Charcoal and black powder

[batman]

a question:

 

if i were to use a whole bunch of match sticks (without the heads of course) and bake it using the proper method would this make reasonable charcoal? and also because obviously there would be alot of matchsticks through out the cooker would the charcoal cook evenly?

 

Thanks

[deadman]

Sounds pretty unconventional to me. If you are using previously burnt match sticks you;re also going to get some ash content which isn't "superbad", but isn't going to help. I'd suggest splitting up commercial lumber (2x4) into kindling and baking rather than decapitating match heads. It should work, and yes if cooked at a low temp and for long enough the inner match sticks should cook just fine.

[crazyboy25]

actually im not sure about that matchsticks are soaked in a series of chemicals that prevent them from having embers after being lit this is why matchsticks rarely glow after being blown out. i think the same chemicals that inhibit embers would have a negative effect on the performance of your black powder/stars

[batman]

oh ok thanks for the help, i think i will just stick to the split wood, alot easier i spose.

[Bonny]

oh ok thanks for the help, i think i will just stick to the split wood, alot easier i spose.

Building lumber is easy to findand will work fine.I think it would be way too labour intensive to use matchsticks, as well as needing a lot to make a batch of charcoal.

[batman]

yeah i wont bother with the match sticks although i have alot of them, what crazyboy25 said sounds right, the amount of chemicals they soak through the sticks may effect the charcoal so i will try commercial lumber

[PyroMan LTU]

hello, I just have a small q about bp rockets, what size should be noozle of 1lb rocket? i have a drawing of the engine and it is 9mm in dia, is this normal? If not please advise. Thanks

[Mumbles]

Might want to give searching a try in the future. That and using an actually relevant thread.

 

http://www.apcforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2892

[Yankie]

For an unlimited supply of Pine go to the nearest saw mill after hours, there should be massive piles of offcuts.

 

I made some SheOak (Casurina) charcoal, it performs poorly in BP but makes good stars.

[derekroolz]

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!

 

 

Most Likeley matches would work because they are made of pine...though how you go about making the bp and proper mixing of it will vary the results

[Ventsi]

NO! Matches contain chlorates and phosphorus, you dont that mixed up with your BP or else if you mill it you'll get a taste of your own media.

 

Anyways, wood is very cheap and you can find it in almost any shape and type, if you dont have a mechanical saw just get a hatchet and hack away on it.

[PoorBoy]

Hey guys, making black powder is some of the most fun ive had as a new pyro. My friend and I are using white wood from home depot and its going great something i found that seems to work well is if i splinter the wood with a hammer rather than using a circular saw and cutting blocks. I had a 36" torch out of my stock pot when it was splintered and the charcoal seemed lighter and softer. With blocks i acheived about a 16" torch and a harder to crush charcoal. I had about 50 christmas trees in my yard that i collected after last christmas hehe. And cooking pine with christmas trees led me to ask the following question... Since christmas trees are the fastest buning wood i Know of would the charcoal be suitable for a fast BP. IE Should I be cutting up christmas trees into my stock pot instead of burning them to cook white wood? After all arent christmas trees a type of pine anyhow? wondering if any one had any info on christmas trees for pyro use. Don't ask what type they are as i do not know. They are all brown and 7 months old and assorted types from the side of the road. I have about 10 trees left. I just thought maybe nobody mentions christmas trees because they are expensive to buy and difficult to come by (except for during january lol).

[PoorBoy]

As to the question about the matches for making charcoal. yesterday was my first time making charcoal i have to say it is much more gratifying to make this way instead of striking one million matches. one thing to keep in ming is that you dount burn the wood you cook it. by allowing the wooud to have a flame you are bunig the carbon off of it which is exactly what we are trying to keep. you want to get rid of as many other chemicals in the wood while keeping the carbon. http://www.skylighter.com/skylighter_info_...p?Item=109#char. This article details cooking wood pretty good. I dont buy anything from them because their charcoal is made from coconut shells and they are over priced lol. I liked that article mainly because it had pictures and i am a picture book kind of person. Basically buy a 7 $ stock pot from windixie and some white wood from homedepot for 3 $ and those little clamps to hold the lid on for 99 cents each. use something sharp and a hammer to put a hole in the lid a little smaller than your pinky. start a bon fire the hotter the better. I use gasoline and christmas trees. Place pot in middle of fire. Buy some heavy duty leather gloves to grab pot in and out of the 1000 degree fire. I'm a welder so i happened to have welding gloves handy and the heat doesnt reall bother me, i get burnt for a pay check. or be smarter than me and make something to get pot out of fire. any rate the you cant over cook the wood because then you have ash and if you under cook it it will still contain volitile chemicals in the wood for poor black powder. the whole idea be hind using a pot is it starves the wood inside of oxygen meaning no flame and no loss of carbon inside pot. the torch effect coming out of pot is result of volitile vapors leaving wood and exiting small hole in pot with much pressure. you cook pot until you cant make it torch anymore no matter how hot you get it, i melted all handles off my pot during first batch of charcoal and yeilded about 5 lbs in under 1 hour of cooking. My bonfire was over 10 feet tall though. Also a little information i havent read any where else because i guess most people are smarter and asume it self explanatory, but DO NOT BREATH IN THE VAPORS COMING FROM THE POT. I wound up throwing up last night and was sick as a dog. I made about 15 lbs of charcoal though. If you drink milk before hand it will help absorb the toxins from your body due to smoke inhalation. basicaly this covers in detail alot of what i learned from making charcoal a few times last night.

