MILLING BLACK POWDER

That's the problem ---right there --After making dough cakes from dull /inert fine milled BP
that refuses to ignite /flash well ----very lacklustre--I was shown what "corning " really entailed-
SCREENING -- rubbing the dry crumbling BP corned chunks
through WHAT ? --WHAT kind of SIEVE or screen or mesh with sharp edges ?
steel mesh or copper or aluminium ?
THEN --- all I got was more DUST -- & irregular chips of all sizes & shapes

ok--- it must be granulated like commercial 2 F or 3F GP
but ----how to get uniform size grains---from dough cake pieces--?
rubbed against a tea strainer or colander --is the challenge !

anyone have a solution ?
this will be most sorely appreciated!
regards KABOOM

 

Getting the uniform granule size, where the granules don't turn back into dust appears to be the trade secret of how to make really high quality black power.
I never figured it out.
I always thought the largest chunks of cake were broken up into lumps and fed into a mill like a corn cracking grinder. Not rubbed into a screen, but I never tested it.
I broke up the lumps by hand, tired a pistol and mortar then and a rolling pin mill the lumps to proper black powder granules.

 

OK, Start with the basic mixture in a small batch in a Stainless steel pot of some kind. Add in your Char and sulfur dry, mix in a 50/50 water Iso Alcohol and mix thoroughly so you dont have any chunks at this point, add in your sulfur and complete the mixing! From this point, take your mix out doors and place the entire batch in a cheese cloth bag and twist the end tight, and tie shut.Holding the tied end, slowly twist the bagged mix to press out the moisture which you want to catch in your mixing pot for re use! Keep twisting untill you cant get any more moisture out! Taking your mix, place small amounts through a mesh screen with a tray under to catch your new powder. Keep going until you have finished your powder. let this tray sit in the sun while you finish with the rest of what you have! taking the cheese cloth and turning it inside out, emerge it in the water/alcohol mix you just strained out and rinse until you cant get any more out of the cloth. Run this through a coffee filter and let the filter sit in the sun to dry. Back to your powder mix you want to spred it out on drying trays for as long as it takes to get all the moisture out. this turns the powder into cake. take this cake and "corn" it through a baking siv into your clean and dry mixing bowl. again, let this dry out in the sun spred out flat in your drying trays. once you have dried out more and have cake again, run it back through the baking siv and place into storage. If done correctly, at this point you should have something like FFFG Powder. You can test it out to find it's burn speed. Now, the left over residue from the bagging and squeezing should be fully dry and in cake form, from this, run or"corn" through the baking siv to form your "corn" and let sit and repete the rest of the above process. this powder should be 4F or aprox. Use this in your flash pan or for making fuse! One final thing, consider your powder "live" when you start removing the moisture, and handle it as such! Have a few buskets of water around in case of trouble! I have never found ball milling to be any use, and the powders are not very good. by doing things the "corning" way, I have found my powders to be far more powerful and consistent! Good luck friend and take things small and slow!

 

I forgot a step, when mixing the three parts, you want to place your mixing bowl over low heat aprox 190 deg.F and add in the 50/50 water Alcohol while stirring with a wood spoon. The trick is not to let it boil, but to just start forming bubbles. Do this until the mix has been stirred nice and even and thoroughly. about 10 min or so should be good! Then continue as above! Be safe and have lots of water on hand once the powder starts to dry!

 

You can get a more colorful explanation of this process from the 1860 U.S. Army field manual. There is a section on making char that is pretty good!

 

Sorry for the threadomancy but the sources I've read say water is not the best liquid for mixing with sifted powder and that either urine or wine are better. I get the impression that the purer the ethanol the better. Some other research suggests that BP made using water tends to explode more readily than burn the way BP made using urine or alcohol does.

I'm also given to understand that corning should be done while the powder is still damp and in the "dough" stage. The size of the mesh used in the corning process is how the powder grade is set, avoiding the randomness of trying to grade the powder after it's dried and been pulverized by hand.

Also, cake is the term for corned and champhered powder that's been sprayed down with alcohol and then pressed into bricks and dried. The bricks don't have nearly the issue with breaking down that sifted powder does or the issues of size degradation that loose corned powder does. Once you've reached your destination the caked powder can be crumbled by hand into it's graded form and is ready for use.

Just my 2₡...

 

Welcome aboard from Coastal North Carolina.

Dad used to make black powder. He said he was making a batch with a "crazy kid" who lit the newspaper they'd been drying the powder on on fire. He didn't play with that kid again.