Blackpowder from dirt
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ThomasT
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There was a story in one of the ackwoodsman magazines called Making Granmas lackpowder and it stated she used dirt from the chicken coop but a bucket had layers of cloth in the bottom with a layer of hardwood ashes and then a cloth over that. Then dirt from the coop was put in the bucket and hot water slowly poured over the top. The dirt bucket had a small hole in the bottom and was allowed to drain into a second bucket. The the water in the second bucket was brought to a boil and the white Chrystal nitrate would float to the top and was dipped off and set on a flat pan to dry. I believe that was the correct procedure.
Then the rest was rust that was scraped from any metal and added with a small amount of water to make a paste and that was screened on to a flat pan and allowed to dry and then you had powder. It made a red colored powder and the old woman said that her family had made powder that way for generations.
Then the rest was rust that was scraped from any metal and added with a small amount of water to make a paste and that was screened on to a flat pan and allowed to dry and then you had powder. It made a red colored powder and the old woman said that her family had made powder that way for generations.
arcticap
Member
Damoc,
Do you know the weights of the ingredients that were measured by each scoop full when they were combined?
According to the BP making thread, the ingredients are supposed to be measured by weight and not by volume.
SEE POST #4: --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/making-blackpowder.347898/
Do you know the weights of the ingredients that were measured by each scoop full when they were combined?
According to the BP making thread, the ingredients are supposed to be measured by weight and not by volume.
SEE POST #4: --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/making-blackpowder.347898/
Sounds like "rocket candy" or red or white powder/propelant . Sugar and nitrate or sugar nitrate and rust makes a pretty good improvised powder but very very hydroscopic and will leave your shooting irons sticky and rusty.
When I am making my powder with good nitrate and willow charcoal I just worked out a by volume measurement which worked 6-4-1 so i used the same one here.
arcticap
Member
When Brutuskend made his 1st batch of powder in years, it must not have burned very well because he posted:
"For instance, today I learned you have to do your measuring by WEIGHT and not by volume.
" --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/this-is-going-to-sound-weird-but.878030/#post-11706018
Then after he received a scale in the mail, he figured out how much more of the ingredients needed to be added to fix the batch of powder and he was way more impressed with the results.
He ended up posting:
"My scale showed up today and I weighed out the equivalent of what I had already mixed and milled. Added the correct amount of what was short and then just mixed it up a bit by hand then tested it out. WOW, it worked GREAT. Much better than any I had ever made in the past. This was just the air float mix, haven't corned it yet."--->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/this-is-going-to-sound-weird-but.878030/#post-11708612
"For instance, today I learned you have to do your measuring by WEIGHT and not by volume.
" --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/this-is-going-to-sound-weird-but.878030/#post-11706018Then after he received a scale in the mail, he figured out how much more of the ingredients needed to be added to fix the batch of powder and he was way more impressed with the results.
He ended up posting:
"My scale showed up today and I weighed out the equivalent of what I had already mixed and milled. Added the correct amount of what was short and then just mixed it up a bit by hand then tested it out. WOW, it worked GREAT. Much better than any I had ever made in the past. This was just the air float mix, haven't corned it yet."--->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/this-is-going-to-sound-weird-but.878030/#post-11708612
I found a link to here on this forum to an old book, "Do-it-yourself gunpowder cookbook". I found it online. It describes the method you mentioned.
I played around with weights many years ago but don't see the need anymore I think i have a good volume measurement which gets me close enough it may not be as energy dense as commercial powder but its reliable consistent and clean ish LOL the biggest factor honestly is very fine granulation of your meal powder followed by good granulation and dry it fast and 100%
arcticap
Member
I understand.
Plus if the potassium nitrate isn't pure, the ingredient percentages could need to be adjusted.
It's just that when others watch the video, they may think that volume measuring is the norm even though it may not result with the same formula as when the ingredients are weighed.
Plus if the potassium nitrate isn't pure, the ingredient percentages could need to be adjusted.
It's just that when others watch the video, they may think that volume measuring is the norm even though it may not result with the same formula as when the ingredients are weighed.
RetiredUSNChief
Member
This guy's black powder wasn't much good nit just because his ingredients may have been of lower quality, but because he didn't use the right process to make it.
There's more to producing proper black powder than just dry mixing the "ingredients".
Take a gander here:
https://www.pyrocreations.com/Pyrotechnic-Blog/making_black_powder
There's more to producing proper black powder than just dry mixing the "ingredients".
Take a gander here:
https://www.pyrocreations.com/Pyrotechnic-Blog/making_black_powder
LOL wheres yours?
Lot of information out about making black powder but until you have actually done it for yourself you will not appreciate it I can make good BP it may not
be as good as what is commercially available but it works its clean ish and I have not yet met anyone who can make it better LOL. But you are right and that is the exact intent of the video there IS more to BP than just dry mixing ingredients. This was not a video about how to make BP its an EXPERIMENT.