[Bananaphone69]

Whoa, champ... hold up. Over cooking is a not a good idea if your looking for suitable charcoal for bp. The impurities are the "goodies" that give bp some zip. Thats why activated carbon (almost pure C) is not so good for bp.

[TYRONEEZEKIEL]

15lbs of charcoal!

 

Wow. . That would last me ages!

[flying fish]

It is true that you want some of those volitiles to remain intact, however it is pretty hard to overcook. I probably have never grossly "overcooked", but talk to nighthawkinlight - he made a thread in the compositions section about how he "deep fried" his charcoal (white pine I believe) by using a leaf blower to create airflow and produce a very hot fire. He burned it open and rinsed the ash. Alledgedly got excellent results... Edited July 12, 2009 by flying fish

[pyrogeorge]

why you don't set on fire the smoke from the holes when you make charcoal??i think that is better to avoid the smoke.

[dagabu]

why you don't set on fire the smoke from the holes when you make charcoal??i think that is better to avoid the smoke.

 

I agree, it makes a lot of smoke but when you use the grill (see pic) you cant light the smoke.

[Mumbles]

The charcoal from skylighter is just mixed hardwood. From how shitty it is, I'd suspect a sizable portion of oak. Coconut shell is more expensive, and used to make some activated charcoals. It doesn't sound like he's really overcooking it. You have to deliberately try to over cook it.

[Swede]

How about pine sawdust from a lumbermill or similar? I'll bet it would char very quickly and be in a convenient form to add to a mill jar.

 

Most shops have sawdust collection systems, and the sawdust is bagged in giant poly bags. I'll bet they would give them away if you brought donuts to the crew.

Edited July 13, 2009 by Swede

[FrankRizzo]

Sawdust actually takes a bit longer to cook because of the insulating factor.

[dagabu]

I have never been able to overcook any charcoal, it turns to ash if O2 gets in, otherwise it just stays hot but once all of the VOCs are gone, there's nothing else left to evaporate.

 

Coconut shell can be purchased in 50# bags, sold as mulch. Makes great PB but sucks for sparks. Willow makes the best sparks, my opinion.

[Mumbles]

People (steve laduke) were making charcoal from pine bedding for animals. They said it worked great for sparks. He made up a little jig to cook the balsa sawdust that was all the rage a year or so ago too. It was a metal tube with an end clamped on both ends(screws perhaps?). In it was a piece of rebar shaped like an "L", with the curve on the inside. He'd pack the sawdust in solid, and every half an hour or so, he'd use the rebar to agitate the sawdust. It helps to give even cooking. Some had reported charcoal on the outside, and brown or tan wood in the center still.

 

You can actually overcook charcoal. As I said you really have to put your mind to it though. 1000 centigrade for 24 hours or so. At high temps for long periods of time, it begins to take on a more graphitic structure, and become less and less reactive.

[Swede]

People (steve laduke) were making charcoal from pine bedding for animals. They said it worked great for sparks.

 

That's a great idea! I bet those shavings would cook very quickly, but as Frank said, there might still be an insulating effect. If the container has a large surface area per given volume, it'd work better for finely-divided raw material.

[Weasel]

People (steve laduke) were making charcoal from pine bedding for animals. They said it worked great for sparks.

 

 

That's exactly what I use. It works really well. I do have to shake the pot halfway through the process to get uncharred flakes to the bottom of the can though. It cooks really fast too, about half an hour and it's done.

 

It makes good BP, not as good a balsa, but still super fast. It also makes beautiful sparks. It's also cheap, I got a 5 pound bag for two dollars. You can get 50 pound bags for around 15 dollars. It is the only thing i use for charcoal now, it is quite convienent.