In this thread I'm going to walkthrough my process for making black powder at home. My powder isn't quite as good as commercial powder, but its good enough for my purposes and is way cheaper. Plus chemistry at home is fun.

First off, the chemicals and tools. I use pure sulfur powder that I bought on Amazon, I paid 34 cents per ounce and likely overpaid a little. For Potassium Nitrate I initially used stump remover (pictured) that was purchased at Lowes for about $8 per pound. I have since found it on pyrotechnic supply websites for $3 per pound. For charcoal I am using aspen wood chips, available at Walmart in the pet section, typically used as bedding, for quite cheap. I do not use any other binders or fillers as there is no need. I do use a small quantity of distilled water later in the process but it evaporates out before the final product.

*A note on charcoal and wood: The chemical composition of the charcoal makes a huge difference in the speed and cleanliness of the powder. You cannot use charcoal briquettes or activated charcoal. Willow is commonly accepted as a good wood. For more available options Red Cedar (also available in the pet section) is considered fast but dirty. I've had good luck with the aspen chips, which I selected due to ease of availability and I can get to real aspen trees more easily than most other good woods. How the charcoal is cooked is key too. Cooked too hot or too long, or if oxygen gets into the wood will ruin the charcoal. As I understand it the best charcoal is cooked to where there is just a bit of dark brown left in the wood, not cooked to a complete black or grey. The remaining volatiles help the speed of the powder burn and the heat keeps it cleaner. Many guys have their charcoal cooking down to a science, I'm doing it in a fairly primitive way but its been good enough so far.

Tool list:
Paint can (qt)
Aluminum foil
Tumbler (harbor freight 6 lb capacity)
Tumbling media - 5 lbs of lead balls (approx 100x 0.5" balls)
scale
storage containers for raw ingredients and powders- mason jars
Mixing bowl
Spray bottle
12 ton press
Puck die
Wire cutters
Coffee grinder with ceramic burr
Sifting screens - 16, 30, 50, 100 mesh

I'll cover what each of these is for along the way.

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The first step is to make charcoal.

My process is to use a paint can retort to cook aspen wood chips into charcoal. The first time I did this I put the retorts into a fire. The second time I used a jet boil. The jet boil was easier to set up but took longer to cook and didn't cook the charcoal as evenly. I did feel I had better control of the cook temperature and timing using the stove compared to an open fire.

The retort method is fairly simple. Take a one quart paint can, unused and purchased from Lowes, and drill a 1/4" hole in the lid. Then fill the can with wood chips and put the lid on. Place the can in a fire or on a stove and heat. As the wood heats up it'll begin to emit water vapor followed by various volatiles evaporating out the hole in the lid. The volatiles are flammable so I ignite the exhaust to watch its progress. I cook it until the exhaust is burning at just a tiny trickle like a bic lighter. At that point remove the retort from heat. Let it cool to room temperature before opening. Failure to do this will introduce oxygen to the hot charcoal and ignite it, ruining the magic of charcoal and leaving behind ash. I cover the top of the retort with aluminum foil to help seal the hole from fresh oxygen.

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Foil covered retort and opened retort visible in first post.

After cooking the charcoal I mill it in the tumbler for about an hour to crush it to air-float fineness. I'm not completely convinced this is necessary but it might help with incorporating all the powder ingredients in the next step by making them similar sized particles to start.

The tumbler has a 6 lb capacity. I only use one of the two buckets at a time, I leave the other one empty on the tumbler rollers for stability. 5 lbs of lead balls for milling material, and however much charcoal fits. I'm not too worried about net weight because charcoal is not dense and on its own isn't a fire/explosion risk.

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You can see how some of my wood chips are still a little brown. If they're too undercooked they won't grind up and the pieces will get sifted out.

After milling for about an hour the charcoal is a fine powder. It makes a mess to handle it at this point. I carefully pour the powder through the 16 mesh sifter to catch any pieces of wood that didn't fully cook. Then I put the raw charcoal in a mason jar to be stored for the next step.

The next step is to mix and incorporate the raw ingredients into fine meal black powder.

The ratio I use is 75/15/10 of Potassium Nitrate:Charcoal:Sulfur by weight. I measure it out in grams, aiming for a total batch size of 250 g (approx 0.5 lbs). That works out to 187.5/37.5/25 grams of each ingredient. I limit it to a half pound batch at a time to minimize explosion risk as well as to prevent overloading the tumbler motor.

