Originally Posted by
Linstrum
Hi jmh54738. Thanks for your response.
Taking an educated guess about your mystery plant, from your description it might be one of the eastern elderberry species. Elderberry is described as having light pithy wood. But whatever it is, at 1.8% ash, it sounds like it is another good one to keep working with.
You guessed correctly Linstrum, while my local university extension horticulturalist could not identify the plant, which is Red Berried Elder. My charcoal wood selection keeps getting better, from White Pine, to Cedar, to Quaking Aspen. About the Aspen; I have run the ash assay three times, averaging 6.0. Shooting about 40 shots yesterday with the Aspen powder, (36 cal RB, 35 grains powder), resulted in soft fouling which required just a dry patch after every 2 or three shots. I am satisfied that it is good strong BP. I was concerned with the amount of ash, but less concerned when I consider that around 55% of the powder charge is a residual solid. On the other hand, a high ash content would make the recipe carbon deficient. Thus, I am excited to experiment with the very low ash (1.8%) Red Elderberry charcoal. As stated before the elder wood is very light weight and its ash more white and fluffy when compared to the Aspen. The Red Elderberry is very common, especially around the edge of my woodland. I am now processing a batch of Elderberry BP, and will report the chronograph and fouling results soon.
jmh54738