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This table provides information on which wood are good for black powder:

https://pyrodata.com/chemicals/Charcoal

Generally speaking, hardwoods are not as suitable as soft woods.

Hi all. Glad to see everyone is still cooking along with BP! :)

Steve

Great test!

Interesting about the nitroglycerine!

Are you saying this makes a priming compound?

Hamgunner:

I would like to see a thread here dedicated to cap making just as we have here for BP making.

Steve

I did not measure. I just poured out a small pile about the size of a nickle. I agree I don't see how it could not leave some kind of scorch mark. This is why I compared against Goex. I figure if...

Here is the result of my burn test. The Goex actually burned the paper, while my homemade did not.

Full-sized: https://imgur.com/a/tTHZQVx

https://i.imgur.com/oP3rrnYl.jpg...

I find pucks that are 1/8" - 3/16" work best. Thicker pucks are hard to bust up and probably take longer to dry out. I now use a grain mill, and the distance between the grinding rollers wont...

This is interesting. When I dry my pucks in my food dehydrator, the pucks give off a peculiar smell. It is somewhat "sulfury" an odor. I think my pucks get to around 185F or so. Hopefully I'm not...

Thanks mmb617 for the write-up on your vibratory sifter.

I like that set because it comes with a lid and a solid-bottom pan, but you are right, those are expensive at $55 a pop.

I'm using some...

I find the main charge works fine for priming. Even 2F works great in my Brown Bess. So anything finer than 3F goes back to the ball mill.

Steve

Only thing to worry about with those guns is with no recoil shield if you have a chain fire you will likely have percussion caps flying towards your face.

Steve

My goal was to find screens that would result in the same grain size of Goex.

https://i.imgur.com/av303C9.jpg

mmb617 could you give some more details of your vibratory sifter setup? Where did you get your screens? How did you make the vibratory setup? Are the screens attached to the table somehow? Does...

I believe I have the same screens.

Anything that catches on the 20 screen goes back for regrind. The 30 screen catches 2F, the 40 screen catches 3F, anything else is fines for me.

30:...

The British settled on a density of 1.55 as I recall from memory.

Steve

What DoubleBuck said. The density numbers we are talking about is the density of pressed pucks of essentially solid black powder. Once you break it up into powder now you have air gaps.

Now, if...

I think density testing is done on pucks.

Steve

One thing I will note is that most commercial powders are graphite coated. The graphite coating supposedly helps preventing moisture uptake.

I'm not sure about the benefit, but the British had enormous steam-heated drying rooms for trays and trays of finished powder. Going from memory, black powder will absorb like 7% of its weight in...

I screen, but whenever I pour out a charge or am pouring screened powder into a container I can always see a "smoke" of dust.

In period, there were separate steps for glazing (tumbling the raw...

My Pietta 1851 Navy (.36) is the only reproduction revolver I have that shoots to point of aim with factory sights at 25 yards.

Steve

If you think the wife was upset about the sheets.... :mrgreen:

I would use plastic sheeting. Woven tarps can be somewhat porous.

Steve