Just getting started making my own black powder

[boise outlaw]

Trying to get some of the kinks out of my system, i have good ignition but slower then when i use commercial powder. Also have a little bit of white residue left over which i believe is unburned potassium nitrate.

Im using 99% potassium nitrate, 90% dusting sulphur, and home made charcoal using pine.

For my test batches im using 150 grains potassium nitrate/ 30 grains charcoal/20 sulphur.

Charcoal is ground with a mortar and pestle and passed through a sieve, the others are already in powder form however the potassium nitrate is about the size of salt particles and the sulphur is much smaller. All are combined and dry mixed, then wet mixed to the point where there is just a slight excess if moisture. I then dry it and break it up into 2f size grains.

My questions are how important is the charcoal size and should i be looking to filter it down to a certain micron? Also does hot water have an effect on solubility of the potassium nitrate? and does alcohol have a greater effect on solubility then water?

[singleshot]

I'd recommend 100/18/16 by weight to increase ignition speed. Mixing with alcohol may help as well. But, the most important part is to start with everything ground as fine as possible.

[Fly]

You need to read the above black powder thread. I see a few things your doing that is holding you back.
Kno-3 75%, Charcoal 15%, Sulfur 10%. You need to ball mill it, you will NEVER get it fast enough using a
mortar and pestle, it just won,t happen. Pine charcoal can be fast, but way to dirty for firearms. Black willow,
Tree of heaven, or Cedar all work very well. I weigh my meal in grams not grains. I do weigh grain for finish
loading powder.
Hope I helped Fly

[boise outlaw]

is there another option to the ball mill? Im not set up for electric so mixing by hand is the only choice.

[Boz330]

is there another option to the ball mill? Im not set up for electric so mixing by hand is the only choice.

Not really. As Fly said read the sticky. It is long but much of it you can skip over pretty quickly.

Bob

[Texantothecore]

Amazon has grain grinders that will produce flour from wheat. The correct approach is to use multiple passes at decreasing sizes until it looks like flour. Trying to get flour on the first pass doesn't work.

In South America, a six year old will be given the job of grinding grain. If it is too difficult to move the handle adjust to a larger grind and think of a six year old girl working the crank. In other words adjust the grind so that each pass is easy enough for a small six year old.

I think that they are about 25 dollars from Amazon.

[Texantothecore]

If you throw a small amount of chems in the air and if a good of the chems stays in the air it is air float. Flour is airfloat and you can throw a small amount in the to see how you it should look.

I would also try incorporating the bp using boiling water. The technique is very nicely explained in the big sticky above.

[Texantothecore]

A frozen aluminum cookie sheet will do a very good job of quickly cooling the mix dow rather than chilled alcohol. An aluminum cookie sheet wil absorb much more heat than a quart of chilled alcol. The Chinese used chilled marble slabs and it worked fine for them. Aluminum should work much better.

Potasium nitrate is not very soluble in room temperature water but very soluble in boiling water. The potassium nitrate will precipitate as it cools.

[boise outlaw]

Texan we are both on the same train of thought, i ordered a grain mill this morning. I had also tried a batch using the cook method as well, mixed all ingredients and added water then boiled down to a tar and let dry. Good combustion but still a slow burn rate.

In concerns to using alcohol instead of water in the mix, does the alcohol change the chemical structure of the BP? And when it evaporates does it leave anything behind that would increase the burn rate?

[dondiego]

A cheap rock tumbler and some lead balls is a good start for milling the ingredients.

[boise outlaw]

ended up making a ball mill i can use on a rechargeable power drill, man is this stuff fast!

I finally got it up to the burn rate that i want and am using acetone to wet the mix (dries quicker for test batches), but my mix is a little dusty. Need recommendations for a binding agent. Wondering what you all are using as well as what you are wetting your powder with. I've heard of dextrin and red gum but I know there are a couple other lesser known ones (like using egg whites). I'd like this to be able to store well without breaking down into dust.

Also I just got turned onto something called "yellow powder" for priming flintlocks. I guess they started using it right before percussion caps were adopted. I am shooting a lyman great plains 50 cal flintlock, and would like to make my own priming powder as well. It contained some kind of oxide (i think) to increase the ignition, i had tried a search but cant remember if i read it on here or another forum.