I've decided to make a musket, startin' with creatin' gunpowder from charcoal and fertilizers, so naturally I'm comin' here to ask a few questions. What exact compounds do I need for it to work? I know I need Sulfur and salt Peter, but I assume thew won't be just sold in the gardenin' isle. Once I get the names of 'em, I'll go grab a few bags from the mall and post a follow up thread with me mixin' the stuff and tryin'a see if it works.
>>64313561Pro tip: you can use saltpeter as low sodium substitute for salt.
>>64313561They tried to make a black powder charge on Mythbusters and couldn't get one decent enough to launch a small cannonball. Doubt you'd be able to make anything better than what's commercially available.
>>64313564Don't eat salt, nasty stuff. I ain't some rock lickin' moron. What you can eat runs on four legs, if it don't, then that's not food.
>>64313583Well, whatever's sold I can't buy because of that one stupid mistake, so makin' my own stuff Is what I gotta do.
>>64313561You can make saltpeter by dissolving potassium chloride in water and running a high electrical current through it. You'll have to use DSA or platinum electrodes but DSA electrodes are relatively cheap. Run it for about a week and then when the water cools down the saltpeter will settle to the bottom of the tank. Good luck.
>>64313583>Mythbusters and couldn't get one decent enough to launch a small cannonballDon't take them as ghospel when they do DIY-capable "dangerous" stuff. They often flub it on purpose so that you and I don't try it.They synthesized laughing gas once. I also did that - found the guide on the Temple of the Screaming Electron as a highschool student. Myth busters didn't do or just didn't show some key steps. They did show Adam inhaling the gas and gagging and complaining about it how it made him sick. It has its own odour but it isn't bad - that was pure cautionary propaganda.
75% Potassium nitrate -(saltpeter) plain stump remover from the hardware store15% Charcoal -(a carbon source)10% Sulfur -dusting sulfur also from the hardware store
>>64313750Thank you, good fellow! I'm gonna go buy all that and get to mixin'.
>>64313764be careful buying stuff in bulk
>>64313770Hell nah, I'm not an idiot. I'll get salt Peter from one store alon' with fertilizers for the same crop, and repeat with Sulfur in another.
>>64313764You need to grind it as well. The components have to be super fine. There are tutorials on youtube where people put the powder into one of those rock tumblers and leaving it overnight.Protip is to have the rock tumbler outdoors, or at least somewhere it won't matter if it catches fire.
You think I constantly shill this book for fun? No. One of the many things it tells you is gunpowder formulations, and the techniques used for producing it on a large scale. It's out of copyright, you can read it free online. And you should, because it will teach you all sorts of other useful info.>>64313750>plain stump removerYou need to read the label. It's commonly potassium nitrate, but not always.
>>64313799I don't have any grindin' tools, not even a blender. Is it good enough to grind 'em with my wooden mortar n' pestle? Only thing I got that can grind stuff.
>>64313591You're a rapist.
>>64313839He is? Based.
>>64313830You'll need to mill the black powder for it to be of any use.
>>64313799rock tumblers are water tight. it wont catch fire, it'll explode. and you'll want to get brass balls instead of steel ones to make sure they wont spark
>>64313844He might be thinking about raping YOU. After all, it's not about attraction, it's about power. Verification no required.
>>64313905Hot.
>>64313839Hell no, I ain't no sexual offender. I just made a mistake, I let my rage control me. I only regret getting caught.
>>64313877That's one hard task. What can I safely mill it in? Maybe 'n old food processor?
>>64314289He had a rage issue and angrily lured a 12 year old girl into a motel. Because he's a rapist.>>64314297Harder than the time you should be serving? Yeah use a food processor what the hell why not.
>>64313591The black powder loophole has been closed in most states. If the police catch you with a musket, you'll have two mistakes to talk about.
>>64314373Stop projectin' your pedophilia on me, man. I may have beat a guy with a metal rod and committed tax fraud, but I ain't a pedo.
>>64314562Well, I ain't gonna get caught this time, and muskets don't leave fuckin' bullet casings laying all around.
Give this watchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJDjKvjqvpM
>>64313613Please explain how H2O + KCl + an electrical current through mixed metallic anodes produces the N part in KNO3 - aka potassium NITRATE?Or are you just dumb and think that turning potassium chloride into potassium chlorate is "saltpeter"?
>>64314680I can pretend to be a 12 year old girl. Do you want me to wear a backpack?
>>64313583In Sweden in the 17th century every farmer with livestock - which was basically all of them - had to pay taxes in gunpowder. They had to produce x amount of gunpowder and give it to the Swedish crown. They used clay lined pits and leached water slowly through animal waste to produce saltpeter, then combined that saltpeter with sulfur and fine charcoal. This blackpowder was then pelletized/granulated through various screens to produce different grades for weapons from cannons to pistols. If farmers from the 1600s could make blackpowder, I'm pretty fucking sure that Mythbusters just sucked.
>>64314859No, I was just hoping OP would mix potassium chlorate with sulfur and put it into a ball mill.
>>64314909I knew it, kek
>>64313750>plain stump remover from the hardware storeStump remover is often magnesium sulfate, fyi.
dubs and OP doesn't blow up
>>64313561OP, that's jenkem
>>64313583Whenever Mythbusters made a video on a dangerous experiment, they would alter the results or the process to dissuade fans from copying them.
>>64315732This. It was clear as day for some episodes.
Spectracide stump remover. It's pure potassium nitrate and it works for me. I even made a batch at a /k/ meetup for my medieval handgonnes once.
>>64313561I've never made blackpowder for firearms but I have plenty experience using it for fireworks.By weight 75/15/10 kno3/c/sDon't waste your money on stump remover. A much cheaper source of potassium nitrate is a site like fireworkscookbook. Your charcoal source will play a big role. Softwoods typically create a faster powder than hardwoods. I use willow or eastern red cedar for lifting and breaking shells. Pine is pretty good for slower powder like spark effects or rocket propellent. You can also get sulfar for like 2-3$/lb on these pyro chem sites. If you have the facilities you can make your own charcoal by building a TLUD cooker or a 55gal barrel with a smaller lidded container inside of it. You vent the lid, surround it with fuel to burn and your wood pieces you want to convert to charcoal go inside the container. I like to dump my ingredients in a ball mill and run it for a few hours to get a really fine intimate mix. After that I granulate using 1-3% by weight plain water. I typically incorporate dextrin and hot water if I want to have harder granules but I'm not sure if that's something you'd want to do for muzzleloaders. You probably want to press your powder into pucks then corn it. I have a modified arbor press I use to make rockets but with you can get a tool for pressing pucks from woodysrocks and use that, or if you own a machine shop you can probably make your own.You're gonna want a set of screens with various mesh sizes to sort your powder with.
