|
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 21
New Member
|
OP
New Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 21 |
I have a hand-me-down blackpowder pistol. I recently came across a vague recipe to make your own gunpowder and gave it a shot. Unfortionatly it will burn, but there is no explosion. Has anyone else tried to make their own, and if so and you don't mind, how did you go about it?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,351
Campfire Tracker
|
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,351 |
Making your own black powder is dangerous. I am not sure it is even legal. Just go buy some and leaving the making of it to those that have the setup. tom
"if it's got tits or tires, it's going to give you grief, one way or another."
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 16,032
Campfire Ranger
|
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 16,032 |
A mechanical mixture of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal will burn as you found out.
To make useable black powder takes much more besides mixing. Slurrying, pressing, cakeing, shaving, milling, drying, glazing. All these steps save slurry are more or less dangerous. Milling and shaving being especially so.
Do yourself and your posterity a favor and go buy a can.
BCR
Quando Omni Moritati
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 10,262
Campfire Outfitter
|
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 10,262 |
I had a friend that decided to mix his own .on his left hand he now has part of his thumb and the knuckle where his index finger was, the rest of his hand is gone. DON'T MESS WITH IT....
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 21
New Member
|
OP
New Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 21 |
Thanks guys, I will definately take you word on it!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 10,353
Campfire Outfitter
|
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 10,353 |
sorry, the store makes mine, and all I gotta do is pay for it, but not with my arms or legs...
Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
When your ship comes in. ... make sure you are willing to unload it.
PAYPAL, sucks and I will never use them again. I recommend you do the same.
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 35
Campfire Greenhorn
|
Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 35 |
Gicts, 34 or 35 years ago an old lady gave me a recipe for gunpowder. The recipe was from a journal written by a settler that came to Texas. The recipe sounds like something you might be able, maybe even be best, to cook up over a campfire. It calls for coffee, sugar, some sulfer, a chemical other than potassium nitrate, and alum. After it's cooked up, to a ball that is somewhat like fudge, the stuff is granulated by pushing it through a screen stretched over a box.
I gotta tell ya, that ol' boy knew what he was talking about. I cooked up a batch. Pushed it through a screen just like the recipe called for. Stuffed some in a 7.7MM Jap catridge. Tied the rifle to a tire. Attached a string to the trigger (I wasn't entirely stupid). Got behind some crossties and pulled the string. There was a boom. Lots of smoke and the smell of burnt sugar! That was the only time I fired the stuff. I stored the gun powder in a one pound coffee can. Didn't take the powder long to collect enough moisture to almost eat through the can. I poured it out in a long thin line. Called the wife and kids. Let them watch, from a safe distance, as it went up in flames and a very large column of white smoke. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Born in the Pineywoods of East Texas a long long time ago.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 150
Campfire Member
|
Campfire Member
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 150 |
Sounds like "white powder." Something you can make with powdered sugar and Sodium or potassium clorate. The stuff is extremely hygroscopic- not just the burned residue, but the mixture itself. Sodium clorate is sold for killing weeds and other vegetation.
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 35
Campfire Greenhorn
|
Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 35 |
Mec, Actually the recipe I have doesn't call for any kind of sodium. It calls for just regular sugar also, not the powdered type. It will attract moisture very well! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Born in the Pineywoods of East Texas a long long time ago.
|
|
|
|
543 members (007FJ, 10ring1, 10gaugemag, 12344mag, 1lessdog, 160user, 63 invisible),
2,417
guests, and
1,341
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
Forums81
Topics1,193,044
Posts18,500,862
Members73,987
|
Most Online11,491 Jul 7th, 2023
|
|
|
|