It is critical that a pyrotechnic learns to make quality black powder. Commercial muzzle loading BP can be bought for ~$20/lb in most areas, and is usually suitable for use in fireworks. However, BP made properly at home can far exceed the burn rate of commercial, and only costs ~$1/lb if chemicals are bought fairly. At that price difference, buying the equipment pays itself off very quickly.
Equipment Needed:
Digital Scale – As with all compositions, an accurate scale is the most important tool. With only a scale, if your chemicals are already in fine powder form it will at least be possible to make hand mixed BP called greenmix. The burn rate of greenmix is rather slow, too slow to break shells, but it may lift them if an excess amount is used. Without a scale, it will be impossible to make consistent BP at all, or any other composition for that matter.
A good pyrotechnic scale should be accurate to at least 0.1 gram, and a load capacity of at least 500 grams. I use and much prefer digital. These can be bought many places, both online and are also commonly sold at health stores. The intended use for them is to measure jewelry or nutrition food products.
Ball Mill – This is the most expensive tool needed for making black powder, but it is well worth it. Ball mills are extremely useful not only for BP, but for all BP based compositions and the individual chemicals of many others. There are many stars that will not function at all if some or all of the composition is not first ball milled. Other methods of grinding such as by hand with a mortar and pestle are not capable of achieving what is needed for good BP.
A good ball mill can be bought for well under $100, though even that is often more than a starving pyrotechnic can spare. As a result, many have resorted to building their own mill. Rock tumblers have also been used to some success, but they require much longer run times to achieve the same result as a proper mill. Whether you decide to go the route of buying or building a mill, you will need media to use in it. Lead is by far the most common since it is readily available in 50 caliber muzzle loader balls, is heavy, and is non-sparking. Brass is the other semi common media because of similar properties. One of these two medias is a must. Using media such as glass marbles or the like will result in disaster. Stick with what is known to be safe. Mills can be bought at a variety of pyrotechnic suppliers online.
Screen or Pasta Strainer – This is merely for granulating the BP once it has been milled. Any large mesh screen or pasta strainer will do fine.
Getting To It:
The first step of making good black powder is found in the chemicals used:
| Black Powder: | |
| Potassium Nitrate | 75 |
| Charcoal | 15 |
| Sulfur | 10 |
Potassium nitrate is usually quite pure from any supplier and very suitable for BP. Sulfur, if bought from a pyrotechnic supplier is also usually pure, but if bought as the garden store variety contains about %10 clay. When used in BP that evens out to be a %1 clay addition to the mix, meaning the BP will still preform fine for just about any purpose, but will not be quite as fast as it could be.
Charcoal is the real deciding factor. The wood the charcoal comes from plays a large part in the burn rate of BP. Some woods that are particularly good for fast black powder include: Willow, Buckthorn, Balsa, and I have also had great success with White Pine. Other charcoals made from mixed hardwoods as you would buy from most pyro suppliers will work suitably well for BP, but as with sulfur, not as well as they could.
The process used for making black powder is rather simple once all the equipment and chemicals are purchased. The proper ratio of each chemical is weighed out and placed into a ball mill jar with 50 cal lead ball or brass media. It is not at all likely that the BP will combust in the mill, but as a safety precaution always let it run outdoors or in a detached structure from any occupied area. For best milling the jar should be filled halfway with the BP composition, though if it is slightly over filled it will only take more time to properly mill. The milling time is dependent on many factors, but as a rule of thumb: More milling time = faster BP. Between 8-10 hours is as long as needed.
Eventually, the Bp will begin to stick to the walls of the mill if left in long enough. This is fine, but it is not necessary to wait quite that long for your result to be adequately fast. If the Bp sticks to the walls before 8 hours of milling has passed, it is possible that one of your chemicals (probably potassium nitrate) has to much moisture in it. This can be solved by placing your nitrate on a tray in the sun to dry before using it for your next batch of BP.
