253 replies to this topic

[Phoenix]

Thanks wildething! I thought that it should be possible to estimate the height a projectile reached from the time it takes to make the round trip, I just never got around to finding a formula. It did go pretty high. Nice work :-)

[Matt]

Bwahahahahahahahaha, just cooked myself up a batch of grapevine (been sitting in the garage too freakin long. Prepare to meet your maker fella's! Maybe this stuff will help break my crossettes

-Matt

[Phoenix]

Ahaha... that last test was done with barbeque charcoal. I am working on the most powerful batch of charcoal I have ever made. Willow, cut last winter when the sap was down, then left in a barrel of water for a month to wash out any other sap and minerals, and then dried inside for a few months. Today I am going to cook it to perfection. I suppose I'd better make a stronger mortar

[Stuart]

I have uploaded some videos of my BP onto my site. One of a small pile lit at night and a 1 meter train. Will get a video of a pile lit in the daylight sometime

Stuart

[alany]

Bwahahahahahahahaha, just cooked myself up a batch of grapevine (been sitting in the garage too freakin long. Prepare to meet your maker fella's!  Maybe this stuff will help break my crossettes 

-Matt

Don't bet on it, flash wouldn't break mine!

[spawned]

Grapevine how amatureish i make regular batches of willow and i buy it from *taps nose* a place near keston ponds, they let me cut from their huge selection of trees for ?5.50. MUHAHAHAHHAHAHAH. <full stop.

[Richard H]

Actually, Grapevine makes rather good black powder, so get your facts right.

[spawned]

Willow is supposed to be better though. And i cant argue i dont even have kno3 .

[Phoenix]

It depends on who you ask. Some people say grapevine is better, some say willow. Others say dogwood, hemp, alder etc. Anyhow, grapevine and willow are both very good, and most soft woods will make serviceable BP. I use willow for my best BP, because around me there are plenty of wild willow trees that no one in particular owns which I can help myself too, and my grapevine is still a bit small to need pruning (I would _really_ like it to actually have some grapes on this year). For most of my BP, I just use barbeque charcoal though, as it is fine for what I need, and making charcoal seems unnecessary. I just need a touch more than I would of the willow.

[spawned]

Thank you for clearing that up.

[adamw]

No you can't argue. Grapevine is regarded as one of the best charcoal precursors.

Now you just need some sulphur and KNO3 and you can just about call yourself a pyro.

[spawned]

Actually i have sulphur. Plenty of it.

[Rhodri]

[adamw]

Great. 2/3 way there. How about a little bit of dextrin. If you want to know how to make that just search.

[Matt]

Ok I milled some for 3 hours. Burns a bit quicker than my usual meal and a LOT brighter. I might chuck in there for another couple hours and see if i cant improve it.

Alan Ive managed to break a crossette (not sure how well, it was on the ground at the time, rediculously underlifted) with some goex 4f, that was first attempt, winter is upon us so more testing is in order, and a 4 day weekend comming up woo!

-Matt