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Posted

Read the header texts accompanying them! Each text describes the results.

 

Lloyd

Posted

Shit. I wasn't reckoning in metric. I thought that pertained to the file size or something! :blink:

Posted
Om, in my tests cork and willow behaved exactly the same way. If you make some cork charcoal and make real bp with it, please let us know the result vs willow....
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
Old marine, did you processed your cork already. Im interested in results, if you made it !
Posted

No, I haven't had a dry day to cook it. I've got it broken up and loaded in the can but haven't had the opportunity to light it up yet. I did find as a poster above warned that a good percentage of my corks were some other material. They were easy to find because they bounced right out of my little wood chipper.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
I prefer Rhamnus Frangula. Faster than Red Alder and Big Leaf Maple. I think I have test videos too.
  • 3 months later...
Posted

Holy Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....something.

 

After going through a few of these threads, I went and bought some balsa and turned it into charcoal.

 

Very irritating to work with because of its fluffieness and the volume needed, but when I lit up a little line to observe, it was incredible.

I am sold on balsa.

  • Like 1
Posted
Tell me if your still sold on balsa when you try to pack as much as possible into a rocket motor... After doing a bunch of increments, you will see its downside!
Posted

I can imagine.

 

Also, by the time I came back inside, yesterday, I was pretty black.

Hands, arms face and clothes. My wife caught me cleaning up in the white kitchen sink. You might imagine her response.

 

I am playing with some Ponderosa Pine today and getting some incredibly fast tests with that.

Not so fluffy and easier to work with.

 

At least I am learning. I think my trouble all along was the charcoal that I was using. What I have made in the past two days is in a totally different league, as compared to what results I had been getting.

  • Like 1
Posted

Just wait until you get your hands on some big leaf maple or buckthorn.

 

Some types of maple like silver maple work ok too if I remember correctly.

  • 2 months later...
Posted

Hi There Guys, May be in wrong post. Was wondering where i could pick up some charcoal for BP? From what I have found out paulownia and willow are preferred.

Posted

Fireworks cookbook

Posted

Tried Fireworks Cookbook. Out of Paulownia what I am kind of looking for. They only have the mixed hardwoods.


Wanted to maybe try willow too.

Posted

Been a while...

 

On the original question. Two sources of information come to my mind, both not mentioned previously in this thread.

 

The first one is Ian van Malitz second book called BP testing and optimizing as far as I remember. It contains a load of information on various types of wood, with a focus on its potential in BP production.

 

Then there is a great article in Pyrotechnica volume XVII by O Neill that compares various woods for both BP and spark production purposes. van Maltitz is citing a lot from it as well as Wilsons test.

 

As had been mentioned before the fastest charcoal isn´t necessarily the most convenient to work with, nor the best for the intended purpose. Density plays a large role for me; makes huge differences when pressing things and makes or breaks the performance of special items. Some charcoals grind more easily than others etc....

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