Making black powder?

Be careful, last time I looked at the stump remover they had at Home Depot, none of it contained saltpeter.
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That's what I was concerned about , i'ts a decent drive to the nearest " big " store for me and I would be miffed big time if when I got there the stump remover was useless for this app.
Although all may not be lost as there is a small Feed / hardware store just a couple of miles away, might be worth my while to pay a visit there first.
I will be milling it and was curious to know if left tumbling long enough the crystals would powder down.
Thanks fellas ,,
Off to the " mom & pop " feed "N" weed store..... ;)
 
I'm old enough so that, as a child, I made black powder from components I purchased at the local drug store. My friends and I would stop in for a chocolate malt and a burger, $0.25 each. Then we would buy sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter from the pharmacist, no questions asked 'cause it was not against any law, at least none that we or the pharmacist were aware of.

We simply mixed the components together with no attempt to further process them, so we were unable to make effective bombs. But we sure did burn a lot of it and we did make some rocket powered model cars, limited by our ability to make an effective nozzle.

Then a friend came into possession of a 25 pound tin of zinc dust and we forgot about black powder. We immediately and went whole hog in the direction of making bombs and cannons, with good success. The spice of danger was intoxicating, but we were smart enough not to do something really stupid, at least as far as safety was concerned.

Our legal precautions were not so well thought-out and after little incident involving a mail box and a run-in with the FBI, we cooled our interest in bomb making and concentrated on under age drinking and chasing girls.

Don't believe anyone who says the "good old days" weren't all that good. They were fantastic..................... for those who survived.
 
I start mine in a coffee grinder. Necessary warning, one component at a time and start with a pristine clean grinder, NO3 makes most things burn. Before I got started I read trough some of the accident threads. You can google that. Wanted to make sure I properly respected the fuel for the dragon's breath.
 
Spectracide stump remover is still 99.?? % KNO3. Others may not be. Anyway, you can get KNO3 cheaper through amazon.
 
Spectracide stump remover is still 99.?? % KNO3. Others may not be. Anyway, you can get KNO3 cheaper through amazon
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Man what am I thinking ?,
I have an account with Amazon and didn't even cross my mind to look there, heck I might even get free ship with prime.
Gonna go look now. :rolleyes:
 
Nother question,,,, I can get " prilled" ( beads?) cheap - (ish) and it's supposed to be 99.8 % ,
Would I have to smash this stuff with a hammer afore it goes into the mill or will the lead balls take care of it without the extra step ?.
Just throwing stuff out there cos I ain't done this afore. :eek:
 
Smaller the better. I haven't used prills, but I imagine you can run them through a coffee grinder first. I use a hand operated coffee grinder to granulate compressed (corned) black powder. Imagine it would work for the prills just the same. The rest can be worked out in the ball mill. You may also try to weigh and ball mill the prills first, then add the charcoal powder and sulfur once the prills are pulverized. Let us know how it works out.
 
Prilled works just fine once milled. Make sure you get the proper willow charcoal, oak charcoal from the fireplace won't work well.
 
I've charred up some cedar, just cos it's what is handy on my piece of heaven.
Probably need to get a hold of some willow , but for practice and convenience Cedar will have to do for now .
I really don't expect the outcome to be earth shattering but it's a start,,,:)
 
Cedar was used during the colonial war. Should make good powder. I heard a suggestion recently to use bags of cedar mulch from garden centers. Cheap and would make a lot of charcoal.
 
If you're just starting out I would recommend getting components that are already ground and ready to be mixed in the ball mill. hobby chemical supply has good prices and a black powder kit.
 
BPB , I already have my sulfur and decided against buying the prilled kno3 .
Someone here recommended buying from a fella called Phil on the interweb ( sorry can't think of his website right now) and ordered tech grade kno3.
I have an older Sears brand rock tumbler to use for a ball mill..
As the saying goes " it'll all come out in the wash " , I'm totally set up for a failure.... :D
 
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