Anyone here make their own black powder?

[rickk]

I was wandering around my local Harbor Freight store a couple days ago for no real specific reason other than to enjoy the store.

They seem to carry a number of "rock tumblers" (AkA "Ball Mills").

Rick

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

Heres a good recipe
Heres the recipe for making Holy Black
Mix together:
75% = 150 grams KNO3
15% =  30  Grams charcoal
10% = 20Grams sulfur
Tumble/grind for a minimum of 6 hours or longer.

After tumbling/grinding the mixture for atleast 6 hours add the binder/dexterin (AKA corn starch). Add 5% of the total weight of the powder mixture recipe which this recipe is a total weight of 200 grams so this recipe will require 10 grams of dexterin to be added to the mix then grind/tumble for an additional twenty minutes.

How to make Dexterin:
get a cookie sheet and spread the corn starch evenly across the cookie sheet and Bake in the oven at 400F for three hours.

after all four ingredients are all mixed together empty the tumbling container on a screen with a tray with news papers underneath to catch the powder
(do not breathe in any dust!) and sift the powder to separate the lead balls, replace the balls in the tumbling container.


once the powder is separated dump your powder onto the tray, use a credit card or bondo spreader to evenly mix in water to the consistency of damp sand so that it can be balled up into pucks.
but not so damp that when you squeeze it into a puck that you don't squeeze water out.
once the powder has reached the right consistency grab a hand full of the mix and squeeze it into a puck and rub it through the screen evenly on the tray   
(#16 screen makes FFFgranuals), do the whole batch then allow the water to evaporate.
a tip to help the powder dry faster
before screening the powder place news papers over the tray this will help absorb the water out of the powder grains
 
EDIT: to make a sifting screen measure the outside dimensions of your tray then cut 4 pieces of 3/4"X4" lumber accordingly you will want to make the lumber slightly larger so that it will fit over the tray. on two of the parallel pieces you will need to add 1 1/2" to the total length of the wood in order to nail the pieces together. then start by stapling one side of the screen to the wood frame pulling it snug as you staple then pull the other side snug and staple then staple the other two ends tightly.

[Slowhand Bob]

Not sure if they are still out there but the late seventies and early to mid eighties were full of survivalist writers who were selling books, newsletters, magazines, etc, etc on everything from A-Z concerning this sort of projects.  They not only had all sorts of recipes for bp in some but even went into processing the raw materials for such.  As to reloading primers and RFs, I remember seeing the plans for making tools that re-swaged rim-fire case heads and primer cups.  OH, best I remember they al had a time line for for either the BIG invasion or the BIG melt down.  Best I remember it was scheduled for the early to mid nineties!   

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

I am thinking Probably books published by Paladin Press.

[Driftwood Johnson]

I can't believe how often this comes up.

Powder mills blow up regularly. Goex had an explosion just a couple of years ago. My Dad worked for Hercules Powder Company (the parent company of Goex) during WWII, making rocket fuel for bazookas. One day the building where they extruded the propellant blew up, killing everyone in it. Luckily he was somewhere else that day. In the early 1900s a magazine at United States Cartridge Company near here in Lowell Mass blew up killing over 20 people, leveling an entire neighborhood. These guys are the professionals and they still have accidents. Do you really feel confident making explosives at home, using instructions any clown could post on the internet? Is your homeowner's insurance paid up? How close are your neighbors? Do you want to pay for their homes too? Not to mention breaking Federal laws making explosives. Making your own gunpowder is dangerous and dumb.

Buy it.

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

I dont make it in the house outside and far away from the house
and I only make small batches in a small ball mill that has a plastic containre and the balls are lead
people get killed by cars walking to their mail box everything in life has its risks as long as you take precautions and use common sense the likelihood  of blowing yourself up from making the Holy Black is very remote possibility.