I weigh these out in a weigh boat and add them to the ball mill along with the same 5 lbs of lead balls used previously. Lead balls are important as they are non-sparking, this step we're mixing complete black powder which carries a risk of fire or explosion.

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I run the mill for 6-8 hours. I'm not exactly sure how long is necessary, but the first batch I made I checked a sample of powder every hour by burning it, and it was obvious that it improved greatly in the first four hours, then diminishing returns every hour after that with no noticeable difference between hours 7 and 8. As I understand it, humidity and water content of the raw powder effects how quickly and completely it incorporates. Drier powder works better. People in more humid climates even go as far as baking their potassium nitrate to dry it thoroughly before mixing. I'm in El Paso so I haven't had to worry about that.

The output from the tumbler after 8 hours is an extremely fine, off-black powder that is relatively difficult to ignite with a lighter but burns extremely fast once ignited. Called green meal, it is chemically black powder but not yet ready for use in a firearm.

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The next step is to compress the green meal into a denser packed material.

The purpose of compressing the powder is to increase its density and to form hard granules that are durable in storage and use. Density is important because black powder is measured by volume typically, but its energy content is based on weight. If your homemade powder isn't dense enough it'll shoot slower per a given volume than commercial powder. The hardness is a benefit as well. Once pressurized to a certain point the sulfur plasticizes and glues the mixture together. If that point isn't reached, the powder will crumble back into green meal which doesn't ignite as easily or burn as consistently as hard grains.

*note: my powder is not as dense as commercial powder. Mostly this is due to my charcoal; being made of aspen its not the right density and can't be compressed sufficiently. I can achieve 80-90% the density of commercial powder. I can calibrate for this and adjust my volumetric loads to make up for it. By weight, my powder achieves a similar muzzle velocity as commercial powder.

Pucking is the process of taking green meal and compressing it into hard pucks. To do this, first put the green meal into a non-static mixing bowl. Lightly wet the green meal with distilled water. Only a tiny amount is necessary, I apply it with a spray bottle to more evenly distribute the water. Then knead the green meal together (wear gloves) and it should begin to stick to itself and form sort of a dough.

I place a small amount of this dough into the pucking die, which is placed in a 12-ton press. The goal pressure is at least 3000 psi. With my 3-inch diameter die I need the 12-ton press to achieve enough pressure to create the ceramic-like pucks. I aim to make each puck 1/4-5/16" thick; I've found this is a good size to allow relatively quick drying and to ease breaking them up. During this step no water should leak out of the die. If it does you've added too much water to the dough. The pucks may have a little surface wetness but no more.

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When removed the pucks should be as hard as ceramic, and will even resonate a little when knocked against something hard. They need to dry for a few days before the next step, so I lay them out on a paper plate and let them rest for 2-3 days.

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After drying thoroughly the pucks can be broken up. I do this with a pair of wire cutters. I found this to be the easiest and least messy method. I clip them into a bunch of little bits approximately the size of coffee beans. This is key for the next step.

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Now we have compressed black powder in coarse granules like coffee beans.

The last two steps are to grind these into smaller granules and to sift them into the common FFg, FFFg, and FFFFg granulations.

To grind, I use a coffee bean grinder from amazon (approximately $20). It has a ceramic grinding burr which is non-sparking so safe with black powder. The chunks need to be cut small enough to fit into the entry port of the grinder. The grinder will also need to be adjusted to output the right size granules. It has an adjustment mechanism built in that the instructions cover. Due to the brittle nature of the pucks they won't grind into a perfectly consistent granulation, rather you'll get a mix. Too fine a grind will leave you with 50% or more of fines, that is powder that falls through the 4Fg sifter. Too coarse a grind is okay, some big pieces will fall through but you can add those back in the top for another go. You can find a happy medium depending on what powder granulation ratio you want based on what you shoot.

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After grinding some up I pour the granules into my sifting stack. The stack has four mesh sifters in it: 16 mesh, 30 mesh, 50 mesh, and 100 mesh. I shake the whole stack back and forth and the granules sort themselves out. I do this over my mixing bowl of green meal so the fines fall back into it. The fines are chemically still black powder so they can be pressed again and re-ground. The 16 mesh catches the granules that are too big to use, these go back through the grinder. The 30 mesh catches the 2Fg. The 50 mesh catches the 3Fg. The 100 mesh catches the 4Fg; sometimes I'll keep a little of this, but mostly it gets re-pressed as I'm really shooting for 2Fg and 3Fg.

