usapyro Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 (edited) Anyone have any experience with this wood? http://en.wikipedia....Alder_Buckthorn "Alder Buckthorn charcoal is prized in the manufacture of gunpowder, being regarded as the best wood for the purpose. It is particularly highly valued for time fuses because of its very even burn rate.[1][8] The wood was formerly used for shoe lasts, nails, and veneer. The bark yields a yellow dye, and the unripe berries furnish a green dye.[11]" It has been tested to make the fastest and most consistent charcoal for black powder there is... I am milling up some black powder from this tree here... Rhamnus Frangula Purshiana (Cascara Buckthorn) It will be done tomorrow! http://en.wikipedia....amnus_purshianaThere really isn't any difference between the trees. Same leaves, same berries, laxatives that are extracted from the bark, etc... Genus: RhamnusSubgenus: FrangulaSpecies: R. purshiana If I'm in luck I will have either have the best or 2nd best black powder charcoal in the world... http://www.creagan.n...coal_tests.htmlBuckthorn Alder (Rhamnus Frangula) 0.274 seconds per 2.5 feet unconfined burn speed BP I just milled up last night...Big Leaf Maple 0.3 seconds per 2.5 feet unconfined burn speed To give you an idea of the relative speeds of those charcoals... Black willow... Black willow makes up for it's lack up speed with it's high gas production though.Black Willow 0.451 seconds per 2.5 feet unconfined burn speed Big leaf maple is the second fastest burning BP that guy tested! I just tested some of the meal and it's noticeably faster than my willow. Will rice all powders the exact same way and proceed to testing this weekend. I have pretty much unlimited amounts of Rhamnus Frangula Purshiana wood available to me. The stuff grows everywhere here... If this stuff is as good as Rhamnus Frangula it's going to be sweeeet!!! Cascara charcoal will be my permanent charcoal for BP! Edited October 24, 2012 by usapyro
pyrojig Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 One piece of literature you may appreciate concerning bp..... is Pyrotechnica's 17th publication. It goes into great detail, theory, and charts on the best charcoals and their respective tests. I believe it is $25 for that piece of material.
usapyro Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 (edited) This is pretty much a tie over a 21.5 inch burn for each type. Four grams of each. Cascara on the left and Maple on the right. The results are inconclusive because the cascara buckthorn was made into charcoal wet while the big leaf maple wood was made into charcoal dry. The Rhamnus Frangula Purshiana (Cascara Buckthorn) was slightly overcooked too. The ricing also appeared to be slightly different for both even though the water amounts were exactly the same. Maple riced slightly looser and less compact for some reason while the Cascara Buckthorn was more compact and harder. And thirdly... The maple side ignited before the buckthorn looking at the frames... Have to do a double ignition differently! Bottom line... Both make some of the fastest black powder there is! Will have to do further testing to figure out which is truly faster and more powerful. I am going to do one more test with meal burns inside tubes, however... This confirms that Cascara Buckthorn is in the 99th percentile of fast charcoals!!! I won't be able to confirm it's faster than Big Leaf Maple and on par with Rhamnus Frangula (Alder Buckthorn) until I get some cooked properly with dry wood like the Big Leaf Maple was. I am 95% certain the Cascara Buckthorn is faster than the Big Leaf Maple if the charcoal is cooked identically and I do burn tests with meal. Going to be a while till the wood dries and cures properly like the maple. There is only a 9% difference in speed between alder buckthorn and big leaf maple in others tests... This is going to be tricky to measure accurately! Replay the video a few times. Looks like a tie with my current powders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZDTmrypjo Those sparks are probably from unmilled BP that got stuck around the rubber rings... Either that or a tiny amount of sawdust I spilled in the powder when it was drying! Edited October 26, 2012 by usapyro
FrankRizzo Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 Open-trough burn tests are too unreliable IMO. BP made with fluffier charcoal will tend to have a faster open-air burn time because of the firepaths between grains. What I do, is press a spolette tube full of mill powder to slightly over an inch in height, then drill-back one end so that the column is exactly 1". Video the process from ignition to passfire, and base the results off that. If you can get a powder that burns ~1.8-2.0 seconds/inch (or better), it will make excellent lift. 1
usapyro Posted October 27, 2012 Author Posted October 27, 2012 (edited) Yea, I figured that out already. Here is the new test video... Everything is exactly precise. Each tube is rammed with the same length clay plug and weighed. The composition amount is weighed. The density and grain length is identical in each tube. The quickmatch is precisely the same length from the split to each tube... Everything was milled for 24 hrs in the same mill. Pressed in 1g increments. Etc... Margin of error with weight is less than 0.03g. My scale is accurate to 0.01g. Maximum margin of error with density is probably around 2%. The burn time margin of error for this entire test is less than 2% I am confident. As the willow meal burned 10% slower than the cascara buckthorn that is a clear win there. Vs the maple it's also a confirmed win! Pacific Willow vs Big Leaf Maple vs Cascara Buckthorn (Rhamnus Frangula Purshiana) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvFw16HWyIk Edited October 27, 2012 by usapyro
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