Homemade black powder

[Delmar]

...I put on the percussion cap and fired. The powder did not ignite. Put on another cap and fired, still nothing. I did the trick where you put a grain or so of BP behind the nipple, and it boomed like a mutha!...

Update
while I am not going to make any more of this exact powder,I was able to use the rest of the batch I made by "priming the load" by putting a few grains of BP in the barrel, before I added the white powder.Fired every time!

 

[Delmar]

Test #2
KNO3 mixed 50/50 by volume with powdered sugar. Mixed it in the coffee grinder for 60 sec. this is an ultra fine powder. The first burn I did was easier to light than the previous batch, but when I tried to make a video it took a bit to light. This powder does appear to burn hotter than the first. Could be because I used powdered sugar instead of granular, which would weigh less. This would mean I have a higher % of KNO3 in this batch. I guess I really should break out the scales
There were a couple of small "pearls so I am guessing my sugar was a little moist, so I'm going to put it in the dehydrator for a while before I try it in my gun.
DelStacy24

The coffee grinder I bought was a Hamilton Beach. $15 at Walmart. This model lets you press the button and it goes for 10 to 30 seconds (depending on the setting) so I didn't have to rig the switch to stand back!

 

[andyrping]

So I cooked up some white powder today from a recipe in Homemade Guns and Homemade ammo. Homemade Guns and Homemade Ammo - Brown (pdf document) free file download at fliiby.com It's the salt peter and sugar recipe. (I'm not recommending that anyone else try it nor am I the creator of this recipe)

The KNO3 and sugar did dissolve easily at a point that was below the boiling point. I cooked it down till it was the consistency of thin apple sauce, then turned off the heat. I threw it on a plate to finish drying. I looks a lot like a mess of grits on the plate and was about that thick by the time I got the pan scraped out.

Then I took a little glob of the wet mixture and tried to see if I could light it. You can see by the attached video that this stuff is not real easy to ignite until it dries
DelStacy24

I haven't read through that recipe yet, a lot in that file, but when I was young, we used to use sugar and saltpeter to make smoke bombs. I don't know if you used any other ingredients, but the stuff we had burned really slow, and probably wouldn't be suitable for use in a firearm. I also did the same using ammonium nitrate fertilizer with sugar and sodium nitrate with sugar. They all yielded a similar effect. I had also read that black powder could be make using the sodium nitrate as a substitute for salt peter. My dad worked at a glass plant and they used sodium nitrate by the ton so it was a lot more readily available to me than saltpeter. I tried making black powder with it, but it too burned slow. Now that I look back, it could have been that I was using garder sulfur, and it lacked purity. It did some pretty neat stuff though. I would put it in a tin foil wrapper and light it and it would oxidize with the aluminum and get super bright. Oh the good ol pyro days! I had a big can of potassium perchlorate that I did some experimenting with too... got some neat colors with that.

I also read, and this serious, that saltpeter can be made from bat dung. I think I may have seen that in a foxfire book. That'd be the way to go! Complete DIY!

 

[Delmar]

I also read, and this serious, that saltpeter can be made from bat dung. I think I may have seen that in a foxfire book. That'd be the way to go! Complete DIY!

No, the way to go is to buy it for $5/lbs and never have to deal with dung of any kind.

 

[techres]

No, the way to go is to buy it for $5/lbs and never have to deal with dung of any kind.

Where do you buy it?

 

[dburkhead]

Where do you buy it?

One use for Potassium Nitrate is as a fertilizer for aquaria with live plants. Here's one source, $3/lb:

Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Dry Fertilizers, Dry Fertilizers, Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate,

 

[Hunter58]

There are some folks over on this site that makes home made powder. This link will take you to the most current posting on this subject.

My first homemade powder - THR

 

[Delmar]

Where do you buy it?

I don't think anyone in Indiana is all that far from a farming community. You should be able to buy it wherever farmers buy fertilizer.

 

[Delmar]

One use for Potassium Nitrate is as a fertilizer for aquaria with live plants. Here's one source, $3/lb:

Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Dry Fertilizers, Dry Fertilizers, Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate,

That is the best price I have seen, but I haven't tried the local farm stores yet. If they sell it by the lb I should be in business. I don't have any use for a half ton of that stuff!

 

[Stimp]

I've made smoke bombs before with the kno3 and sugar before.. Works pretty good but never really thought you could use it for powder. I think that the sulfer is a key component but don't know where to buy sulfur.
Another good source of salt peter (KNO3) is Stump Remover. That is what I have used in the past.

 

[Delmar]

I've made smoke bombs before with the kno3 and sugar before.. Works pretty good but never really thought you could use it for powder. I think that the sulfer is a key component but don't know where to buy sulfur.
Another good source of salt peter (KNO3) is Stump Remover. That is what I have used in the past.

Stump remover is what I have been using so far, but I am told it is not the highest quality KNO3, It is also close to $7/lbs so I am going to try the link that dburkhead provided, unless one of the fertilizer plants around here carries it.