[Crow Choker]

To any and all with the thoughts of making your own black powder, REREAD what Driftwood Johnson posted, then read it again. There are to many things in life that can get you killed or injured and for what it costs to buy black powder it AIN't worth it to try and be 'old timey' and make your own, doing so you may not get to be old timey yourself in years. I tired it once, but I was young and stupid, did it while I was in college. Did so in a chemistry lab without the knowledge and approval of the lab instructor. If you want to read about it, click on my name and read my post history, was my first post on the forum. Sometimes the business of being the so-called term of 'period correct' and doing it like the proverbial "they did it back then" can go to far. Making your own black powder is no time to let ego's blossom, let stubbornness over whelm, or allow curiosity to increase. Accidents happen even when we think all precautions are in place. Have seen the results of meth labs going array, guess a bunch of black going off all at once might be similar. I detest the term "Holy Black". AIN'T nuttin' holy about it. I love shooting the stuff, but 'endeavor to persevere' in making your own, well 'Someone More Holy' than that black stuff may be 'greetin ya'!!!!!!  No personal attacks aimed at anyone. Stay safe! Yours, Crow Choker     

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

I am throwing away all my pointy scissors and replacing them with round tipped ones and replacing all the pencils in the house with craola crayons
I will repeat one more time
1. Extreme safety precautions are followed
2. the "Holy Black" is made in a contained area
3. The "holy black" is made in small batches
The chances of being killed in a car wreck are a thousand times more likeley than blowing yourself up in the process of the manufacture or handling of the "sublime and Holy Soot"
Pard, all that holy black stuff is all in good fun and not to be taken too seriously
anyone who would try to make black powder hap haphazardly  probably stands a pretty good chance of getting themselves blown to smithereens and some idiots have no business even having the thoughts in their heads of attempting to make black powder; I will give you that much
if everyone had a totalitarian attitude the the stuff would have never been made in the first place

[Paladin UK]

Fer St8LineLeatherSmith...

if everyone had a totalitarian attitude the the stuff would have never been made in the first place

+1
Paladin (What Lurvs the HOLY BLACK `n playin cowboy too ) UK

[Blair]

Just my opinion...
Even if you can acquire the properties needed, in this day and age, making your own powder, is a bad idea.
My best,
Blair

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

OH Come on guys
reloading poses more of a threat of blowing your house and yourself up than making black powder does
one is just as likely to blow themselves up with a can of Goex as they are making back yard batches.
a meteor the size of Texas can crash into the earth tomorrow leaving the whole planet extinct!
Hell fire going to the store  can pose risks.

BTW I linked  to where you can buy each ingredient in the recipe post

sorry if  I sound snippity but I get irritated at certain factions who would have us all living in rubber rooms to save us from ourselves
I get enough of that crap from  the Government  

[Blair]

 My apologies for my involvement in this discussion.
You all have fun.
Blair

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

Dont apolojize for interjecting your opinion that is your constitutional right
but I will exercise my rights when I  am in disagreement with someone.

Be prepairsd to be p'd off when I express my opinion cause I aint any good at sugar coating.

[Blair]

St8L,

My apology has noting to do with the subject, other than those that think or believe this concept is a viable idea.
As I have said... you all have fun.
I wish you well.
My best,
Blair

[Driftwood Johnson]

This has nothing to do with totalitarianism. It is about common sense. Seven explosions at Goex since 1997. As I said before, these guys are the experts, and they have frequent accidents. Do you really think you know more about making Black Powder than they do? Do you think you have better techniques than the professionals?

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20121113/NEWS01/121113009/Another-explosion-Camp-Minden

Good Luck

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

I am interested in why you think it is not viable idea  when there are those of us who are actually making and shooting the stuff and very cheaply I might add?  

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

This has nothing to do with totalitarianism. It is about common sense. Seven explosions at Goex since 1997. As I said before, these guys are the experts, and they have frequent accidents. Do you really think you know more about making Black Powder than they do? Do you think you have better techniques than the professionals?

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20121113/NEWS01/121113009/Another-explosion-Camp-Minden

Good Luck

nope I am no expert but I can make a good batch of gun powder
your common sense comment is regarded to me as an insult to those of us who make our own BP

I am not trying to convince you or anyone else to start making your own gun powder
I know the danger involved in making my own BP and I accept the responsibility
so lets just leave it at that
Lets not turn this good thread into a Peeing contest.

[hellgate]

Here, ya wanna go nuts? Here's a thread on home made BP that runs over 100 postings. Read and enjoy. It's all been said before elsewhere.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=736028&highlight=making+black+powder

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

Well there ya go then

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

Since Im still here