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Making the Holy Black Powder / Re: Making 18th and 19th Century Gun Powder
« Last post by Rob DiStefano on Today at 07:47:34 AM »Do a search for firework chemicals. I use Skylighter but there are others.
YES, the finer the 3 three powders the better.
Charcoal is THE key ingredient.
The 3 powders are hygroscopic and they MUST be kept as DRY as possible. I run each chemical for a few hours in a food dehydrator and then Mason jar each separately.
A basic way to make black powder is ...
Get good chemicals that are "air loft" fine and dry.
There are a few different formulas for potassium nitrate (KNO3)/charcoal/sulfur, 75/15/10 is the original, some use 77/13/10, all by weight.
Tumble the 3 chemicals with lead or brass ball media for 12 or 24 or 48 hours - the Harbor Freight rock tumbler is what most use, tumbling 1/2lb (making 1/2lb of black powder).
Mix the results with a small amount of water, 4%-10%, to form a dough-like ball.
There are 2 ways to create powder granules using that dough ball - scrape the ball through a 20 mesh screen and allow the kernels to dry or compress the granules into pucks.
When thoroughly DRY, the 20 mesh screened powder will be about 2F or a bit coarser, What's left can be 50 mesh screened for 3F or finer.
When the pucks are are thoroughly dry they're put into a grain grater that will produce granules that can be screened for size.
Any and all kernels produced by screening can now be "glazed" - take that dry powder and tumble it without media for a few hours - glazing will greatly improve powder "flow".
Religiously review the videos in this thread!
YES, the finer the 3 three powders the better.
Charcoal is THE key ingredient.
The 3 powders are hygroscopic and they MUST be kept as DRY as possible. I run each chemical for a few hours in a food dehydrator and then Mason jar each separately.
A basic way to make black powder is ...
Get good chemicals that are "air loft" fine and dry.
There are a few different formulas for potassium nitrate (KNO3)/charcoal/sulfur, 75/15/10 is the original, some use 77/13/10, all by weight.
Tumble the 3 chemicals with lead or brass ball media for 12 or 24 or 48 hours - the Harbor Freight rock tumbler is what most use, tumbling 1/2lb (making 1/2lb of black powder).
Mix the results with a small amount of water, 4%-10%, to form a dough-like ball.
There are 2 ways to create powder granules using that dough ball - scrape the ball through a 20 mesh screen and allow the kernels to dry or compress the granules into pucks.
When thoroughly DRY, the 20 mesh screened powder will be about 2F or a bit coarser, What's left can be 50 mesh screened for 3F or finer.
When the pucks are are thoroughly dry they're put into a grain grater that will produce granules that can be screened for size.
Any and all kernels produced by screening can now be "glazed" - take that dry powder and tumble it without media for a few hours - glazing will greatly improve powder "flow".
Religiously review the videos in this thread!
