Ok, I started making black powder a while ago but stopped 'cause I didn't have enough KNO3 and I finally got some and made a small amount, the question is how much residue should it leave when just burning it? What colour should it be? (It was yellow before, lol) and how quickly should it ignite with a match?

A little bit of residue is acceptable, ~60% of BP products are solid anyway. Shouldn't leave a pile of crap. Normally it's whitish but I've seen orange, yellow, brown and gray.
My BP lights up easy if you drop a lit match in it. :rolleyes:

Hmm, ok. Mines a light gray but it still takes a while to light up...guess more KNO3 then?

Hmm, ok. Mines a light gray but it still takes a while to light up...guess more KNO3 then?

Oh, did you mean the color of black powder? It's usually gray. Contradictory name but whatever.

Black Powder should be gray.
Reside should be lighter gray, sometimes with a hue.
Yellow residue means too much S.
Well-made BP should light at flame or spark.

Nuff said.

/AV/

I think you will find that an ember or red hot wire will ignite BP instantly while a flame from a lighter or match wont. This is merely conduction vs. convection. Heat rises... so most of the heat you are applying is going up and away from the powder.

Usually meal powder is moistened and corned to make faster black powder and is binded for lifting shells and such.

http://i10.tinypic.com/6luxgd1.jpg
~5g of some old BP I had to get rid of. Flared up the instant the match hit it. The stuff on the left is the remains of the Al foil it was on.

Hmm, I think I'm still getting too much residue...maybe I should just start again, lol

What's your composition? Also chems and scale?

Well, I'm not sure of the composition of the one I left for a while, because it wasn't complete as I ran out of KNO3:rolleyes:...but what I was using was 75:15:10 potassium nitrate:sulfer:charcol

Well, I'm not sure of the composition of the one I left for a while, because it wasn't complete as I ran out of KNO3:rolleyes:...but what I was using was 75:15:10 potassium nitrate:sulfer:charcol

Ok. and in what form is that? Are you weighing everything out with a scale, or are you using volume measurements, as in, cup of this cup of that?

EVERYTHING must be done by weight. I have a feeling you are using volume, which is why you have yellow black powder. If you were using weight there is no way you would put in enough sulfur to make it yellow.

If you don't have a scale, go get one, or be doomed to failure. A scale is the most important piece of equipment when it comes to pyrotechnics, without one, it would be impossible to judge proper ratios.

And the reason volumetric measuring doesn't work is because the difference in densities between the chems. 1 cup of sulfur will weigh a HELL of a lot more than 1 cup of charcoal.

And as for not knowing your first batch ratios, you need to be weighing everything, and writing everything down, and then marking the containers they are in with detailed descriptions including the name of the comp, the weight ratios, and the date the batch was started.

Do it right, or don't do it at all, because you will just be wasting money and time.


Also, it's 15 charcoal, and 10 sulfur, you had it backwards.

Also the quality of your chems can play a huge role, as well as how finely milled it is.

I havent made black powder in a while, but I used to have a problem similar to yours. I am not really sure why, but there was always a pile of molten KNO3 left over, and it was rather large. Chems were high quality, and the ratios were right. I ended up experimenting, and discovered that using a few more percent of charcoal, rather than KNO3, made the powder burn more completely, although just a bit slower.

You are ball milling aren't you?

My BP residue looks pretty much exactly the same as Nukes.

I have not made any BP in a long while but my BP usally left little to no residue usally only a small white almost burn ... in were it lit up but no actualy residue that could really be collected mine was the standard 75 15 10 route KNO3 was pretty much pure minus a very veyr small amount of binder my sulfur was pure as well whne i bought it thou it had 10% calcium carbonate in it and my charcol was usally well cooked willow each chem was milled seperatly for approax 1 hour or till i deemed ready then all were mixed and milled together for approax 3-4 hours or till i deemed ready or just wanted it ... my black powder was actually a very charcolish grey now after this was done milling i usally tossed in 5% of the total weight made dextrin and milled for another 5 min or so to mixx properly then i removed this and added a small amount of water in a bowl and mixed this in very well now the tricky part is the water and i can not explain how to properly do it just comes with experiance .. but basically just enough water to be able to squeze a clump and have it retain it's shape that about it ... usally i add a bit more... most people use a screen to turn there meal to powder generally i used a cheese grater parmasian side to make mine just because im lazy and screens are messy

and then i let dry for a while ... to speed up the process some people use water / alchol mixes to speed drying process ... generally i just used water found it works alot better personally i usally dried my BP on the hot tarmac on some newspaper in the summer or under a light in a well warmed room nothing to fancy

I was using a scale


And no I wasn't ball milling as that would take too much time, money and energy I am willing to exert on something that is merely a side hobby, not something I am going to pursue when I run out of the ingredients.