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I test the final product for burn rate by pouring a 4-6" line and igniting it. It should ignite fairly easily and burn down the line quickly. Then I calibrate a lot by measuring 100 grain volumetric samples and weighing them. If they weigh 80 grains, then my powder is 80% as dense as commercial and I can use this factor to adjust my load.

The final product gets put into separate containers by granulation and stored for use in my muzzleloaders.


Some final notes:

This powder is relatively unrefined compared to commercial powder. The granules have rougher edges and are missing the graphite coating that store-bought powder has. This means that it won't meter quite as well and is slightly more prone to sticking in powder measures. On the upside, I think it ignites better as well because it isn't coated. My flintlocks appear to have a faster lock time with homemade compared to Schuetzen.

I cannot emphasize enough that good wood and a good charcoal process makes or breaks powder quality. The guideline I've heard is stick to a fast growing wood that grows near water. Willow and Maple are commercially used often. Red Cedar is commonly accepted as decent. Aspen has worked well for me.

I am not doing this to the absolute degree of precision. My charcoal cooking method is primitive and imprecise. My pucking process isn't perfect, the grinder I use only mostly works. I'm not at the level of making better powder than the Swiss, although some on the internet are. Don't take my process as the end-all-be-all way to do it. Its just what I was able to come up with after reading a lot on the internet and with the tools I could afford. I'm tweaking my process a little with each batch to make better powder more easily.

Have fun, be safe. You are making a highly flammable substance here. Be mindful of spark and fire hazards. Make small batches to minimize risk if it does go up. Have a means of putting out a fire. Do this outside so if it does kaboom you only lose some eyebrows and not your house. Don't be dumb.

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Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

This thread rocks! Thanks OP. Really appreciate you taking the time to lay some good science on us.

Very nice compilation. Subscribed. There's a huge, long-running thread on another site, but it's up to 358 pages, so there's a lot more chaff than wheat in it.
Homemade Black Powder thread

That thread is where I learned most of what I know. Its definitely worth the read for anyone looking to become an expert in home BP making.

I agree though there is a lot of chatting and banter that gets in the way of good information. There's also a lot of evolution that goes on across the years in that thread where guys are learning how to make better charcoal by different means.

This batch is in the mill now, it'll take me a few days to get it fully milled because I can only run it for a couple hours each evening after work. Pictures up in reply #2 showing weighing raw ingredients and in the tumbler can.

Airfloat charcoal is a pain to deal with and can be very messy. I try to slow and pour as close to another vessel as possible. If it flows through air at all or if there's a slight breeze you'll get charcoal everywhere. It smears a black mark on anything it touches too so clean up sucks. I use compressed air to blow away any spillage which minimizes the mess.

The other ingredients don't make too much of a mess. Potassium Nitrate is hygroscopic so it'll absorb moisture from the air and clump. If its older or if you're in a humid environment it may be worth pouring the KNO3 out on a cookie sheet and drying it in the oven before weighing and mixing.

I just did my first batch of home made a few weeks ago, using almost exactly the same equipment. I am experimenting with the sifting to get some good stuff, but I lack the press to "puckify" the powder, so I am rough guessing my powder is about 65% as effective as commercial. It "poofs" quite nicely, though.
I haven't had the time to try my home made 3F in my Renegade yet, but it is on the list.
I was quite surprised when my buddy showed me how easy this really is.

A few years ago, when I first tried this, I scrounged around town and found somebody with a huge downed willow.   I have a big construction trash bag full of powdered charcoal, as well as about a dozen grain bags full of about 2" squares of willow (I cut it all up into squares for better and more even firing), and I have a large pile of chunks outside on a pallet under a tarp, waiting to be cut up.

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If you have a reloading scale you can calibrate your powder.

It will for the most part burn the same as commercial when compared by weight. Commercial powder holds pretty true to weight in volumetric measures, my schuetzen 3Fg weighed 100.2 gr averaged over 5 weighs of 100 gr volumetric.

Take a BP powder measure and set it to 100 gr. Fill it your usual way and weigh the powder on a reloading scale. Do that at least 5 times and average the results. Then divide that number by 100, that's your relative power factor. To figure out an equivalent charge of your powder, multiply your expected charge weight by the relative power factor, the output is the volume of powder required.

So say your powder when measured 100 gr volumetric weighs 64 grains. The relative power factor is 100/64= 1.56. If you want 100 gr charge, you take 100×1.56= 156 which means you'd need to measure 156 gr volumetric to get 100 gr equivalent charge.


