Charcoal and black powder

[poisonkiller]

I need to know, just to make sure, does black powder need somekind of special charcoal, or can i just light up some wood matches and use that charcoal. Second question is, that can i use brayer, not ball mill to mix up black powder?

Thanks!

[joe609]

If you searched a little bit you would find out that charcoal is a big variable in the quality of your black powder, although most types will work there are some better than others see the 'willow alternatives' thread. Also isnt a brayer just a roller? if so then that will be quite time consuming to get good black powder the only real good method is ball milling and the precipitation method which i have not bothered to try seeing as ball milling is suposed to be better.

[poisonkiller]

Well, if i can get black powder by using brayer, thats great!

[Mumbles]

This is a brayer http://www.imcclains.com/images/brayer/Bra...color%20web.jpg

 

and no they won't work much if any better than just screening chemicals together. Not unless they weigh several tons. You are going to need a ball mill to get good black powder. The CIA method will provide acceptable, but still inferior results.

[joe609]

If you cant do it either of the ways i mentioned then id use a mortar and pestle it will take you ages but youl eventually end up wwith something that works ok.

[poisonkiller]

Ehhh... It seems brayer is wrong word... I took it from dictionary. This is a picture of my kind of brayer: http://www.madeinestonia.ee/webshop/images...006-SMD3008.jpg Its made for crushing things in there. Like if you have somekind of lumpy powder, you can crush these lumps into powder.

[joe609]

Oh yer thats a mortar and pastle ive personnaly never tried to make Bp in mortar and pestle but from what ive heard it can work it just takes a bloody long time crushing to get anything decent and you can only make a small ammount at a time.

[itwasntme]

or can i just light up some wood matches and use that charcoal

Huh? So you're trying to use burned matches for "charcoal"? I saw a dumbass on RE say that you should just have a bonfire and that's you're charcoal. No, that would make ash which is no good for BP. I use poplar for my greenmix rockets, I just shake it in a cup with lid and it burns pretty fast for being coarse charcoal, about 50 mesh in my coffee grinder.

[joe609]

Yer it does make ash but also a considerable ammount of charcoal to.

[oriansbelt]

To answer the questions: yes you can use a mortar and pestal to make black powder, I've done it but the BP isn't that good, you'll need a ball mill for BP that you want to use in pyrotechnics. And yes I think burnt matches would work but don't use the tips. As others have said though it's probably not very good charcoal so either buy some or read up on making your own.

 

From the sound of the questions I would say that you are new to pyro and this is your first time making BP. BP is a very good place to start and try to make good BP before moving on to other stuff and remember to search before starting a new thread, you could have probably found most of this info easily if you had tried.

[moonshot]

True charcoal isn't made by just burning wood in a fire. It's made by baking wood in a very low oxygen environment. Some people make it by taking a tin container with a removable top, cutting some slits in the top with a knife, putting some pieces of wood in the container closing it up and setting it on a fire to bake. It takes quite a while for the wood to reduce to charcoal so be patient and let it cook for a few hours. It also stinks to high heaven so try to do this away from your next door neighbors. LOL.

I make my charcoal using an old 3 gallon metal coffee pot. It already has the holes for pouring the coffee to vent the smoke. I fill it with the wood and set it on my gas griil burner at medium high and let it cook all day. I shake it once in awhile to get all the wood evenly baked. Once the charcoal is done I crush it with a 2x4 and sift it through a 20 mesh screen. Works good for meal BP. Like the other guys say the type of wood makes all the difference in the speed of the BP. If you have an arts and crafts store in your vicinity go buy a large woven grapevine wreath imported from china. Make sure it's not coated with shellac or varnish. Cut it up with some pruning shears and bake it up. It makes great charcoal for BP. Good luck and BE SAFE!

[maximusg]

Yeah, I use a couple of 20L paint tin inside a 44 gal drum to cook my willow, a couple of pounds at a time. Iv never noticed any particular smell though. Maybe it the paint on your tin burning that makes the bad smell.

