. Not as fast as Swiss, way better than Diamondback. The interesting thing is after it is burned it leaves what looks like fine sand on the paper. I looked at the residue under a microscope, and it is not sand but just the pithy material inside the stalks. Evidently not all of it is flammable.

I didn't get to shoot it over the chronograph, but did shoot a bit in my little underhammer buggy rifle. Accuracy was very good, about like normal with most shots cutting each other at 50M. A 50 gr. charge (45 caliber roundball) seemed to be about right and didn't do anything unusual. Next I will try it in a cartridge gun over the chrono and see how the speeds are, but with initial tests it looks like it does indeed work. Smells kind of weird though when it burns. Oh, it is very dense - 14.7 grains per cc. Heavier than any other powder I have made to date.

[Boz330]

I made some CC from tree of heaven and the center was kind of pithy. Haven't had a chance to grind it and make some powder though. It is supposed to make a real fast powder.

Bob

[Nobade]

Let us know how that works. We have a lot of those here too, I bet that makes some bad smelling gunpowder!

[Boz330]

Let us know how that works. We have a lot of those here too, I bet that makes some bad smelling gunpowder!

We will see. It sure smells bad when your peeling the bark off, although the CC itself is odorless. I cut it after the leaves had fallen and it wasn't as bad as in the summer. Might have something to do with the sap being down.

Bob

[Fly]

Bob with you living in Kentucky there is a tree that grow wild out there.

The Royal Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa), it grows along by rail road tracks.I have a friend
that lives out there & sent me some of his charcoal to try.It it said to be one of the fastest.The reason
yall have it along the rails, is said the seeds blew out when they used to ship it east.

The trees are native to China, & grow very fast.They have purple flowers on them in spring & spread
like wild fire, once interduced to a area.

Check these out.I bought one off the net I have growing in my front yard.It's still young thow.But
coal made from these trees is scarey fast.Do some checking out there & see what you can come up with.

Your friend Fly

[Boz330]

I have researched it but don't know of any in my area. There was a big grove of them near my deer hunting area but they were cut down a couple years ago. I thought about getting a couple but they are sure proud of them as seedlings.

Bob

[Nobade]

That is good info. They are around here sometimes, but usually used decoratively in people's yards. Back in VA they were all over the place.

Back in the 1970's a guy used to hire my dad to fly him around in a helicopter to look for those trees. They exported them to Japan to make shoes out of, and they were worth a ton of money. Later that market fizzled so there are a lot of the trees around growing wild after they were neglected.

[Boz330]

That is good info. They are around here sometimes, but usually used decoratively in people's yards. Back in VA they were all over the place.

Back in the 1970's a guy used to hire my dad to fly him around in a helicopter to look for those trees. They exported them to Japan to make shoes out of, and they were worth a ton of money. Later that market fizzled so there are a lot of the trees around growing wild after they were neglected.

They make some sort of chest out of them as well, which was popular with the older Japanese generation. The ones near my deer camp were planted in the mid 80s for the same reason. They cut them down a couple years ago. Not sure if they sold them or not. There is corn in there now.

Bob

[Fly]

One thing about them, is you cut them down & they come right back.The one I planted in my
yard was not doing to good.I was told to cut it down to the ground & it would come back
better than before.

It did, & now is 12 foot tall.They grow very fast.
Fly

[Fly]

Bob the friend I have lives in Nancy,KY if you know were thats at.He said those trees grow up & down the rails there.I don't know
if thats close by you, but if so you might want to check it out.
Fly