I've heard plenty of success stories with powder that isn't compressed. It's only really limiting when there is a volume limit in the gun, mostly an issue with BP cartridges. Revolvers have a similar issue but depending on the density of the uncompressed powder it'll probably work fine as a light load.

Updated with pictures of milled powder and compressed pucks.

I ended up milling this batch for nearly 12 hours. My test to ensure the powder is fully milled is to put a small sample on a slip of paper and then light it on fire. It should burn in one big poof. It shouldn't leave behind any excessive residue, if it isn't mixed well enough the potassium nitrate will sometimes form little white-ish balls on the paper instead of burning completely. If its burning fast enough it'll leave a brown mark on the paper, if its too slow it'll leave a sooty black mark or even catch the paper on fire. I do this every two hours starting at about hour 6 of milling.

This batch was burning too slow for a long time. It may be due to the higher humidity here during monsoon season. Or more likely my charcoal wasn't well cooked and this batch may be pretty mediocre.

Anyhow, compressing the powder will speed up the burn so its still viable. I compressed it into 6 thin pucks that are drying in my garage. I probably won't get to grinding until early next week.

I ground my powder this evening, pictures are up in the original posts.

Some tips for grinding. I prefer to use wire cutters to initially clip apart my pucks. I find this fairly easy and makes smaller chunks with minimal crumbling. The crumbles mostly turn into fines that have to be re-pressed so as little as possible is more efficient. I set the coffee grinder very open. It leaves maybe 20% of the ground product too coarse for 2Fg, but I can re-grind that easily. When I set the grinder too fine it pushes the ratio way too far towards fines and 4Fg.

If you look at the picture of my sifting in progress, you can mostly see the ratio of grades produced in grinding. From left to right is a 16 mesh screen, 30 mesh, 50 mesh, and 100 mesh. By weight, I'd ballpark it at 20% cannon grade, 30% 2Fg, 20% 3Fg, 20% 4Fg, and 10% fines. I re-grind the coarse stuff until it falls through the 16 mesh. I re-press the fines into another puck, or keep it to roll into the next batch.

If you haven't read this book yet you might consider Like Fire and Powder by Brett Gibbons.  He tries to recreate the mid to late 19th century English powder while also providing lots of history and anecdotes from back then and today for powder manufacture.

Light charcoal (not a hardwood) is key.

Willow, grape vine, balsa etc. make awesome powder.
Having a good ball mill makes quality powder.

The two most important things are making good charcoal with no wood fibers in it and the type of wood is important. Willow if you have it in your area.
The other thing is the ball mill. A good ball mill will do a batch in 2 to 3 hours. A correct ball mill is made by matching the correct rpm of the jar, to the size of your media being 10%
of the id of the jar. For an example a 6" jar should use 60 or 62 cal lead balls. RPM should be about 80 rpm .

Is your puck-making die something you made or bought?    I made one from aluminum, but had lots of troubles with it galling, scoring, and getting stuck.   The powder mix would migrate into the gap between the piston and cylinder and pack up so tight the piston was very difficult to remove.   What material is your die made from?

If you look at the pic with press looks like its a woods puck die..

here is the link i found on line..

https://www.woodysrocks.com/store/p275/Black_Powder_Puck_Press.html#/

Wow  - I had no idea this homemade BP scene was so popular that someone was commercially making a puck die designed specifically for it.
Thanks for the info.

The die linked above is the one I have.

I'm pretty sure it's aluminum but the tolerances are such that I haven't had any issues with it binding.

Most people making black powder at home are making fireworks. Their use is a little different. They aren't necessarily chasing the fastest and cleanest burning powder they can get like we are. They're also usually making it in much larger quantities.

Nice work!

For those who wonder about it being legal. Yes you can
With Some restrictions like no sales  amd ,purpose of powder. You can't away . Petsonal use only

https://www.atf.gov/explosives/black-powde

So yes you can make it.

I watched a guy on YouTube test BP made with charcoal made from toilet paper
Just the cheap simple paper with the center tube removed
It tested about the same as Swiss BP on speed
The people in the paper business said that the process to make paper pulp removed everything that you don’t want and it is easy to make the clean charcoal from TP
And it is clean paper pulp without all the other things they put into paper for books or uses to bind and smooth the paper in magazines ie clay
And it is cheap to buy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UTV5I8HDX1I&pp=ygUZQmxhY2sgcG93ZGVyIHRvaWxldCBwYXBlcg%3D%3D

interesting using tp...