Black powder

[Capt, Woodrow F. Call]

Howdy.

In the old west, what kind of Blackpowder do they use?

Here in Norway, we have 2 kinds of powder, one......blackpowder for guns,rifles and kanon's, this powder is mixed with some
material like grafitt ( they say, that this kind of black powder is more resistend to electrial, shock and water( fog).

This other-one is pure blackpowder, and is not mixed at all. and this powder is bigger in granulat, and in use for blowing up big stones and more.

)I have used both in my guns, but the pure powder, is working better, and my guns are working real good, i dont now what is wrong with the powder with grafitt, but it seems to me that grafitt-powder dosent give my guns that smooth ( greasey) thing.
But pure powder gives all that my guns need.

Do anyone now's when they started to mix grafitt with blackpowder.

BR
Capt Call.

[sundance44`s]

Capt. Woodrow  can`t answer the question on Black powder differences ...But just wanted to tell ya I spent some time in several coastal citys in Norway back in the 70`s when I was aboard an Icebreaker ship .( Oslo and Bergen ) met some good people ..enjoyed some good beer and will never forget the reindeer burgers  . Steering through the Fjords kept me on the edge of me seat ...but enjoyed it . Next time I`ll take my SASS guns and snow skies ! 

[Silas McFee]

Hhhmmmmm I'm not sure about the graphite in BP.  I did a wikipedia search on it and found this interesting article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokeless_powder

Apparently there is graphite coatings on (at least some) smokeless powder, but nothing about it on black powder.

A quick google search on black powder and graphite showed me this page (a small amount of graphite is added to sporting grade powders):
http://members.aol.com/illinewek/faqs/bptypes.htm

Of course, that last one is someone's homepage.  Without knowing more about them or the topic, I always take them with a grain of salt.  Still, both are interesting reads, if for no other purpose than general education.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I think graphite/grafitt is added to keep the granules from clumping together.  Some brands have more than others and supposedly, the ones with MORE added leave dirtier residue.

I don't know if they used BP with anything added back in the old west.  What I HAVE heard is that TRUE Sporting Powder, like is made in Europe - Swiss   brand, and Wano   brand are more like the old powders and are more powerful than some we get here in the US: also, Swiss has a good reputation for leaving cleaner residue that is more moist and easier to clean.

[Dick Dastardly]

Ho Horse,

It's the arm and a leg they include in the Swiss price that keeps the fouling soft. . . 

Anyway, I've shot Swiss in my long range guns and it does burn clean.  Over the graph it gives me a few fps more for the same compressed load.  It now looks like my duplex load with around 10% 777 under FFg Holy Black will give equal or better results.  Come spring I'll run some more tests.  I was surprised at my initial tests.

DD-DLoS

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

The formula for Black Powder has varied over the centuries since it was first discovered, but back in the 1800s the US Army set the standard for the United States at 75% Potassium Nitrate (saltpeter), 15% Charcoal, and 10% Sulfur. It was discovered fairly early on that just powdering the ingredients and mixing them together wasn't good enough. The ingredients would tend to separate and stratify from vibration, so powder kegs that bounced over rough roads on horse drawn carts for great distances would often arrive at the scene of a battle with the powder being of questionable and unreliable strength, because of the separation of the ingredients. Sometime around 1500 it was discovered that by first mixing the powdered ingredients together and adding a little moisture, dust could be kept to a minimum and the risk of explosion was lessened. At the same time it was discovered that allowing the moist powder mixture to dry into cakes, the ingredients would no longer separate. The dry powder cakes were broken up into granular chunks and the chunks sifted through screens to separate the different grain sizes. This process was called 'corning', and all Black Powder is still corned today.

Much of the quality of Black Powder is directly related to the type and quality of charcoal used. The type of charcoal used, and how it was produced often determines how much fouling the powder leaves behind, and how moist or dry the fouling is. This is crucial for a quality Black Powder. Willow was often preferred for making the charcoal for quality Black Powder. Today, the best powders, like Swiss, use charcoal made from Buckthorne Alder, it is the charcoal that separates the good powder from the bad. Powders like Goex are much dirtier burning, and leave more fouling behind than quality powders like Swiss or Schuetzen.

Graphite is often added as a glaze, or coating to the powder grains. I don't know about some of the other properties claimed, but I do know that a graphite glaze on the powder grains helps it flow better through powder measures, and tends to leave less dust and 'fines' behind.

All of these things were well known about Black Powder in the era of the Old West. Sometimes powder that was not quite up to snuff as a quality rifle powder would be packaged as a shotgun powder. Some powder was labelled as 'rifle' powder. Lower quality powder was often labelled as 'musket' powder. Manufacturing of cartridge ammunition was in its infancy in the 1850s and 1860s. Different designs for ammunition were being tried, some worked, some fell by the wayside. By the time Winchester was loading up the first succesfull Boxer primed ammo in the early 1870s, they were using quality Black Powder made with quality charcoal. But I have read that some years later, many ammunition manufacturers began using cheaper powders that left more fouling behind.

Today, Swiss and Schuetzen powders are very similar to the best of the 19th Century rifle powders. Some of the other well known brands are more like musket powder because they create so much fouling.

[Marshal Tac]

Always educational Driftwood...

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Always educational Driftwood...

Indeed!

Thanks for posting.

[Capt, Woodrow F. Call]

Indeed!

Thanks for posting.

Thank you very much Cowboys