My homemade black powder

[Trapper-Jack]

Last month I was gifted a box of sassafras wood from one of the members here to try out. It made into good powder and I sent him back a report with photos of my process and my results. He replied back encouraged me to post the information on the forum. Now, I would like to say that this is my method and certainly not the only way to make good powder, but there may be a nugget or two that can help others on this journey. Also, for me it is not the end all be all as my mind keeps going down rabbit holes thinking "what if" and I need to do another experiment to see if I can do it better. I would like to thank all the ones who have contributed to this thread as the information here is the real deal. This is pretty picture heavy so it may take a few posts.
4/13/2024
It was a nice day today so cooked off some of the sassafras wood you sent. There looks like it took about half of the box for a gallon paint can. I kept the outside temperature at about 450 degrees. I didn't get a time that it took to cook it off but I'm guessing about 40-45 minutes.




It cooked down to a nice uniform charcoal. There was a hint of brown on some of the larger pieces. It all ground down to a fine powder with an old hand meat grinder.

[Trapper-Jack]

4/14/2024
I put a 1/2 pound in my Harbor Freight tumbler. I'm using greenhouse grade 99.9% potassium nitrate, 90% sulfur from the hardware store. The weights going into the tumbler are 170 g potassium nitrate, 35 g charcoal and 25 g sulfur. I bumped the weight of the sulfur to 25 from 22.7 to account for the 90% purity. My tumbling media is some shell casings that I don't have a pistol for that I filled with lead. I believe they were 30 Luger as they have a little shoulder on them. 9 mm with a good crimp should work good I'm thinking. I may try them some day as they are easy to come by.


4/15/2024
Took the green meal out of the tumbler this morning and pressed it into pucks. It has run for about 22 hours. For a pressing die I use a 2" brass nipple. It's smooth on the inside for easier removal of the pressed powder puck. The base plate is a 1/4" steel and the top plate is the same that I turned down round with a file and a drill press to slip fit inside the nipple. At first I used a piece of 1 1/2" pipe to press the top plate but the constant use began to bulge the pipe to where it didn't press level. Since then I've begun using a coupler. So far it's heavy enough that it isn't deforming. The green meal weighed 230.7 grams. I added 4.5% water to press it, about 10.3 cc measured out of a syringe. I loaded the die about 3/4 full and pressed it until it felt solid on the 20 ton jack handle and let it sit for one minute, After the minute, I pumped the jack until it felt solid again (about 3-4 pumps) and let it sit another minute. After that I screwed my brass nipple/die into a coupler and tapped out the puck.




The first batch of powder yielded 6 pucks that ranged from 35 to 40 grams each. The wet density calculated to 1.87 to the last one being 1.89. I haven't figured out why the last puck seems to always be a little higher but it's that way with my willow powder too. The standard deviation between the pucks calculates to 0 .00794, which I'm quite happy with. Usually I'm running about 0.01 to 0.02. I'm thinking that I got a good mix on the water and consistent pressure on the pressing.

[Trapper-Jack]

4/16/2024
I took a second 1/2 pound batch out of the tumbler. Comparing the wet density of the pucks from both batches, they are almost identical. I'm very happy with the standard deviation of the density. The pucks are .0078 for batch number one and .0089 for batch number two. All the pucks were placed in my home built drying box. Made out of an old kitchen drawer with a door mounted onto it and a light bulb for the heat source. I drilled holes in the top and bottom for air flow.


I'll monitor the weights of the pucks for a few days until they quit losing weight, where I assume that they have lost as much of the water weight as they are going to.
4/21/2024
Pucks have been pretty well stabilized. They have lost 3.5% of the original mass as moisture. Where I added 4 1/2% moisture to press the pucks, I'm thinking that the remaining 1% was lost to evaporation while mixing and being pressed out as I get a small amount of free moisture on the bottom plate. Also to note is that the pucks have gone through a little "spring back" while drying. They were about 0.003 inches thicker than when first measured. It does make a little difference when calculating the puck density but not much. I broke up the pucks with a wooden hammer handle into a size that would go through my grain grinder, backing off the plates one full turn and then screening and tightening 1/4 turn and regrinding and so on until back to the original setting. This yielded about 61 - 62% of usable 2F powder. The remainder screened into minus #30 that would have gone 3F, 4F and dust. I don't use much of those so this will be re-processed. I compared the finished powder against Goex 2F that I had bought just prior to the plant shutting down. Setting my powder measure at 100 grains volume, the Goex weighed 120 grains. The Sassafras powder weighed just over 113 grains for the finished Sassafras powder coming in at about 94.4% of mass per volume of the Goex.