[moonshot]

No it's just the smoke venting from the pot that smells like a blacksmiths forge. I have not tried baking willow yet but I will have to get some as it sounds like it's the best for fast BP. I'm only making small quantities of BP at a time so I don't need so much charcoal but we need to tell the new guys that you can't make charcoal by burning a bunch of wooden matches.LOL.

[Mephistos Minion]

I have a few cubic metres of dried rapevine wood out on my vineyard. I might cook some up to see how good it is for BP. I have heard that it is good, but also that it is average from another source.

[rocket]

Hmm rapevine ay, I wonder how it got that name lol. I’ve heard that it quit good for BP too, the grapevine that is.

[Mephistos Minion]

Haha, I am typing on my Toshiba Libretto. It is fucking small and really hard to type on. I got raped by pine once. I was on a pine hedge thing and I slipped, nearly lost my virginity to a very knotted pine branch

[moonshot]

I have a few cubic metres of dried rapevine wood out on my vineyard. I might cook some up to see how good it is for BP. I have heard that it is good, but also that it is average from another source.

The BP Iv'e made with grapevine charcoal is close to commercial 2fg goex. If you have it readily available try it out you won't be disappointed. It's fast enough for a good break BP but too fast for rocket propellent. Makes good lift.

[itwasntme]

I have a few cubic metres of dried rapevine wood out on my vineyard. I might cook some up to see how good it is for BP. I have heard that it is good, but also that it is average from another source.

The BP Iv'e made with grapevine charcoal is close to commercial 2fg goex. If you have it readily available try it out you won't be disappointed. It's fast enough for a good break BP but too fast for rocket propellent. Makes good lift.

Heh, I grow blue grapes out back. I think it has to be dried but I tried it before as green mix and it just sucked, poplar green mix burns pretty good. I would be using this for charcoal type stars and green meal rocket propellent.

[Mephistos Minion]

Might as well give the grape vine a crack then. wont be for a month though, i have exams coming up and dad is being a Study Nazi. Hopefully they vineyard manager dodesnt burn it all to keep himself warm. There are about 12 vineyards near me so getting the wood shouldnt be a problem even if mine is all gone.

[mr.pyro]

Try spruce wood, its easy to come by(homedepot) and cheap, sold as 2x4 1x4 whateverxwhatever and makes pretty fast bp.

 

I dont know if anyone has posted this but take a look.

 

http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/charcoal_tests.html

[Mephistos Minion]

Kyle from Passfire usues Spruce I do believe, very hot BP but still decent sparks. Most fences are made from it, he reccomends looking for old fence post scrap for a cheap source.

[psymon]

Used Alder for the first time recently as many people say its better than willow. Found that it is a little faster than willow. I remember trying to make lift powder with lumpwood charcoal and it never managed to get a shell more than a foot out of the mortar. Its certianly better to get a fast charcoal, then you really can make decent pyro devices. From here.

 

www.charcoaldust.co.uk

[moonshot]

Try spruce wood, its easy to come by(homedepot) and cheap, sold as 2x4 1x4 whateverxwhatever and makes pretty fast bp.

 

I dont know if anyone has posted this but take a look.

 

http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/charcoal_tests.html

Thats a very good link about the different types of wood used for making charcoal. I'm going to try making some out of cedar since I have a bunch of scraps in my shop. I also have a bunch of old balsa model airplane scrap that has been sitting around a long time. The powder made with balsa charcoal was very impressive in the burn rate test.(WOW!).I will try milling some powder with the balsa and use it to coat some ground corn cob for burst. Thanks for that link.

[matell]

Hello

 

Yesterday i was making bp with a ball mill and i use pine charcoal.When i test it,it burns at a very slow rate and in a somewhat white colour.I ball milled this bp for about 3 hours.i make the charcoal by first burned it and when it became without flames i put it in another tank that it cant allow oxygen passes into the tank and after 24 hours i open the tank and remove the charcoal.it is a good method for making charcoal or not?and why the bp burns at a very slow rate?

sorry for the english i am using but i am still learning.

 

Thanks

 

Matthew

[Mumbles]

Try ball milling longer. I suspect you don't have an optimized mill. Try more like 10 hours. Also depending on what kind of pine it is, it will burn slow. I think white pine burns pretty fast, but other sorts will burn slower and are more suitable for sparks.