Lot of information out about making black powder but until you have actually done it for yourself you will not appreciate it I can make good BP it may not
be as good as what is commercially available but it works its clean ish and I have not yet met anyone who can make it better LOL. But you are right and that is the exact intent of the video there IS more to BP than just dry mixing ingredients. This was not a video about how to make BP its an EXPERIMENT.
ThomasT
Member
Damoc you are absolutely correct. I had forgot that the recipe had sorghum boiled down and sugar extracted and added to the mix. I haven't read that article in a couple of years. When I posted I sorta thought I was forgetting something but I couldn't remember what. Thanks for adding the missing ingredient.
I have watched the Brush Hippie powder making video a few times and I don't see why the average person couldn't make it. I like the press he uses to compress the powder into a puck and then grinds it into granules and then sifts it. I bought 10 pounds of 99% pure potassium nitrate and he says a friend has good premade charcoal for sale. So just get some sulfur and start making powder. I think.
https://gunstreamer.com/watch/compressing-black-powder_ayzBXtwpbuWax12.html
RetiredUSNChief
Member
I got that it was an experiment. I didn't see, though, where the guy was making any attempt to explain how the process is as vital to quality BP as the components.
As for "where's yours?", it's a few decades in my past when I was pyromaniac in my youth. BP was my first foray into "homemade" pyromania, where I learned how badly my understanding could be.
Being the 4th of five siblings, with 15 years between me and the oldest meant access to college chemistry books...that, and an avid patron of public and school libraries (Purdue University was 3 miles from my house) meant Mom developed an overly sensitive sense of smell from my activities.
By the end of my pyromaniacal years, I was burning holes into engine blocks with thermite and was about to tackle nitroglycerin when my past pyro experiences, and research into the process, clicked something in my brain and I realized this was something I really hadn't ought to do.
Since then, I've pretty much stuck with stuff I could buy outright for my fun.
I kept most of my stuff until the point in my first marriage where we were expecting our first child and I decided maybe I hadn't ought to have all that stuff in the house with a small child.
(I was also into various poisons as I had a blow gun I used for small game and varmints.)
ThomasT
Member
RetiredUSNChief I watched your YT cannon video. That was pretty cool. I would have never guessed it was PVC and foam.
I did try to make some BP many years ago. I got some KN0 from the drugstore, powdered some grill charcoal and added some sulfur. I made a gray looking mess. If the test for good powder is it won't burn a sheet of paper but medium will burn a sheet of paper mine would have set a phone book on fire it burned so slow.
I did try to make some BP many years ago. I got some KN0 from the drugstore, powdered some grill charcoal and added some sulfur. I made a gray looking mess. If the test for good powder is it won't burn a sheet of paper but medium will burn a sheet of paper mine would have set a phone book on fire it burned so slow.
Kp321
Member
When I was a teenager, my dad and I made black powder using food grade potassium nitrate, powdered sulfur, and ground up charcoal briquettes. Just did a dry mixture, no water. Loaded in a 12 ga shell with toilet paper wadding, it made a good loud, smoky blank.
Gordon
Member
In my first college years of organic chemistry I could make a good clean nitro starch out of tapioca pearls and used my lead azide from Inorganic chem labs as a detonator. That was my last interest in explosives as I had my share of fooling with as much as I wanted in Viet Nam Ashau Valley 1969 .
as a detonator. That was my last interest in explosives as I had my share of fooling with as much as I wanted in Viet Nam Ashau Valley 1969 . Just a crazy thought. How about using a coffee maker to leach potassium nitrate from pooo? Probably could pick one up at Goodwill or such for a few bucks. Maybe a couple of them or maybe check out some place that handles restaurant equipment that may have used commercial size maker?
ThomasT
Member
I think I would rather buy it than try to make potassium nitrate. Buy it now while you can. And remember the women of the south saved their urine to make BP. Urine makes urea nitrate but I have no idea how its done. And I have read that in the 18th century making KNO3 was part of the taxes you paid. It seems everyone had a pit that they threw waste and dead animals in and after a year of soaking in water the liquid was siphoned off and the nitrate leached out of it and then turned over so it could be made into powder. I guess I would be a tax delinquent. Lol.
Here is where I bought my 10 pounds. Thirty bucks and free shipping IIRC.
https://www.seedranch.com/Potassium-Nitrate-s/2137.htm
My Wife is doing a soils course and I think that high nitrate feed stock composted aerobicaly is predominately bacterial and nitrate producing whereas high nitrate feedstock composted anaerobically is predominately fungal and urea and methane producing. So pee on the straw turn it on a regular basis keep it moist but not wet and you may be on the way to making a old fashioned nitre bed?
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