“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
And it seems like, at least regards the home making of black powder, you quite truly are "blazing new ground"! Excellent!!
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
ok more news tomorrow or monday, I am currently preparing for another batch tomorrow. Thank you to my wife who allows me so much time for my projects, god bless her. The next batch is with the fully brown charcoal, 77-13-10 ratio and will be milled for 9.5 -10 hours. I may not be able to corn it tomorrow but will try, if not...Monday. after the results I posted from my last batch, you can bet i'm going to focus on more milling time from now on.
Look how brown this stuff is
Last edited by almar; 10-09-2021 at 07:22 PM.
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Almar, if you want to research more, my understanding is there were experiments done along these lines around the turn of the century; right about the time smokeless was coming out. Research kind of fizzled out as smokeless took over. You might pick up a few hints/ideas. I think they actually called it "brown powder".
Vettepilot
"Those who sacrifice freedom for security, have neither."
Benjamin Franklin. (A very wise man!)
In working my way through this entire thread I came across this gem from a year ago and it reminded me of my first times shooting with my dad some 60 years ago. He had an old single shot .22 rifle and he'd take me to the town dump to shoot at rats. That was a common practice in those days. I can still remember him showing me how to clean the rifle afterwards and how he'd emphasize that you always cleaned your gun after you shot it. Certainly advice black powder guys understand.
It was good timing for me to find this post right now. I tried to make charcoal today from a cut up cedar fence picket using an empty paint can on my propane grill. I drilled a 3/8" hole in the lid and made a sheet metal flap I could close the hole off with when it was done cooking. I turned the grill on high and it cooked for 2 hours. At first there was a fair amount of smoke coming out of the hole although not as much as I expected. After two hours the smoke had almost stopped so I took it off, closed the hole and let it cool.
But when I opened the can instead of charcoal all I found was some darker brown wood. I think about all I did was dry it good. My grill probably doesn't get hot enough.
I have one of those round charcoal grills up in one of my sheds so tomorrow I'll get it out and fill it up with briquettes, surround the can with them, and fire that baby up. That should be pretty close to what you did so I'll see what results I get from that.
I ordered 8 lbs of willow lump charcoal a week ago but I haven't even got a tracking number yet so I have no idea when that's coming and I'm anxious to make my first test batch of powder.
I don't have my potassium nitrate yet either but at least I know it's on it's way as tracking shows it's been in FedEx limbo in Memphis for the last couple days. When that happens the product usually arrives within a few more days. So I look for it early this coming week.
I can't remember a time when supply chains were so messed up on virtually everything.
"Between 1890 and 1900, a type of powder called 'cocoa' or 'brown powder' appeared. This was made by substituting semi-burned charcoal for the regular charcoal. This probably represents the highest development of black powder."
This will take some digging but quite interesting. I may have to play with the ratios again...
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Now THAT got my attention! Any more scoop on "brown powder"?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...er-1886-06-26/
Any body know of data on this brown powder?
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Almar;
You must surely be doing something right!
One question, what is 'StdDev' Standard Deviation? I thought deviation was the difference between highest and lowest speed, but they're calling that Spread.
That wood and the charcoal it made looks awesome! So, is it harder to break up than regular charcoal sticks or is it even softer, being cooked so long?
I guess I had two questions, not one.
VettePilot;
On your 'diminishing returns' post; I saw the same info, and yes, that was a insanely deep study, on about everything related to black powder and it's production. They have the equipment to test every aspect and we pay for it. I'm glad they at least shared the results! I'm surprised they didn't call it secret and keep it to themselves.
Last edited by almar; 10-09-2021 at 09:35 PM.
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
According to the old literature there were a few powder makers in old England who made Brown Powder for those who preferred it.
But it was especially popular with the Big Guns used on ships.
The Brown or Cocoa Powder had a short life because it was quickly replaced by the Smokeless Powders which were being developed at the same time.
A couple of links which make reference to it:
Gunpowder
Definitions and Information About Naval Guns
not a very useful video below...I should watch first then post it...
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
brown powder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F9ir0GfZyI
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
I'm not going to mess around with lowering the Sulphur content for now, I use my BP in percussion revolvers so it needs to be fast. I may go to 78-12-10 like the swiss powder though. Ill just see what this does and go from there.
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Yes, for small arms the higher Sulfur content is a necessity.
It was only for the Big Guns that the reduced Sulfur resulted in the best slow burning performance.
The powder charge on the Big Guns was several hundred pounds and a powder that burned too quickly produced dangerously high barrel pressure spikes.
Last edited by SeaMonkey; 10-09-2021 at 11:38 PM.
Wow, something very strange just happened.
The page hung-up with some sort of glitch which prevented the normal response to "Post Quick Reply" and a double post resulted.
I've never seen anything like that before...
In the video that Almar linked apparently they made a Brown Powder without Sulfur.
The video did show that Brown Powder has somewhat different characteristics than Black Powder and that it is quite powerful in a cannon.
Perhaps one day someone will do a comparison video where muzzle velocities are recorded for Black and Brown powders.
Last edited by SeaMonkey; 10-09-2021 at 11:43 PM.
I had the same weird problems with the page.
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
― Winston S. Churchill
SeaMonkey;
You post some cool stuff, bud! Those were both a couple of good reads.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |