Next idea: cattail (Typha) fluff. Already flammable. Mostly cellulose, similar to raw cotton but different. I imagine our forefathers would have tried this one at least once since it's so similar to cotton but is available in the cold northeast where cotton doesn't tolerate.
Cattail (Typha) fluff is called bulrush fluff here in Oz, definitely worth trying, I used to nitrate it and use it as delay separators in fireworks, it worked great. I am a bit worried about converting it to charcoal in a can though, it will need to be really packed in.
@@EverythingblackpowderI reload, been shooting ball and cap for almost 20 years, and raised with a gun in my hand since I could walk. That said, This channel is awesome. I could watch this content if I was gun ignorant or a master in gunsmithing.
Got to thinking about your ‘Antique muzzle loading propellant’ series, and realized the obvious, that the charcoal sources that have worked the best are best described as ‘clean’ sources, ie, low on natural oils, tannins, and other contaminants. The woods that have worked best are the kinds that burn cleanly with very little smoke or ‘creosote’. So what we need to look for is ‘ridiculous’ stuff that burns clean to make charcoal from.
Each test, positive or negative, is equally good and instructive. I suggest you try a wood of low hardness, maybe poplar. I think that various types of wood still have something to offer and should not be neglected. Certainly the videos are very interesting, well done, it's a pleasure to watch your channel.
When using alder buckthorn, rocket motor has 100% thrust. When using birch, rocket motor has only 65% of thrust. Of course, all other conditions are the same. I have unlimited access to Frangula Alnus = Alder Buckthorn. Since your videos are probably the best on YT, maybe it's time to make a power controlled electric oven and use a laser thermometer. For the preparation of charcoal. Make 3 batches at 540F, 570F and 600F. From This 3 batches is possible create 540/570 = 555 and 585 in same order mixing 1:1. Only idea not more. Maybe in temperature is last key for best BP.
I had a feeling it would be bad stuff and said so in the comment section of the poll. I gave the numbers of how much residual oil is left after making coffee, but wasn't sure how much would burn off in the charcoal making process. That's why I didn't vote for it, LOL. I guess we have an indication of how much oil is left, 🤣.
Hahaha, we've been excited for this one for a long time! Thanks for making the disaster happen man! Now wasp nest... Easily gonna break 2k with 20 shots between cleaning. I just know it :p
Maybe the coffee grounds will have to be boiled and strained until there's no more residue of coffee coming from them to where it's almost clear water like and then dry and charcoal it
Great Video! The only good thing is you now know for sure that coffee grounds should not be your source of carbon for BP. lol Have you ever tried punky wood or dried grasses? Those seem to work ok when charred and used to catch sparks from a flint and steel. You have sure opened my eyes when it comes to making black powder. Thanks Phil
Jake, I have an idea that’s been kicking around in my head for months now! While it isn’t exactly a black powder test, could you consider testing flash paper or flash cotton as a smokeless powder alternative? Both in say manually repeating and semi auto firearms? I’d imagine it’d yield fairly interesting results!!
they tried flash cotton in the late 1800s before they figured out how to make smokeless powder, one issue they had was it would tend to blow up firearms if the ball/bullet was rammed all the way down leading to one interesting round that was a bullet with a wooden stick pressed in the back to prevent it from being seated deeper than a certain point with the gun cotton woven around the stick. I believe it was called the Lorenz gun cotton cartridge.
Used Coffee grounds you say..... Who suggested this. Just curious. You realize this is venturing into the absurd. I like that. It takes guts. You said you needed a drink after testing this concoction. I needed a drink watching it. The temerity of trying it must be applauded. I'm sure your first words when making it were, "watch this". Back to the drawing board. Hey, how about trying a drawing board.
Eager to see the video of the modern powder manufacture process you are using. The purification of the nitrate sounds interesting. One question though: you mention using brass balls for the milling while most people use lead. The reason for not using steel or iron is pretty obvious but is there a reason why brass makes a good mill medium? I heard of many homemade ball mills that use glass marbles as a medium. Would those work to make powder or do you think it makes no real difference?
Lead makes dirty powder. Lead being soft will get ground down and will end up in your powder. You do t have that problem with brass. Marbles will work in a pinch but because they are so light it takes a long time to finish milling
Thanks for the great channel. I think the suggestion of bamboo is a good idea, seeing that the Chinese invented black powder and their most available source of charcoal would be bamboo
As I've said before I appreciate you trying all these substances, so we don't have too in the noble quest for the greatest of all time antique sporting muzzle loading propellant
Great video as usual. Even the failures like this one isn't really a failure...it's learning what to use ..or NOT!! I am waiting and hoping that sometime you do one with BAMBOO TP...! Keep up the good work I totally enjoy each and every video!!
You’d think that if beans or seeds of any kind made good or great BP, that’s what the experts who made powder in the golden age of BP would have settled on. It was the state of the art then and experimentation was high. Heck it’s taken a long time to get powder like Swiss that is remotely close to the quality of BP back then. They used to be able to regulate BP double rifles to I high standard then, and it’s nearly impossible to do so today with modern BP
I know grain dust is extremely volatile that's why I think you should try some wheat flour or cornstarch, or maybe even cracked corn grain next! Just look up explosions at grain elevators you will see what I mean. Thanks for the great videos!
First off, I have zero experience making or shooting black powder but I enjoy your videos and think they are very educational. That being said, in your expert opinion, imagining some scenario where this is the only powder you could make, would it be effective for hunting? Maybe small game, large game or self defense? Is it stronger/weaker than what they used back when black powder rifles were the only thing available? thanks!
