oli

Paintball mostly, marshalling and playing in some tournaments. I also at the weekends enjoy sailing (squib class) and tennis.

Is there any reason that I shouldn't grind Potassium Nitrate & Sulphur in a pestle & mortar?

The BP I am making is working fine for what I am doing. I keep ready weighed charcoal, sulphur and nitrate in bags which I then mix together when needed.

However, the sulphur despite my best efforts to keep the air out of the bags tends to be a little gritty. I would like to grind it in a pestle and mortar to smooth it out and at the same time I might as well add the nitrate to help combine them and make a better mix. I suppose it would be dangerous to add the charcoal to the pestle and mortar as well. I dont have a ball mill and anyway I feel a little nervous of ball milling gunpowder.

Hmmmm to make it safer try to keep the oxider and fuel away from each other. if possible use one mortar and pestle for charcoal and sulpur and the other for the KNO3. Although ball milling in your house can be a scary thought, in can be made almost completly safe by using a non sparking media such as lead and dampening the composition with a spray bottle containing alcohol or water. If you are still not confident you could mill the components separately ( 2 different barrels) or construct some sort of housing devise for the mill outside (remembering noise, waterproofing etc)

Hope this helps

Oli

thanks, thats quite interesting i thought the mercury would make the product more expensive though?

Ah, thats quite interesting what does the mercury do?

Uk please