When the milling is completed, screen the media out of the composition by dumping the contents of the milling jar onto a heavy screen or pasta strainer, allowing the composition to fall through onto newspaper or into a large bowl. Place the media back in the jar for later use milling BP type compositions.
The BP now made is in the form of what is called meal powder, and is perfect for coating rice hulls for break. However, for lift the BP must be in granulated form. To achieve this, begin to dampen the BP with water in a bowl until it forms a solid clay mass. As water is added, mix in a tablespoon of liquid laundry starch per 100 grams of BP. Be careful to not get the BP so wet that it turns to a soup. It should be a fairly dry clay.
Now force the composition through the strainer or screen and it will come out granulated on the other side. It should be granulated upon sturdy kraft paper or another surface that will not rip when damp. Newspaper is too flimsy for this. When all the BP is granulated, allow it to sit outside to dry. When the paper it is sitting on is no longer soft from the moisture and becomes crisp, the BP is dry and ready for use.
Dear Nighthawkinlight,
I’m just getting started with pyrotechnics and i just couldn’t get my bp fast enough. When I found a batch of balsa wood I thought yeah that would be a good charcoal, and yes it was. But balsa is so expensive and due to its low density I ended up with 20 grams of charcoal. Do you know any substitute which is also fast but cheap? I already searched for willow wood, but I didn’t find something and in Germany, where I live, it’s almost impossible to legally buy any professional fireworks equipment. What would you recommend for stars? Already thanks for the answer and please forgive me if I made any mistakes in spelling and grammar
Felix Koegel
btw: do you ship your shirts to europe?
Hi Felix,
Untreated lumber in hardware stores is most commonly pine, which will work very well for both black powder and stars. Be sure not to use lumber that has been wolmanized or treated with any chemicals.
I’m sorry to say I no longer have shirts available for sale.
Hello ! I have 2 questions… I don’t get it: the charcoal makes the BP burn faster or slower? And the charcoal makes the BP burn with sparkles or depend on the rest of the composition? Hope you will reply. Thank you ! Happy new year !!
Without charcoal the black powder would not have any fuel, and so it would not even be flammable. I suggest you read my pyrotechnic chemistry page: http://www.grassrootsdiy.com/?page_id=150
Hello NightHawkInLight:
My name is Jamie. I have been fascinated with fireworks my whole life. I have done a minor amount of experimentation, mostly with BP, rockets and shells; however, I have never previously had the space, money or time to develop my true interests, which include shells (with stars), good lift powder, etc. I now find myself in the position where I can more fully explore these interests, and I may have some questions along the way. I have always enjoyed your videos. You are very knowledgeable and easy to understand. I also get the sense that you have the same appreciation for the art of pyrotechnics that I have. I basically wanted to touch base with you and introduce myself. I know you are extremely busy, but I hope that if I have a question in the future that you may be able to help. I have also been in the market for a good book that contains a general basis of knowledge on this subject, including compositions, especially for stars. Do you have any recommendations regarding which book may be best for me? Any advice you may offer is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Jamie
Hi Jamie,
Feel free to ask me any questions you have. You can also ask the community on amateurpyro.com, where I am also quite active. Off the top of my head I don’t have a good book recommendation, but I’m sure you could find a good answer from amateurpyro. For compositions, a sizable list can be found here: http://www.cannonfuse.com/formulas/index.asp
Be sure not to experiment with any composition for which you are not well informed on each of the ingredients.
Ben
Hi Ben!
Thank you for your reply. I will definitely check out the sources you recommended. I’m looking forward to being in touch with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Jamie
I made charcoal with pine what do I do with it after I’m done to light it
Charcoal on its own is useless, you need other chemicals also. Read this page: http://www.grassrootsdiy.com/?page_id=150
Hello Ben, can I substitute the liquid laundry starch for dextrin? and if so how much dextrin should i use per 100gm of comp. Also sould it be milled together with the bp? Thanks Jamie……
Hello Jamie,
Yes you can substitute dextrin for Laundry Detergent and is in my opinion the preferred binder to use. I hear people use anywhere from ~1-10% dextrin meaning one to ten precent (by weight of the completed mass) So, 100 grams of BP would get anywhere from 1 to 10 grams of Dextrin. I think 10 percent is way over kill and use 2.5-5 percent very often and have great success with those ratios. In addition, you may say that how is it possible to create a mixture with more than 100%. Well, the answer is rather simple. When you add 5% to a 100% mixture the resultant is actually now 95% Meal and 5% Binder. Hope you enjoy the recreation! Remember, “Don’t fear, BUT respect.”
