This section is about the ingredients used to make black powder.
There are a number of formulas/recipes for making Black Powder. I’m using the most often cited. and quoted recipe. There are three ingredients that most of you will already know.
1. Potassium Nitrate: Potassium nitrate that serves as the oxidizer providing Oxygen for the burning of the charcoal which is the fuel. I use lumber yard Stump remover. I have used both that are presented in the photo. These are about 100% potassium nitrate. By weight it serves as 75% of the recipe.
2. Sulfur: Sulfur is a yellow element used in many applications. I obtain yard and garden sulfur. Some writers will say not to use it. But I have no problem with it. By weight sulfur provides 10% of the recipe. It is said to be a catalyst that speeds up the burning.
3. Powdered charcoal: The wood in the photo is from a tree of unknown variety trimmed in my back yard. I do not know the name of the wood. The most often cited wood is willow. I don’t have any so used the wood I have. It is white clear with out knots. It cooked into charcoal easily and made a charcoal that could be crushed easily into a powder. I have used cotton from old denim jeans successfully. I have thought of using white pine, cedar, popular very hard woods are not recommended. I thought of using blacksmith coal cooked down to coke. It is very light and will crush to powder easily.
4. There you have it 75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur.