Thread: Home Brew Black Powder........Craft Powder?

Anyone here make their own Black Powder? I've done the research, have the tools and ingredients, be good to get some more experienced tips and methods.
Mickey D's been pretty helpful so far...just want to hear some other angles on the process. Feel free to PM, open to all advice except 'Don't do it'

Have some of M.D.s to test in my 12 gauge musket
Looking forward to seeing this thread evolve
And likely to be doing this myself some time soon.

It would be good to share info on suppliers and equipment needed

There's some very good tutorials on you tube, the dedicated holy black crew in the USA with their methods, there's also a HUGE thread on the Cast Boolits site relating to it, some 370 odd pages....covers everything and some damn good info there. I'm guessing there'll be a few here who make it and are willing to pass on their knowledge.

This fellow on YouTube has done a lot of experimenting and provides a brilliant resource for making BP:
https://www.youtube.com/@WillardMcBain

I have a large coppice of basket willows on my property.
Ideal to harvest, peel the bark, cut into short lengths and dry for making high quality charcoal.
Being basket willows they have very long wispy branches that taper slowly so the diameter of the wood to char could be very consistent.
Anything from thumb to little finger diameter and plenty of it

technically it should be CRACK willow.......
funny story...I have been looking at some roadside trees for ages,thinking it is the wood the swiss fellas use..my good gardening mate who is switched on said NAH not them......it bugged me so brough a bit home and did google search with photo thing..yip it IS the right stuff.
anyone heard from @SF90 ??? he wealth of knowledge on this stuff and we have an absolute guru here too..he knows who he is,just being shy today possibly.

Swiss powder is made with Alder Buckthorn (Frangula alnus) charcoal.
This species is present in New Zealand but it must be quite rare as I'm only aware of it's presence due to two herbarium records, one in Auckland and one in Canterbury with zero records in the NZ vegetation survey database.
We have plenty of Alder (Alnus glutinosa) which is in the birch family as opposed to Alder buckthorn which is in the buckthorn family.
The most common species in New Zealand that might be similar to Alder Buckthorn would be the Pomaderris genus which has the kumarahou/gum diggers soap tree (among other species) and matagouri. Also the invasive Italian evergreen buckthorn (Rhamnus alaternus) is a common pest plant in many areas which would be interesting to try for charcoal for black powder.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

technically it should be CRACK willow.......
funny story...I have been looking at some roadside trees for ages,thinking it is the wood the swiss fellas use..my good gardening mate who is switched on said NAH not them......it bugged me so brough a bit home and did google search with photo thing..yip it IS the right stuff.
anyone heard from @SF90 ??? he wealth of knowledge on this stuff and we have an absolute guru here too..he knows who he is,just being shy today possibly.

MD there are a number of Canterbury high country lakes in the Waimak basin that are infested with crack willows.
DoC and ECan are actively trying to eradicate them and there are vast quantities of recently killed standing dead crack willow trees.
You could harvest a truck and trailer load in a weekend easily.

Here is an interesting site. May have been posted before tho.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110520....ch/index.html

I must confess that my main interest in home made BP is being able to feed a cannon or mortar.

I don't really use enough with my 6 muzzleloaders to warrant making my own.

Cannons and mortars do interest me and a proving cannon ( mortar ) would be relatively easy to make.


Then you would be able to test batches of powder for burn rate and scale loads accordingly.
But really it would be about using handfuls of powder and huge clouds of smoke just for fun.

what???? do you not have a blacksmiths anvil yet????

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

what???? do you not have a blacksmiths anvil yet????

Who me ?

I have a fucking massive blacksmiths anvil
Need to make a stand for it and have it where it's more convenient to use more often

ohhh goodie..... we can test some powder then LOL watching videos of guys doing it is hilarious....

Originally Posted by akaroa1

I must confess that my main interest in home made BP is being able to feed a cannon or mortar.

I don't really use enough with my 6 muzzleloaders to warrant making my own.

Cannons and mortars do interest me and a proving cannon ( mortar ) would be relatively easy to make.
Attachment 230177

Then you would be able to test batches of powder for burn rate and scale loads accordingly.
But really it would be about using handfuls of powder and huge clouds of smoke just for fun.

Cannons are an easy way to use hands full of powder.

If you want alot of reading go and find the "my home made black powder" thread on castboolits,
300 pages of experimenting and different methods of making it, only downside to that is, I found the search function on castboolits a bit crap so I'd suggest taking notes as you go.

currently trying to get my hands on a ball mill so I can make some decent stuff as I cant seem to grind it fine enough currently, shame its not as cheap as it is in the US to go an get a harbour freight rock tumbler for $50 :/