-Derek
well, i’ve bought potassium nitrate at gardening store as fertilizer, and found out that it is only 70% pure, but i’ll tell how to purify it (i use purified KNO3). solubility of it at 10 C is about 10-20 grams/100ml, but at 70 C it is 110 g/100ml, so mix 110 grams with 100 water and heat until all disolves, insoluable contaminants won’t dissolve, then filter the mix and let it cool. KNO3 will crystalize, but other contaminants won’t due to small concentration, after cooling to room temperature, add it to freezer to maximum efficency, then filter of cryystals, dry them, and mill, it’s 99,99% pure kno3 , also those crystals are beatifull.
i need to ask a question:
here (chile) the manufacture of Charcoal is only with Military Permission, so i cant go and make some willow charcoal easily (thus illegaly), but there are many kinds of commercial charcoals such as hawthorn,(that i belive its from the family of the Buckthorn),dark pine and eucalyptus… you know if one of them should work?
also good tutorials and information! i am suscribed to your youtube channel and its quite awesome
-Francisco
Hello Francisco,
Both Hawthorn as well as any type of pine should work quite well. I highly recommend that you join the forum at amateurpyro(dot)com to learn more about different types of charcoals, as well as learn much about how to make fireworks in general.
Hey! after watching your videos for quite a while i finally made it over to your site! which is great as it allows me to ask some of the questions i have pondered for quite some time!
i have BP at home here which i would like to make into firecrackers for use at an airsoft event that my team hosts annually.
what im curious of is whether, when adding the powder to the cylinder of choice, the powder should be compressed into place or allowed to be loose? i had attempted once with the powder compressed but that then acted like a jet rather than a fast burn! so instead of using all i have on testing methods, i would appreciate your input
thanks for your time!
Hello Richard,
It’s a really bad idea to use homemade firecrackers in airsoft. Making homemade firecrackers (salutes) is a serious crime, and would also be quite dangerous.
hi, thanks for your reply!
after posting here last, i went over to the forum you recommended and read a little about saultes and their dangers!
i was quite uninformed on the subject! that said, here in Croatia where i live, our rules and laws regarding pyrotechnics are quite different to the US but i will now check to be sure that i wouldn’t be doing anything illegal.
we will be buying them for the event but i was hoping to do some minor modifications. making one now would be just to test how it works.
the modification is to remove the cap / fuse and add an electronic detonator.
is this possible? do you have any ideas? right now i have planned to use Christmas tree lights with tips removed.
feel free to check out our last event video
http://vimeo.com/39597359
the black powder works, but is too slow and it don’t fire well. what is the problem? sorry for my english… I’m italian
hii. can you please tell me the exact quantity of Strontium carbonate in making stars plzzz help
For small quantities, can’t I just use the tube from a paper towel roll, supported by a couple of layers of paper on the outside, with one side sealed and the other side with a tight seal cork, and attached to a slow small motor?
No, that will not work. At minimum you will need a rock tumbler.
Hello,
I am planning produce my own bp in the future following this tutorial. I am looking into a 3lb capacity ball mill, and .50 caliber lead balls to use as media. What is the ratio of media, to composition, to empty space in a ball mill? I read that half of the ball mill should be filled with media and almost the whole other half to be filled with the composition. Is this true? Thank you for the tutorial and hopefully you will be able to answer this comment.
The media should fill 1/3 – 1/2 of the mill barrel. As much or as little composition can be milled at a time so long as 1/4 or so of the barrel is left empty.