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Blackpowder is one of the most widely used pyrotechnical compositions throughout the world. It is mainly used as a "lift charge" or as a "burst charge". It is also used in stars and other compositions. |
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Manufacture |
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Blackpowder can be made relatively easy if you have the right equipment. Note that there are many different variations as to making blackpowder. The precipitation method is a good example. Materials: |
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Procedure: All chemicals are accurately weigh before hand, using either beam balance scales, electronic scales or kitchen scales. The scales that are to be used must be accurate to at least one gram. Sometimes even this can not be accurate enough. I do not recommend using kitchen scales as it is sometimes difficult to tell precicley where the needle is pointing unless they are accurate to milligrams. 1. The three chemicals, potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur are individually crushed to the finest possible powder using a ball mill or mortar and pestle. 2. Sieve the chemicals through a stocking so that all three are roughly the same granular size. 3. Weigh the chemicals again to maintain accuracy. 4. Place all weighed chemicals back into the mortar and pestle or ball mill. 5. Using a spray bottle, hot water is sprayed onto chemicals to moisten ( some alcohol should be present in the water to dampen the sulphur). 6. Now the chemicals are intamatley mixed for 12 hours in a ball mill (yet if you have made one yourself from Lloyd's book you should be able to do it in 3 hrs), 5 minutes in a mortar and pestle until they are homogeneous(one). 7. This mix is to be kept moist at all times to reduce a cause of ignition. 8. Once milled, the paste is to be pushed through a kitchen sieve and on to some grease proof paper using a wooden spoon. 9. This is allowed to dry completely. Once dry the steps 5 to 8 are repeated two more times. 10. Finally allowing it to dry forming the final product in grains. Another variation to the precipitation method is to dissolve all the KNO3 in the minimum amount of boiling water. Once it has all dissolved the premixed Charcoal/sulfur is added and slightly warmed. Stiring is essential to prevent he whole mess from overflowing (mum wouldn't be too happy with that). Try to get all of the charcoal/sulphur wet. When everything is all gooey and icky (my newest scientific terms) and homogenous looking, pour it into a container of Methlyated spirits which you would have had sitting in the freezer for at least an hour. Everything should spit and sputter. Put this back into the freezer until it has basically formed a solid mass again. Squeeze any excess moisture out then add about 2% dextrin and mix in throughly. A good way to improve performance is to grain it through a flyscreen (just take some off your sliding door). Basically place your mix onto the flyscreen then gently push it through onto some newspaper below...if it gets clogged it is too wet, if it comes out as the same grain size it is too dry. This is now close to true blackpowder. Note: All chemicals including the water must be of the upmost purity avalible. |
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| How it should burn? |
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Black powder should burn quick and hard. Test this by placing a small amount (half a teaspoon) onto the ground and put a lit match to it. A safer approach is to use a fuse. It should go Whoosh and burn completely all at once. |
| It burn slowly and left a molten glob of white stuff. |
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The white stuff is the potassium nitrate\Potassium carbonate. This happened because the mixture was not homogenous. Fix this by mixing the chemicals more thoroughly. |
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Woah! Sparks went everywhere, now the yards on fire. |
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The sparks are cause by the combustion of charcoal. Don't use charcoal brittequs from the hardware store as they have clay in them. The only charcoal I have ever used from a shop was a 4.5 kg bag bought from "Barbecues Galore". Why? Well this charcoal was quite pure. I could tell this because it was chunck of wood that were black If there were any impuritys which I'm sure there is, it would be only minor. pure. |
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It burnt completely but slowly |
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Make sure that your mixture was correct. To slow it up add more sulfur and reduce the potassium nitrate and to speed it up take some sulfur out and replace it with potassium nitrate. But then again it may be your first go and this is usually expected, just keep perfecting your technique |
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