Great videos. Made two batches one using cotton wood and the other using red cedar for charcoal. Both powders worked great in a small cannon and will test and chrono in revolvers vs Pyrodex. Used 100% denatured alcohol and seems to work well and dry out quickly. Used Harbor Freight tumbler and .440 lead balls.

Great video , Ben ! I find your videos enjoyable love the time period you represent . My son who is 9 and I are descendants of French - Indian war and the revolutionary war veterans. He wants a tri-corn for Christmas (: Your videos are inspiring us to get involved more into living re- enactment on our property. Thanks ! Love the idea of selling your recipe for black powder .

Glad to hear the idea of silver maple. It's everywhere here along the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers in central PA!

I often keep those little Silica desiccant bags ( you can find that in some food packages ) and put them in my KNO3 and black powder to keep moisture away.

I sure liked your videos and look forward to making my own. I did want to add my 2 cents if worth knowing, there are hardwoods and softwood. There are also varying degrees of each soft and hard based on their densities so woods like cottonwood, poplar/popular, red maple, silver maple and even birch could be used as their densities allow for uniform burning. Any more and your fire will require a ton of more energy to burn through. I'm eager to try some pine and Douglas fir near me. They produce shiny charcoal in leftover fires. Good luck in more of this.

very satisfying....i use cedar mulch for charcoal.....that i mill for 36 hours then mill the combined elements together for 48 hours. it feels really good. i havent shot for accuracy but the speed is very good and the recoil feels on par with commercial...thank you

I’ll be interested in that kit as well.

Awesome!

Thank You, this is wonderful information to me. I have followed your posts and have begun making my own gun powder. I have tested mine to try to determine how it stacks up against Goex. By shooting through my chronograph with Goex and homemade powder with different calibers and bullet design I find my powder to require about 30 % more to near the Goex velocities. I use willow bark and will try to find silver maple, (southern Colorado). I think I can make better. I have not additives.

Oh very cool. I just chased down the raw ingredients but I’ll buy from you next time just to support the excellent videos and history! I wonder if my woods have some Silver maple 🤔 Yes, the big firework companies have kits BUT just you go look at the shipping charge. Yikes.

Thanks for the video. I too was not real certain about the screening process and still not. If you get a chance to film that part I would greatly appreciate it. Overall I feel relatively confident I can do this. I understand it. If I can get the screening to get desirable size I'm good to go

Great video

Thanks great video, living in wine country there is so much grape vine around here it’s burned in giant piles all the time, I’m going to try that wood first

Great videos, I love them. I found it interesting that some said your dirt cheap kit was too expensive but watch the videos for free. I would be surprised if a fireworks warehouse would sell 1/2 pound of anything. haha Nyms. ;)

You can actually dry everything at 50 degrees in the oven for a few hours as well.. and black powder. I would be careful though if I a had a propane oven. So this advice is for electrical ovens only. I use it all the time before and after grinding. Especially if you grind in a ball mill outside as you are! And I'm talking Celsius. I've dried up to 75c but would never go higher. Make a habit of drying your powders before use to get consistent results. Even Tupperware let's in moisture. You could also use a desecant that collects moisture.

I'm using peeled willow as a charcoal source. I haven't tested this out yet, I'm at the ball mill stage at this point. What are your thoughts on using willow as a source? Your producing one of the best instructional videos I've seen to date, please dont stop! Thank you sir.

There is also a hybrid Willow which works amazingly well its called an osstree

You can order desiccent in large bags. Just put a couple small packs, or large pack in to your ingredients if they are to be stored. Work great. Even after you have made your powder and storing it, drop a small packet of desiccent into the container to keep the moisture down. You won't have to heat it over a direct heat.

Charcoal, nitrate and sulphur absorb moisture at different rates, so will be differently damp if left for months (according to your weather!). This usually means that the charcoal takes in more water that the nitrate so 15% charcoal when weighed with lots of moisture will give you only about 10% of dry charcoal in the mix giving you poor product.

I just made a batch using a rcbs vibrating case cleaner with 00 lead buckshots. After 10h i made 2 lines in a V shape and got more speed than what i bought at the store. Seems to burn cleaner too.

Excellent tutorial. The best. Would air float charcoal from a pyro supply work for this BP?

Could you do a video on sizing the powder and what mesh screens you use ?

Hi Ben, great video. Goex will no longer be available by the end of the year. Thank you for showing us a viable alternative. I read an old method that recommends using "stale urine" to make the dough ball. Something about the nitrates in it increases the power. Any comment on that?

Hi ,my ancestors manuals( he made the rockets for Hong Kong 1860s) ..say for sporting powders season the charcoal wood willow ,grape,alder,etc for at least 3 years and to use the charcoal immediately, never use old charcoal. Regards.

From what I understand, Goex powder is lightly coated with graphite. Other than it giving the powder a nice shiny black appearance, would there be any actual benefit to adding a little finely powdered graphite to the mix? I think I’ve also heard somewhere that the small amount of graphite also helps to dampen the effects of static electricity on the powder (less clingy), although I’m not 100% on that.