I was using a scale


And no I wasn't ball milling as that would take too much time, money and energy I am willing to exert on something that is merely a side hobby, not something I am going to pursue when I run out of the ingredients.

It will be very very very very difficult to achieve decent results without a ball mill. Try grinding it for four or five hours in a mortar and pestle by hand, you may be able to get something decent. I usually leave my BP in for between 10 and 15 hours, not that I can really tell a difference in quality after 12 hours.

how about 2 minutes in 10 second bursts in a remotely operated coffee grinder? thanks to warweed for the idea of course. its probably inferior to real milling but fairly decent for the amount of time input.

Yeah coffee grinders work good i bought one in canada from superstore for 10 dollars that stood up to everything i could not kill it ... then i bought a nice fancy one for 60 and it died in 10 min of grinding

I was using a scale


And no I wasn't ball milling as that would take too much time, money and energy I am willing to exert on something that is merely a side hobby, not something I am going to pursue when I run out of the ingredients.

This makes me sad. If you dont put much in you arent going to get much out. Oh and whats it matter anyways if your just going to quite once you run outta chems?

is it bad if my black powder clumps together when milling, like i'll take it out and there will be a massive ball size depending on how much im milling.

i read somewhere this was due to heat building up.

but does it degrade the quality of my black powder? because right now it burns really slow.

i have pure sulfur and i;ve used willow charcoal. but my KNO3 is 99% but i cant see that making too much of a difference right?

so far i have only thrown everything in the mill and run it for a couple of hours.

im going to try and make the green powder method, but i want to do i little more research on it first as i am not entirely sure of the method. but does it even make much more of a difference?

my first attempt i used charcoal from my fireplace. then i upgraded to willow and that made lots of difference but still not burning as fast as i would like. not any where near.

also you say you can light your Bp by dropping a match on it? i have to hold a match to if for a little bit before it ignites.

i know black powder making is more of an art than procedure right, but is there any noticable errors that would make my bp burn faster?

is it bad if my black powder clumps together when milling, like i'll take it out and there will be a massive ball size depending on how much im milling.

i read somewhere this was due to heat building up.

but does it degrade the quality of my black powder? because right now it burns really slow.

i have pure sulfur and i;ve used willow charcoal. but my KNO3 is 99% but i cant see that making too much of a difference right?

so far i have only thrown everything in the mill and run it for a couple of hours.

im going to try and make the green powder method, but i want to do i little more research on it first as i am not entirely sure of the method. but does it even make much more of a difference?

my first attempt i used charcoal from my fireplace. then i upgraded to willow and that made lots of difference but still not burning as fast as i would like. not any where near.

also you say you can light your Bp by dropping a match on it? i have to hold a match to if for a little bit before it ignites.

i know black powder making is more of an art than procedure right, but is there any noticable errors that would make my bp burn faster?

Sounds like its wet :confused:

If it comes out in a massive ball, try pushing it through a sieve onto a few sheets of newspaper, to make smaller corns of BP. Leave it to dry for two days.

Thats assuming it is wet. Have you tried making 65:35 KNO3:Sucrose? That should burn fairly easily with a pinkish/purplish flame and a lot of smoke. Have you tried any other compositions and got them to work? It could be that you got dodgy KNO3.

A gram of BP on top of some tin foil should start burning before its got to a zippo flame if you start lowering it onto the flame from a distance.

My guess is that its wet from the description, and if you don't add any water, you may have a problem. KNO3 is hygroscopic, but not that so; something like sodium nitrate is far more hygroscopic and far cheaper to buy. If you bought it from ebay for example, an unscrupulous seller may have substituted nitrate for nitrate.

doesnt feel wet ay. and if i break it down, i can still pick it up squeeze together in my hand and it will remain that shape still some bp in my hand though.

still does so a couple of weeks later.

i did buy it off ebay in the form of fertilizer i think it was. due to my living in Australia i have to find alternative buying methods.

well when i go back to school ill be able to get some pure KNO3 and ill give that a go, but i really want to get some good bp now.