jordanm Posted April 8, 2017 Posted April 8, 2017 Its been a few years since i have made black powder since i took a year off from making shells. I have tested some old bp that i milled two years ago and get a burn rate of about 1 second which was normal. This year i have cooked up the same red cedar charcoal that i used two years ago and milled it in the same formula 50g sulfur, 375g KNO3, 75g charcoal and 5g dextrin and i am seeing avery reduced burn rate of around 4 seconds it appears. Everything is the exact same conditions, same charcoal, same formula, same mill (3 hours mill time), same amount used on paper (2g). What could be going on? The first video is of the bp from 2 years ago and the last video is the most recent bp i have made. This is in powder form not granulated. I am now milling it for even longer to try to achieve the same results as 2 years ago. IMG_0791.MOV IMG_0808.MOV
lloyd Posted April 8, 2017 Posted April 8, 2017 (edited) The charcoal was made from the same batch of wood? How do you 'cook' it; TLUD or retort? Could it be over-cooked? (That'll condemn most any charcoal for BP). Lloyd Jordan, PS... it's not likely anyone's going to download 36Mb just to see six seconds of video! You need to reduce the resolution, CONSIDERABLY. LS Edited April 8, 2017 by lloyd
jordanm Posted April 8, 2017 Author Posted April 8, 2017 The charcoal was made from the same batch of wood? How do you 'cook' it; TLUD or retort? Could it be over-cooked? (That'll condemn most any charcoal for BP). Lloyd Jordan, PS... it's not likely anyone's going to download 36Mb just to see six seconds of video! You need to reduce the resolution, CONSIDERABLY. LSYes same bag of ERC charcoal cooked in a TLUD. If anything its leaning more towards undercooked because there are a few pieces that are not quite blakc yet but this is also how it was two years ago because i error on the side of under versus over. I made a fresh batch this morning and milled for three hours and made sure i scooped charcoal from the black parts and did not get any that was slightly charred.
jordanm Posted April 8, 2017 Author Posted April 8, 2017 I think it was a false alarm. I just did the burn test on the new batch and get around 1 second like i am used to. I guess i will use the bad batch for BP coated RH burst. UATU9989.MOV
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