Have yall tried willow charcoal? The British were reducing Sulphur content and apparently achieving almost smokeless BP results. I forget the name but it was brit govt arsenal tests

Good job Ben! No surprise there are those that want it for free

So what should I do to make a historically accurate 17th century musket powder for a .75 caliber matchlock? I'm wanting to do a accuracy test for our channel with the our matchlock however the original 12 apostles carried 175 grains of powder and I'm pretty sure that that's a much lower quality powder than what we use nowadays.

Great info! I'm in an apartment, so I'll have to mill at a friend's house, so a shorter mill time of the full mixture would be beneficial. Have you ever tried milling the ingredients separately (+/- 12 hrs) to make a fine powder beforehand? Would that facilitate a shorter mill time with the full mixture? That way I could do most of the milling in my apartment safely. Do you think that could work?

So, have you given any thought to milling your ingredients with an added 10% water by weight, and then pucking the wetted mill dust (pucking dies can be bought from Woody's online)? Doing so is supposed to make the power of the gunpowder on par (or better) with that of commercial powder.

Already 1 year old, nevertheless thank's for sharing, very well made and clear video. I will try to rewind your first video to get the answer but yourself, are you using 11 or 10 parts of sulfur ? What differences have you noticed between these 2 quantities, if you used both ? I wish you good.

good video. I heard Swiss BP is made with alderwood? Also, what does the ATF say about making black powder?

I just bought that ball mill from Harbor Freight. They are listing it as “clearance” now.

I would be interested in a kit as well

Could you do a specific video on sizing BP to make 3F? Screen size etc? Thanks

I have an adequate stock of factory made black powder for my needs on hand, but am interested in making some of my own just out of personal curiosity. I'm located in the southwest where we do not have silver maple trees. I grill with mesquite lump charcoal and have a lot of that on hand. Would that be suitable to use? If not, I'll find a way to get some silver maple. Thank you for your excellent videos!

Great job keep up the great work what is your website info thanks for sharing

Are you familiar with double & double ball milling? It's touted as a safer way to ball mill.

Excelente tus vídeos el molinillo de bolas tiene alguna marca para buscarlo, soy de Argentina

What can be used for thickening that is local??

I just trimmed up a silver maple for a guy and the limbs are green. Having never made charcoal, how long does it need to season before making it in to charcoal? The limbs are 3-4 inches in diameter.

Ok definitely will have to get a kit soon but since my gunshop is 7 minutes away could I cut out the delivery 🤔 funny how the internet is. Small world

So, after it has dried and screened for size. I got more 4f than 2&3. Can I soak in the alcohol mixture and grain it again?

How do you make sure there is no static spark to set the powder off

Would you offer individual components? The silver maple would be my request

having a hard time with the Borracho bark? I LOVE THE KITS idea!!! even though I am Into making myself, But Hay CLOSE ENOUGH for Gov Work!! and Your's is FASTER! I will look! can I get the bark in My Kit? LINK PLEASE! I'm IN!

hi, i love your tutorials. Im tryng to found some good wood for the charcoal. I live in spain, and its so dificult to finde silver maple or alder wood. My first try was with bbq charcoal and was a completly fail. it burns soooooo slow, i think its for many reasons what im fixing (thanks to your videos) but i really dont know how to search a good charcoal here. We have a lot of pines, but i think this will not works as i want, no? can anyone help me with the wood? Thanks for all! gg for your chanel!

I’d be interested in trying your kit. What is your web site?

I learned that lesson too. Soggy powder is no good! I store all my ingredients and finished powder with desiccant packs and silica gel nowadays.

I was very interested in trying out your kit before purchasing large quantities of the individual ingredients. You're stating 1/2 and 1 pound kits, however, on your website you only offer 1/2 pound. I would like to get 1 pound. Do I contact you directly?

The bark additive that you speak of how do you spell that thanks in advance

How many hours you have to work for 1kg of powder?

How do you suppose magnolia charcoal would work?

Where di you find silver maple for sale?

Do you still sale the little kit today if so how do I get in touch with you?

Just checked your website, you only show 1/2 lb kits for sale, yet this videos states that 1 lb kits will be available. What am I missing?

Swiss black powder is made of alder charcoal.

still sell kits, ship to Canada?

Well, count me "in" for one of those kits.

Maples come in a variety of hardnesses. Ask a cabinet maker

Quebracho Blanco, Quebracho Colorado, or does it matter?

Could you write out your black powder recipe and post it ?

Dude be honest are you Adam D from killswitch engage in disguise

I am interested in your 1 lb kit. Looking forward to it. Can you direct me to your website url?

A lot less talking & marketing, and getting to the actual making of usable black powder would be helpful! With this in mind, I will go to another site that DOES make shootable black powder.

Any other place to buy the bark? Etsy supports a Marxist movement that I don’t.

Ben do you still sell your 1/2 pound and one pound kit powder kits sir. If so I'm interested in a one pound kit and a half pound kit if possible. I'm sill experimenting with different wood for charcoal even though I like the pet cedar and balsa wood charcoal that I made for my muzzleloaders I would like to try your kits out. I'm in york pa