My homemade black powder

[Sandro_ventania]

I found!

[HWooldridge]

I seem to recall that info was in some of Bill Knight’s notes. I remember reading it somewhere else.

[DoubleBuck]

HW;
It was in Bill Knight's notes. I think that screen shot is from his notes.

[HWooldridge]

HW;
It was in Bill Knight's notes. I think that screen shot is from his notes.

Thanks, DB - good to know my memory isn’t completely gone…LOL

[HamGunner]

I bought two cans of Elephant powder years ago back when Goex was difficult to get once before. Perhaps this was after the Louisiana Goex explosion and closure in 2011, maybe prior to Hodgdon acquiring the Louisiana plant. I just checked, as I still have the cans, and they are both marked 1997 on the bottom of the cans.

I had heard that Elephant was not the best, and the gun shop owner acted sort of apologetic that Elephant was all that he had. Although I did not do any chronograph comparative testing of it, I did not notice it being any dirtier than Goex.

I recently acquired an older can of Goex from a friend and it is stamped 02-04 on the bottom of the can. That old Elephant looks like it metered just about the same weight as this can of Goex.

Unless the price of Black comes down a great bit, I doubt I will be buying commercial powder. But maybe I will buy one new can of Goex, once it is available, and compare it to the old Goex as well as with my home made.

[Nobade]

The first batches used wood with bark to reduce labor and thus costs. This hurt the brand, as it really was a bad product. However, the company realized this and carried out improvement work, producing shellless charcoal and better grinding. The result was a better black powder than Goex. But the bad reputation had already happened. I have a test chart from that time, I'll try to find it.

That would certainly explain the performance of what I saw. I wonder if they ever shipped any of the better powder to the US?

About 10 years ago I bought a case of "Diamondback" powder from Powder Inc. He said it came from the plant that used to make Elephant. I still have a few cans of it, it's not terribly impressive either. Better than the Elephant I had tried but still weak and fairly dirty. It worked fine for CAS and general shooting but not good for long range with the BPCR rifles.

[HighUintas]

I wonder about any additives to TP that might affect the BP made with it. Tissues sometimes have aloe or other stuff on them. I'm not sure if some TP is the same, but I'd expect there's potentially other stuff in there that might affect it in a good or bad way.

[dondiego]

I wonder about any additives to TP that might affect the BP made with it. Tissues sometimes have aloe or other stuff on them. I'm not sure if some TP is the same, but I'd expect there's potentially other stuff in there that might affect it in a good or bad way.

It is often oils or perfumes and would most likely off gas during the heating to charcoal process.

[indian joe]

If you're worried about a toilet paper shortage, look at the toilet paper isle in any store. That shortage was a scam on the American people, not an actual shortage of anything. .

Youre right it was a scam - but worldwide - more than that it was a test - to see how easy it would be to frighten the sheeple into getting the jab - there was the real scam and most of the world fell for it .

anyway why toilet paper ??? of all the things in a grocery store to panic buy why that ? makes no sense at all.........................

[DoubleBuck]

indian joe;
Because idiots will be idiots. Just like the run on banks or when honey was supposed to be non existent in five years, because all the bees would be dead before then. So, lets believe the propaganda and run out and buy all there is. Five weeks after the great toilet paper shortage, people were trying to sell thousands of cases, even pallets of cases, on the internet, because they bought it all up to get rich. That didn't work out so well and now, it is cheaper than it was before the 'shortage'. Un believable.
HighUintas;
From what I read, they have to say on the product if it is perfumed or any additives put in, because of the people who may be allergic, etc.
Both the Cottonelle Super Clean and the Charmin Ultra Strong are free of any additives.
Again, from what I read, the super absorbent types are a different process of manufacture. They also have to have warnings on them, for people who need the 'moisture' in the delicate areas. haha They also have GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED inspections to insure there are no germ killers or inhalant dangers from the fibers, on facial and bathroom tissues. I'm pretty sure you can eat all the toilet paper you need for a daily regimen. For those in need of a cheap source of fiber.
They also say there is a 'shelf life' on toilet paper, because after three years, it may absorb contaminates from the environment. I guarantee you I've used moldy five year old leaves and sticks, rocks and green leaves, a thousand times. I learned young what Poison Ivy and Stinging nettles look like. LOL

[DoubleBuck]

The first round of sifting the Cottonelle is done. The fines came out at 43%. I found something before I was done that would have lowered that percentage quite a bit.
If anyone is using a manual, conical ceramic burr coffee grinder, I discovered a way to substantially cut your fines down. I didn't discover this trick, until deep into screening.
If you loosen up your grinder (mine sets as large grain size as it will go), especially on the first few passes, and for every round I turn it clockwise, to grind; I spin it probably 6-10 revolutions in reverse. It loads the burrs with a partial round and then turning it counter clockwise clears it, without further grinding it. It sounds fishy, but I did the last half of my grinding, like that; which lowered my fines by nearly half what they were, just grinding it straight through. You can feel and see it unloading the pieces of puck, without grinding so much.
As you screw it down to make smaller grains, it still works the same, but with somewhat lesser effect.
Just a hint if anyone is plagued with fines. It may help. This TP powder seems to generate more fines than I'm used to.
Fines are moisturized and will be pucked tomorrow, and I should be able to finish up the project. Shooting at first available opportunity.
Carry on!!!

[Linstrum]

Hey, guys! Not to worry about charcoal contaminated with "Chanel Number 2" and aloe. In my somewhat recent post somewhere up above, I mentioned that my dad was the electrical systems engineer at the Charmin toilet paper manufacturing plant in Oxnard, California, back in 1974 to 1981. Toilet paper itself does not contain perfume, the reason being the manufacturers already have problems from consumers blaming them for irritations caused by toilet paper. That, and perfumes actually can be quite harsh, since chemically speaking, most pleasant-smelling chemicals are esters, alcohols, ketones, ethers, aldehydes, and terpenes. Those categories of chemicals, although many of them are found in fruits, vegetable, and flowers, are often irritating and toxic.

