Improvised Black powder

Their are several ways of making your own black-powder, and since it is a low explosive, I would suggest you research this very well and if possible find a mentor either a pyrotechnic specialist that makes fireworks or a avid reenactor of the War of Northern Aggression.

This is dangerous, but is legal at this time – as long as you store it properly, use it properly, and have less than 50 pounds. I am not a lawyer though, and I have no idea what jurisdiction you live in, so please do your own due diligence and look up your laws.There are several good resources for this project and I will list them first – you should also read them before you try this.

http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/homemade_bp.html

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/high-powered-black-powder.asp

http://www.brianredmond.net/dwilliams/blackpowder/blackpowder.html

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?104979-Here-is-the-write-up-quot-My-homemade-black-powder-quot

My recipe is based upon the recipe from the Foxfire book 5, but also is influences by the Chemistry of Powder and Explosives, and Wegner’s Dictionary and Manual of Fireworks.

I use mine for Black powder rockets and other legal pyrotechnics, but I also want the process down as my wife promised I could buy a cannon…

The type we will be showing is a green mix, and is pretty labor intensive, but is also one of the simplest. In my opinion, the procedures on skylighter give a better quality, but you need more skill and equipment.

Method number one: Green mix

Using a good scale (like a reloading beam scale)

Weight 15 parts KNO3

3 Parts Charcoal (not charcoal briquette powder actual powdered wood charcoal)

2 Parts Sulfur.

They have different densities, so it won’t be 15,3,2 by volume – go by WEIGHT

Next, separately (outside and not with the same grinder), grind the chemicals down, the finer you grind the better quality powder you will get. This really needs a ball mill to get the chemicals really finelly ground, but get it to at least the consistency of table sugar consistency.

The charcoal is hard to take from the big lumps down to a workable powder. You can get a good start by putting lump hardwood charcoal in a bag and beating on it with a hammer (Softwood charcoal is better for Black Powder, but unless you make you own, you probably will only be able to buy Hardwood)

Combining the chemicals in a bowl, and adding enough hot water to form a dough/paste. A thin loose mix works best.

Use hot water for this procress because the Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) disolves better in hot water, and the more that is dissolved, the better your result will be because it gets into the pores of the charcoal. (this is why a wet mix makes better BP than simply dry mixing everything).

Once the chemicals are mixed uniformly there should be no chunks of individual ingredients.

It is hard to hand mix the wet mix too much – The more you work it, the better it gets.

When everything is mixed, let it dry until you can mash it into a ball.

Take a ball of powder and grate it on a section of aluminum window screen (aluminum does not spark) – do this over a non sparking pan or a large sheet of paper.

By running the powder through a screen you are making uniform sized grains which burn more consistantly than non “corned” powder.

Allow to dry.

As I said before, this is not the best way, but it is A way, and a pretty cheap way of getting started.

Use common sense and read up on the best practices of doing this safely.

Go slow, do it outside, grind everything in separate grinders (you don’t want bits of old chemicals to mix and detonate in your grinder) and use chemicals that you trust.

For this recipe we used chemicals we bought as part of a kit so they are pure – but we do plan on showing how to make improvised Black Powder out of materials sourced from local hardware stores.

Note to Anti-Gunners -

I think it is a false assumption (and you do to if your honest) that the 2nd Amendment only covers the technology in existence at the time of the signing of the Constitution. (otherwise you would have no 1st Amendment right to use your iPad to complain about my videos on YouTube). But this is 1400′s level technology, and was exactly the same technology used by the framers of the American Constitution to win their own freedom. So by your own twisted logic, there is nothing wrong with me sharing this…