Originally Posted by
jmh54738
Anyone trying to make their own black powder will have a hard time convincing me that they can make a satisfactory product by just mixing the moist ingredients together and granulating by pushing it through a coffee strainer. Real black powder is made by milling the moist ingredients in edge runner incorporating mills. A 50 pound batch is placed in the mill, the two circular runner wheels weigh from 3 to 4 tons each, and are from 4 to 7 feet in diameter. At 8 rpm, it requires 3 1/2 hours of incorporating to produce cannon grade powder. Small arms (dogwood) powder requires 5 1/2 hours of incorporation. The "soft cake" must next be converted to "hard cake" by being pressed between copper plates under hydraulic pressure. Then there is "granulation", "grading", "glazing", and "Drying". In the past many factories blew up, and they still do. John