Old Black Powder

[Painted Mohawk SASS 77785]

Howdy

              A retired farmer friend gave me around 30 pound of 40 year old blasting  BP.

It's in good condition  & stable..I have taken it from the plastic bags & put into plastic buckets

Most of the BP  pieces ranges in size from 1/8'' to 1/4'' .

I crushed some in a wooden bowl with the end of a wooden rolling pin....layed some on the ground & burnt well, then loaded a 44-40 & again worked perfectly.

Any suggestions on the best & cheapest way to break it down to a powder..I don't really want to buy a tumbler as this is a one off. Have seen a few ways on youtube , just wanted to see if there are any  other ideas out there.

[Major Crimes]

Just let me know when your doing it so I can get in the Bunker

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

A number of years ago a friend (who shall remain nameless!) found a partial keg of the stuff in the barn, left over from his grand-dads stump blasting, probably some 50 - 60 years earlier.

 

After I explained to him why grinding it fine with his wife's blender might not be wise, I suggested he just load duplex loads with ff or fff in his large capacity cases.

 

He did; seemed to work well enough, and he eventually used it all up. 

 

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I would try a strainer and a wood dowel ,

Then do a little at a time .

Just sayin 

Rooster 

[Sedalia Dave]

Load it in you shotshells. You could use a screen to filter out the biggest pieces.

 

Powder

Over powder card or two

Skip the wad

shot

Over shot card

 

 

[tacobill]

I would blow stumps with it.

[Kid Rich]

BP unlike nitro powder will not become unstable.

I would do like Hardpan suggested it will work just fine.

I would not try to grind or run it thru anything metal.

kR

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Avoid putting it in plastics of any kind.  Static electricity has been known to set BP off.

 

Had a few customers with examples while I spent 12 years working for The Flintlock at Hobby City, a BP specialty store.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

The last two, one lb Goex that I bought, came in plastic containers rather than metal as they used to be.

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

I'd say do as Hardpan described.  Mix 2f or 3f powder with the large granules and load it as normal.  The finer grains will fill in space around the large chunk so your wads will sit flat.  

 

The large pieces will probably create interesting streaks of smoke that go a fair distance down range.  It would be like burning a chunk of wood as opposed to sawdust.

 

other than that, I see no problem.

 

[irish ike, SASS #43615]

Goex and Swiss comes in plastic containers! And I'm loading BP into plastic shotgun hulls so?  

Ike

[Kid Rich]

1 hour ago, Buffalo Creek Law Dog said:

The last two, one lb Goex that I bought, came in plastic containers rather than metal as they used to be.

The plastic used for BP containers will not generate static.

Also the bulk BP is shipped and sold in plastic bags inside of cloth bags.

kR

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

You should only 'mill' BP when its wet.

OLG

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Very interesting discussion of the black powder and static electricity debate:

 

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

 

 

[El Hombre Sin Nombre]

4 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Very interesting discussion of the black powder and static electricity debate:

 

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

 

 

A bolt of lightening would set it off, but according to the Doc, that's like 1.21 gigawatts

 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Avoid putting it in plastics of any kind.  Static electricity has been known to set BP off.

 

Had a few customers with examples while I spent 12 years working for The Flintlock at Hobby City, a BP specialty store.

 

BP is now shipped in plastic bottles. 

Plastic is not a conductor like metal is.

OLG

[Painted Mohawk SASS 77785]

19 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Avoid putting it in plastics of any kind.  Static electricity has been known to set BP off.

 

Had a few customers with examples while I spent 12 years working for The Flintlock at Hobby City, a BP specialty store.

Howdy Forty..That's always confused me as when you buy BP it is in plastic containers  !!

[Sedalia Dave]

Not all plastic is a static generator.

 

Where I work  have literally millions of plastic caps of all shapes and sizes that we put on connectors of ESD sensitive equipment to protect them from static discharge when not actually installed. We also have plastic bags and tape that protects against static discharge.  The military has billions of them in use.

[Painted Mohawk SASS 77785]

Thanks for the replies & input......

[Jackaroo, # 29989]

I'd take it down to parliament house!