[Trapper-Jack]

4/21/2024
Pucks have been pretty well stabilized. They have lost 3.5% of the original mass as moisture. Where I added 4 1/2% moisture to press the pucks, I'm thinking that the remaining 1% was lost to evaporation while mixing and being pressed out as I get a small amount of free moisture on the bottom plate. Also to note is that the pucks have gone through a little "spring back" while drying. They were about 0.003 inches thicker than when first measured. It does make a little difference when calculating the puck density but not much. I broke up the pucks with a wooden hammer handle into a size that would go through my grain grinder, backing off the plates one full turn and then screening and tightening 1/4 turn and regrinding and so on until back to the original setting. This yielded about 61 - 62% of usable 2F powder. The remainder screened into minus #30 that would have gone 3F, 4F and dust. I don't use much of those so this will be re-processed. I compared the finished powder against Goex 2F that I had bought just prior to the plant shutting down. Setting my powder measure at 100 grains volume, the Goex weighed 120 grains. The Sassafras powder weighed just over 113 grains for the finished Sassafras powder coming in at about 94.4% of mass per volume of the Goex.
4/30/2024
I finished up shooting some strings of 10 over the chronograph today. I was shooting 60 grains by volume out of my .50 caliber GPR flintlock with a round ball and spit patch. There were a couple of surprises that I'm going to have to think on and compare it back to my willow. I shot the sassafras 2F against the 3F. The screen sizes used are #16 -#30 for the 2F and #30 to #60 for the 3F. I've been using powder from the #60-#80 screens as my priming powder for the flintlocks.
60 grains Volume
Goex 2F Willow 2F Sassafras 2F Sassafras 3F
1 1383 1328 1267 1384
2 1326 1285 1266 1376
3 1309 1306 1260 1428
4 1323 1323 1246 1344
5 1352 1285 1265 1342
6 1345 1281 1267 1406
7 1343 1268 1306 1397
8 1383 1324 1253 1353
9 1374 1328 1315 1372
10 1364 1320 1304 1382
500 Grain Volume 604.6 552.8 569 530.2
% Weight to Goex 100% 91% 94% 88%
Average Velocity 1350.2 1305 1275 1378
ES 74 60 69 86
SD 26 23 24 35
Velocity per Goex 100% 97% 94% 102%
Measure Setting 60 60 60 60
Powder Weight 60 56.3 56.5 53.9
Weight FPS/grain 22.5 23.2 22.6 25.6
Volume FPS / grain 22.5 21.7 21.2 23.0
Screens: 2F = #16 - #30 3F= #30 - #60

There was an average of about 100 fps faster with the 3F over the 2F. It did show a little more erratic with a standard deviation of 36 against 24 for the 2F. I found it very interesting that even though the actual weight of the 3F was 95.4% of the 2F, the velocity was 108.1% faster than the 2F. The FPS/grain was 22.6 for the 2F against 25.6 for the 3f. This indicates that the smaller grain size is obviously more efficient than the larger grain size. May be something to consider when loading limited capacities such as revolvers and cartridges. I'm now going to have to screen out some 3F from my willow powder and see what it does.