The fragrances for toilet paper are sparingly applied to the cardboard tube the toilet paper is wound on. Just a minuscule amount on the inside of the tube, where maximum exposure to air will occur, especially when a roll of toilet paper rotates while some of the product is being unwound.

So, if you like a particular toilet paper fragrance, but are worried it will all be gone when the toilet paper is all gone, too, simply save the cardboard tube and you can still enjoy it for awhile longer.

About aloe, from the aloe vera plant, that stuff is a polysaccharide. Polysaccharides are made from smaller carbohydrate molecules, where carbohydrates include things like cellulose, simple starches, glycogen, table sugar, lactose, dextrin. So, all aloe can do is make more charcoal. I've made charcoal out of table sugar and corn starch. I did an ash assay on table sugar and corn starch, where table sugar I couldn't detect any ash at all (as expected), and corn starch was up around 12% ash.

[HWooldridge]

DB, fyi - I used a ceramic coffee grinder for a while then switched to a grain mill, the type that looks like a sausage grinder but has a pair of serrated plates that rotate against each other (well, one rotates and the other is fixed). It generates a lot less dust, on the order of 20-30% - and it's easier to use that the ceramic version.

[Trapper-Jack]

DB, fyi - I used a ceramic coffee grinder for a while then switched to a grain mill, the type that looks like a sausage grinder but has a pair of serrated plates that rotate against each other (well, one rotates and the other is fixed). It generates a lot less dust, on the order of 20-30% - and it's easier to use that the ceramic version.

That is the same type of grain grinder that I use. I've found that if I back it off a full turn in the beginning of a grind, screen, tighten down a 1/4 turn, screen, tighten another 1/4 and so on until I get back down to the original setting, I'll get way less fines. I've mostly been interested in 2F-ish powder to burn in our muzzleloader 50's so the 3F minus goes back into the next batch, except for a very little that we use for priming powder. I'll usually get about 60% of the 2F. I've been thinking of trying the type that uses the two rollers for crushing barley and see if it will do a little better.

[HamGunner]

DB, fyi - I used a ceramic coffee grinder for a while then switched to a grain mill, the type that looks like a sausage grinder but has a pair of serrated plates that rotate against each other (well, one rotates and the other is fixed). It generates a lot less dust, on the order of 20-30% - and it's easier to use that the ceramic version.

I found this type of grain grinder in a second hand store and it is what I have been using lately rather than my ceramic coffee grinder. Since I only crush up one puck at a time and turn the handle slowly, there is very little danger of a spark or ignition. If it should, I keep my face away from the hopper of the grinder and I empty my catch container after each grind is caught.

I think LAGS was the one suggesting that we grind, screen, grind, screen and grind some more at the same setting to help reduce the smaller fines as only the larger grains are ground more than once. Extra screening seems to have worked for me as my fines have been reduced a good bit.

I grind, screen, grind again and screen before screwing in the adjustment any closer. Takes a bit more grinding and screening, but it seems to make less fines. I mostly want FFFG, so with extra grinding and screening, I get more of that size and less flour fines.

[HighUintas]

The way I'd grinded and screened with my ceramic burr grinder:

Use side cutters to break picks into pieces that would fit in grinder
Grind on Largest setting into screen. Screen it. What stays on the biggest mesh screen goes back through on the same setting until it grinds no longer, screening between each grinding. Then I tighten the grinder a bit and repeat.

I repeat that process until I get everything onto the mesh size I want. Then screen it all a whole lot on that screen to get as much dust out as possible.

Can't remember for sure, but I think that resulted in around 20-30% times that would probably be 4f or finer.

[DoubleBuck]

I was waiting on pucks to dry and took some finished 3fff Cottonelle toilet paper charcoal powder and burn rated it. It burned four grams over four feet in 1.033 seconds. Very uniform and its residue is nice. Not a sign of unincorporated ingredients. This is going to be really good powder. The burn rate was not as fast as I have experienced, but that has little to do with its performance in a gun and the light off this powder is blinding. It's all bright but the best is blinding bright. This is. I can't wait to shoot some of it!
Here's the only way I have to post the video. Youtube link to my channel. There are 3 'Shorts' videos, this should be at the top. It's 14 seconds long.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oSBzxHb1Lyk

[HWooldridge]

I was waiting on pucks to dry and took some finished 3fff Cottonelle toilet paper charcoal powder and burn rated it. It burned four grams over four feet in 1.033 seconds. Very uniform and its residue is nice. Not a sign of unincorporated ingredients. This is going to be really good powder. The burn rate was not as fast as I have experienced, but that has little to do with its performance in a gun and the light off this powder is blinding. It's all bright but the best is blinding bright. This is. I can't wait to shoot some of it!
Here's the only way I have to post the video. Youtube link to my channel. There are 3 'Shorts' videos, this should be at the top. It's 14 seconds long. https://studio.youtube.com/video/oSBzxHb1Lyk/edit

The link wants us to sign in.

[DoubleBuck]

HW;
I fixed the URL. Sorry about that. I was signed in to my account when I copied the URL, and that's why it ask you to sign in. It should work normally now. I edited it above, and here is the new one.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oSBzxHb1Lyk

[HWooldridge]

HW;
I fixed the URL. Sorry about that. I was signed in to my account when I copied the URL, and that's why it ask you to sign in. It should work normally now. I edited it above, and here is the new one.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oSBzxHb1Lyk

Thanks, DB - works now.

I agree with your assessment. Bright flame and fast. Looking forward to your shooting test.