alexthegreat00 Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 I know that the charcoal briquets are the worst for pyro, but are there any brands of charcoal that are somewhat acceptable for, bp say? I live close to a Menards and a Home Depot so either of those places would be convenient. What I am trying to say is that are there any particular brands or things on the label that I should look for? PS. I would rather not order online something that is so readily available. I am going to make my own in a few months when my wood is drier, but I just cant wait that long.
Algenco Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 (edited) I know that the charcoal briquets are the worst for pyro, but are there any brands of charcoal that are somewhat acceptable for, bp say? I live close to a Menards and a Home Depot so either of those places would be convenient. What I am trying to say is that are there any particular brands or things on the label that I should look for? PS. I would rather not order online something that is so readily available. I am going to make my own in a few months when my wood is drier, but I just cant wait that long. not really, briquettes contain some bituminous coal and binders.Cowboy lump is pure hardwood charcoal but isn't cooked completlywhy do you have to wait?I cook green wood quite often, it just requires more fuel Extensive testing of various charcoal has been conducted by Dan Creagan, he's still tested and new results will be added to the database http://creagan.net/fireworks/charcoal_tests.html Edited April 25, 2011 by Algenco
dagabu Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 I buy Humfrey's charcoal LINK and ball mill the charcoal for 10 minutes to air float. . It comes as small as 00 which is .03 - .07" or about 1-/32" -dag
Algenco Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 I'm going to visit the Cowboy lump plant, bet I can clean up some dust
Mumbles Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 I got better results only using the soft charcoal from the Cowboy bags. I think it's more predominantly maple, where as the harder stuff is more oak. There are some places that sell custom cooked charcoal for smoking. If you look up some companies/people who make this stuff, they may have listings of retailers. There are a few that sell maple, or alder. Both will be quite adequate for pyro.
MadMax Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 It can be done and not as bad as everyone thinks. The trick is the get the lump charcoal. The important thing is to hand pick each piece choosing only the softest and lightest pieces. Usually pieces that still resemble the wood chunks from which they came are a good bet. Avoid any pieces that look like they include bark. It's not as good as willow but with good milling it will do the trick.
oldguy Posted April 25, 2011 Posted April 25, 2011 Trouble is that many times the differing store bought brands of lump charcoal mentioned or known to be good for BP are only sold regionally. So they are not available in stores where you live. I tried hunting down some brands of lump charcoal said to make good BP. Only to find they were not available where I live. So, I just visited a few local stores that had good selections of lump charcoal & eyeballed, lifted & felt the bags. Some are sold by volume, others by weight. You can tell which are far lighter just hefting the differing brands. Generally the lighter it is, the better it is. Once you get some home, bust a few pieces apart. If it is light weight & shiny black all the way through, it is usually pretty good stuff. I learned quickly, mesquite isn’t good for BP, but great for long lasting sparks in gerb or fountain comps.
Arthur Posted April 26, 2011 Posted April 26, 2011 MY experience from the UK is that BBQ charcoal doesn't make BP but will make stars and fountains. For good safe products you need good fast BP! You can always slow it down for rocketry. USUALLY fast BP comes from the softest fluffiest charcoal, really good charcoal really does make all the difference with BP. Hard charcoal really will abrade the mill media.
MWJ Posted January 5, 2014 Posted January 5, 2014 How about using a wood stove? Cook the pine wood until its nice and charcoaly then cool it off. Would that work for bp?
mikeee Posted January 6, 2014 Posted January 6, 2014 (edited) MWJ Read up on the TLUD charcoal cooker, that is one of the easiest ways to produce good quality charcoal.Making good quality charcoal requires stopping the cooking process at the right time. Edited January 6, 2014 by mikeee
kelvisklein Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 Hello !! Guys, my black powder dont explode, it just burn away, is it because i used store brought charcoal? I mixed 74% KNO3 11% Sulphur and 15% Charcoal powder. What i have to do for it to explode and launch something in the air from a tube? Thanks, and sry for the bad english, im from Brazil! Ps.: Sry if its a wrong area for that question.
Mumbles Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 Do you happen to know what variety of charcoal you have? Also, how did you mix it? Just mixing or screening isn't normally sufficient. Typically all the ingredients are ground to an extremely fine powder together in a ball mill. This achieves both very fine grinding as well as very intimate mixing necessary for a fast burn and lifting capabilities.
bob Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 (edited) This may or may not help you, but when I first started making black gun powder (it was for a small cannon) I had no idea what a ball mill was, and so was making green mix, and I found that if you used enough green mix and wadded the projectile so that you had to push hard to get it to go down the barrel you could get a nice bang, and some good distance with just plain green mix. Of course though as Mumble said ball milling is a really good idea. Also adding water to the powder and then pushing/ crumbling it through a window screen and then drying it will speed it up quite a bit.bob Edited January 9, 2014 by bob
Randomguytom Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 I found cooking pine 2x4s from the hardware store worked well for me. Haven't testing it confined yet but looks promising.
jaysgoh Posted January 12, 2014 Posted January 12, 2014 If you really no choice like me, get willow charcoal at store. It's not recommended but buying from China eBay seems more cheaper. I found cowboy lump charcoal in ace hardware! I wanna give it a try, but it is 25kg per pack, how do I and where can I keep? Buying is not a problem but grinding it is a mess
Eagle66 Posted January 22, 2014 Posted January 22, 2014 IMHO it's better not waiting for your wood to dry. I cut growing willow one day, peeled, split & cooked it the next, and milled it the 3rd. Making good quality charcoal requires stopping the cooking process at the right time. I found it easier to judge the stop point with the green wood. A few minutes after the smoke from the retort vent stopped burning, I pulled it out of the fire. Only the big pieces were under done, and even then, not that much. My dry wood wasn't so obvious. Actually, I did use briquettes. Cheap plain label store brand is what I used for the cooking fire. Cheaper than firewood.
Arthur Posted January 22, 2014 Posted January 22, 2014 The qualities that we like of our fireworks usually come from the charcoal used. Look at Dan Creggan's website (link above) for details of all the woods that he has tested some are useless some are ace. Willow and Alder are considered the standard charcoals for BP in the UK. Other woods are better available cheaply elsewhere. New growth of wood that grows by water and makes soft low density charcoal is best. BBQ charcoal is best used for the fire to cook your chosen wood to charcoal.
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