Saxon's Survival Hour #181: BLACK POWDER How to Make the Best

Today's excerpt begins on page 51 of The Survivor Volume 1.

BLACK POWDER: How to Make the Best

The basic formula for black powder is (by weight) 15 parts potassium nitrate, 3 parts powdered charcoal and 2 parts sulfur.
One half part powdered dextrine or one part Le Pages mucilage or Elmer's Glue-All should be added to powder mixed wet.
Thus, when it is dry it will remain in the same sized grains you make it.

Say each part is .5 ounce.
That would give you 8.5 ounces of potassium nitrate, 1.5 ounces of powdered charcoal, 1 ounce of sulfur and .5 ounce of dry dextrine or 1 ounce of wet glue.

Mix the whole mess with enough rubbing alcohol to make a thick mush.
(Plain water can be used.)

Next, lay a yard of plastic window screen on a table and rub the mess well into it.
Use a spatula to smooth the mush into the screen so you can see from both sides, all the screen strands.
What you want are tiny, uniform squares of black powder.

Hang up the screen and when the powder is dry just bend, tap and generally mess with the screen and you'll have the best black powder possible with the ingredients — if they are fine enough.

The fineness is what stumps most people.
The finer it is, the better it is.
Also, one ingredient should be as fine as are the other ingredients.
Sulfur is seldom a problem as it breaks down easily.
Charcoal is pretty easy to pulverize, also.
But potassium nitrate is barely soluble in water and is very hard to pulverize, even in a blender.

The best way to pulverize the ingredients is in a lapidary tumbler.
This is a can partly filled with carborundum or something else and pretty stones.
A motor turns it something like 20 to 60 rpm's hour after hour and after a day or so the dull, rough stones come out shining and smooth all over.

Such tumblers can be bought in nearly every town.
Just look in the phone book under "Lapidary Supplies".
One handling about a pound of powder at a time costs under $20.
It will last for years and uses a negligible amount of energy.

To use, put in about 1/4 the can's volume of ball bearings about the size of marbles.
Look under "Bearings” in the phone book.

Second best is one ounce size round lead fishing sinkers bought at any bait and tackle shop.

When you've got your tumbler and balls you need some ingredients to put into it.
Potassium nitrate can be bought through most chemical companies.
You can even buy it for about $3.85 a pound from any drug store if you’re cool.
Druggists refuse to sell it if they suspect it is to be used for making any sort of explosive.
Just tell the man your brother-in-law gave you some pork from his farm and you want to try to cure some.
It's not that important that the guy's going to give you the third degree.
If he does, to hell with him.
Just go to the next drug store.
You can also get pure potassium nitrate from the nursery and garden supply store under the name "Stump Remover", three pounds for $5.

You can also get it from common soil by following the instructions elsewhere in this issue.

At the same nursery store you can get excellent sulfur cheaply in five-pound bags.

For charcoal, go to the nearest grocery store.
You can buy a 10 pound bag of charcoal briquettes for about $1.75.
Willow charcoal is best for black powder, but briquette makers aren't that selective.
If you can't get the best, try briquettes.
They may be willow even though the bag doesn't name the tree.

Put a few briquettes in a box and pound them to bits with a hammer.
Pour the bits into a blender, if you have one, and blend until the powder all goes through a regular flour sifter.
Without a blender it just takes more pounding.

I would advise you to first pulverize a pound of potassium nitrate for 24 hours, then pulverize a half pound of charcoal, since it is bulkier, for 24 hours.

When the potassium nitrate and charcoal are pulverized, run them separately through a square foot of 100 mesh brass screen.
Such a screen can be bought through any ceramics supply store.
This screen is commonly used for sifting glazes.

With your 100 mesh potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur (might as well sift it. too) you've got some fine ingredients.

Mix it with the half ounce dry dextrine or one ounce liquid glue and the rubbing alcohol and tumble it for 24 hours.
The 24 hour tumbling is arbitrary.
It might do just as well in 12 or six.
If you want to save three cents on your electric bill cut the time down.
Otherwise, give it as much time as you have patience.

When you have a nice pile of flaked black powder you might want to test it.
You can ignite it beside a pile of commercial black powder for comparison.
If you would rather test it in firecrackers, the technique for making them is in THE POOR MAN'S JAMES BOND.
The instructions are general and you can improvise according to your needs and materials.
One suggestion is to dip the firecracker in Elmer's Glue-All by the fuse so all the cracker and part of the fuse is covered.
Hang the cracker or crackers up by the unglued part of the fuse for maybe three days and you should have an airtight cracker to be proud of.

Kurt Saxon thought civilization would have collapsed by now.
He spent the majority of his life collecting knowledge of home based business.
His goal was for all his readers to survive at a more comfortable level than those that were less provident.

He knew the importance of communicating at a level folks could understand.
Most of what he has compiled for our benefit can be easily understood by everybody.

He also includes a subtle sense of humor.

You can find the majority of his life's work here.

Hear him read his stories.

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