As a side note, and you may already know this so take it for what it's worth. I worked for 25 years for the State Highway Department. Most of my job was construction inspection. Part of my training was to developed what they called a T-180, which is a moisture density curve on soils. This is where we used a constant compaction force and incrementally increased the percentage of moisture based on the dry mass of the sample. The density would increase as moisture was added until we reached the point we called optimum moisture. After that point the sample material would lose density with additional moisture added, that is what we called "pumping". The idea was that the water would provide lubrication for the soil partials to compact together until it came to a point that the lubrication was taking up too much space to permit the compaction.
I'm seeing the same thing with my powder. At 3.75% moisture added to compact my pucks, the best I can get is about 1.5 - 1.6 g/cc with my 20 ton jack. There was even a little moisture pressed out onto the bottom plate. I dried them and ground as if they were normal. They felt soft and they only yielded 46% of usable 2F powder. Weighing them against the same volume of Goex the powder , they were only 84%. With 4.5% moisture my normal pucks are about 1.75 g/cc puck density that will yield about 91 - 92% of what Goex powder weight and the usable 2F ground powder is in the 60 some percent range.
At 4.0% moisture my ground powder is comparing to about 94% of what Goex weighs for the same volume. I'm thinking that the 4.0% to 4.25% or 4.50% is about the top of the density curve. Above the that moisture, I'm thinking that the powder density is on the declining side of the curve and is beginning to lose ground. Like the different soils, I'm also thinking that maybe the different charcoals may require a little different amount moisture to achieve the maximum that it is capable of, something to think about and experiment with. I'm also thinking that the relative humidity may have some effect as to how much water you add.
Also where some guys are using a 12 ton jack vs a 20 ton jack vs a 6 ton jack to compact their powder, this may have an effect on how much moisture is necessary to get maximum density at that pressure. More moisture may be required with less compaction pressure. My mind is going down a rabbit hole now. More testing may be required.

[Trapper-Jack]

5/1/2024
I got to thinking about the speed difference between the Sassafras 2F and 3F (screen sizes of #16 - #30 for the 2F and #30 - #60 for the 3F). I separated some of my willow 2f with a kitchen spatter screen that is about a #20 mesh into #16 - #20 for the courser grains and #20 - #30 for the smaller ones. They screened out about 30/70% course and fine. I shot a 10 shot string of each this afternoon and was very pleased with the results. The extreme spread of the #16-30 blend went from 60 fps to 35 and 26 fps. The standard deviation went from 23 to 11 and 10. This is a reduction of approximately half.
60 grains Volume (Willow)
16-30 16-20 20-30
1 1328 1268 1330
2 1285 1266 1328
3 1306 1259 1306
4 1323 1274 1331
5 1285 1250 1309
6 1281 1251 1323
7 1268 1251 1305
8 1324 1271 1313
9 1328 1264 1315
10 1320 1285 1315
500 Grain Volume 552.8 561.2 551.6
% Weight to 2F 100.00% 101.52% 99.78%
Average Velocity 1304.8 1263.9 1317.5
ES 60 35 26
SD 23 11 10
Velocity per 2F 100% 103% 99%
FPS / grain Volume 21.7 21.1 22.0
FPS / grain Weight 22.7 22.6 24.4
Measure Setting 60 60 60
Powder Weight 57.4 56.0 54.0

5/3/2024
I got to thinking about the speed difference between the two screened sizes and the speed difference. I screen out two different batches and found a little variance between the two, 30/70% and 28/72%. In my mind it stands to reason that the heavier grains, the larger ones, will settle towards the bottom during transport and handling and the lighter, smaller grains, will float towards the top. Now I'm thinking a "what if" here, if the blend of coarse to fine changes from shot to shot as it is being poured from the container you are carrying it in, be it a flask, horn or a can or bottle. I'm thinking that if the blend changes then you will probably see it in the extreme spread of the velocity and depending on distance, see it in the impact placement on the target. This would be the same weather the charges were measured or weighed. Maybe this is another rabbit hole I'm going down but I think it may be worth a consideration. I'm thinking that at least for my own peace of mind, I'm going to screen all my 2F powder to the 20-30 screens. More velocity with less powder weight but in my mind, better constancy.

This was my process for testing the sassafras powder. As I said earlier, this isn't the end, but it's where I'm at now. I hope some of you can get a little to think about through this.
Jack