Jake! I’ve been making black powder for about 15 years… it would be nice if we could design some kind of apparatus for testing the strength of our black powder! Something that everyone could build at home, so we can compare everyone’s BP to yours… We could have a bunch of different people testing charcoals and ratios ext. I guess we could even have a contest for fastest BP… maybe I am just talking out of my ass lol I’ve been up since 2AM 😂
If your looking for more suggestions, drafting vellum, and catails but not together. Great video, even though I've yet to purchase any black powder guns. Yet!
I've had some good success with Black Willow, Grape Vine, various Maples (silver maple was the best of the Maples, but hard to come by). I've read in a bp optimizing book that Plum wood was among the highest performing that they tested, but I was never able to get any. It would be interesting to test various "fruit" woods if one were so inclined (pear, plum, apple, peach, etc.)
That work out about as good as my first batch, the conc test was the give away, when I put in my rifle and fired it it was like I was throwing the bullet at the target You could literally see the flight of the bullet.
I should probably comment on the lamp black powder video, but I may have some insight on why that carbon source didn't work. Lampblack/soot/carbon black is also called pyrolitic graphite in materials science. I think you know that graphite powder is useless for black powder. This is because the carbon atoms in graphite form very stable pi bonds with each other in a sp2 configuration. These bonds arrange the carbon in a honeycomb structure that is 1 atom thick. Graphite and pyrolitic graphite are just layers and layers of these sheets and because the bonds between the carbon atoms are so stable, the only place any chemical reactions can take place are the edges of the sheets. Even with an oxidizer it goes slowly, like trying to burn a phone book. If you want to pursue a pure carbon source, you need amorphous carbon. Most charcoals will be a mix of amorphous carbon and graphite with some other impurities thrown in from your initial feedstock. The higher temp you pyrolyze your charcoal, the more graphite you usually make which is why people advise to make your charcoal as low as possible. My suggestion is to make some amorphous carbon by dehydrating some sucrose (table sugar) in concentrated sulfuric acid (there are plenty of science lesson videos on this). This should leave you with mostly amorphous carbon but there may still be some unreacted sucrose and sulfur in the end. The sulfur shouldn't be a problem for black powder, but the sucrose may caramelize/burn and increase fouling if it isn't removed. Soaking or boiling the carbon in water should dissolve the sugar easily enough. I hope you will entertain my idea. Sugar is easy enough to come by, and battery acid should be concentrated enough to run the reaction if you want to give it a try. Thanks for the entertaining videos. You inspired me to get my own Kibler kit though I went with the woodsrunner instead of the SMR.
I never suggested this because I knew this would be the least clean burning powder on earth. (edit) only reason I knew this is because I have done chemistry projects with used and new coffee grounds and there are a lot of compounds that don't like to react/poorly react with other compounds. The amount of sooty glassware sucked.
You want to try willow from the Ohio/Michigan area? Hell, I’ll saw up a piece or a few pieces to fit in a flat rate boxs. I have some large pieces been drying for over 2 years. Basically junk wood for me.
I made the cottonelle powder . On my second batch i ran it through a screen to make it fine . Then put it in my mill . I think it milled faster. Just a hint . Tom .
Being back in the older days they had less things to make powder from so what everyone had was corn husk to use for charcoal, have you thought about that?
Would you guys make a batch from these ANNOYING Sparkle Berry Bushes? We have them literally EVERYWHERE over here in the South East. They grow pretty dang fast. If you want to, I'll ship you some free of charge.
Oh my God, You guys made over 3 pounds of Continel Gun powder, and we didn't hear a word on here! Woah, just woah, That's beyond other internet science test samples. You guys are raising the bar way higher for everyone else on this platform! Haha. All jokes aside, you should make separate part 2, or something about Continel black powder, where you gonna tell us "Hey guys By the way, we made over 3 pounds of this stuff, and it still kicks buts just as hard as the first time!" since that just impressive, what you guys done*!
Kudos for all the work you put in, especially into this particular series. As someone mentioned here already, starch might be an interesting source for charcoal. It, just as cellulose, is a polymer made out of glucose, so I wonder if it would perform similarly to good quality paper. It's just good to check nutritional label, as the naming for eg. corn starches/flours isn't really consistent - if it has anything more that carbs and maybe some traces of proteins and fats, it isn't pure starch. Also wonder if there would be any difference between eg. potato and corn starches, as they differ a bit - but that's probably something to consider if it doesn't completely suck ;-) Another interesting alternative might be table sugar - I think it would be cheaper than starch.
In a large enough caliber or heavy enough bullet 1100-1300 fps is enough. It's comparatively lousy powder... but would still put dinner on the table. Consider that .45-70-405 was a 1350 fps loading. Black powder is nice that way, a very wide range of formulations is still "good enough".
Was that unused coffee grounds or was that used coffee grounds and have you tested instant coffee that way and see what the effects would be between the three
Well, we'll check the box on that one... I figured it would be okay and easy to come by. WRONG!!! Sorry.... All the same, now we all know and can move on. Many thanks for your efforts!!!
You might consider literally burning a batch of charcoal to see what the unreactive component looks like. Couple grams in a crucible set in the firebox so oxygen can reach it, weigh the results. Have you ever solvent-washed nonstandard charcoal? You might be able to strip long chain HCs out with acetone or ethanol, and soluble salts would come off with the water content of either. I was also just thinking that anything that undergoes pyrolysis but manages to keep a low pH and/or salts content might actually cause a substitution or even a nitration reaction during processing... "steal" your nitre, basically, by reacting with it when it's made.
Looks like the stuff you made would be best for a 12 LB cannon... remember that I only suggested this stuff for filler on packed (compressed powder) cartridges.. so it would smell good (oven dried at like 350*F). Now I'm afraid that the resins in the coffee will still do the fouling...
I'm still saying denim. Old towels are cotton, too. I know you have some old bib overalls that you can cut the seams out and char the leggings of. Whatever you choose, I'll be watching to learn more.
