I'm sitting on a glorified shipping container in Kuwait, waiting for a video to start on gunpowder made from toilet paper... oh God have mercy, is this really my life?!?? Yes, and loving every minute of it!

I work in a paper mill. We primarily produce standard 92 bright, 20lb test printer paper but we also run much thicker or thinner products of varying grades as needed. The thinner or fluffier you go the more soft wood is required (spruce/pine) to attain the required strength, thicker products like milk carton or construction paper require basically no soft wood and typically use a less refined grade of hardwood (primarily hybrid poplar, birch and maple). Also, whiteness is no measure of purity. Inert/fire retardant things like calcium carbonate and potash are commonly used to make paper look whiter. Even cheap brown toilet paper or hand towels are likely a better charcoal source than most other things since it is lightly refined but has no inert fillers/modifiers and it usually has little to no soft wood.

You made some excellent comments I wanted to add my 2 cents' worth: 1. Making charcoal over the hot coals in the wood stove works quite well and is more regulated than you think. The open pit and gas grill are difficult to regulate, gotta watch constantly. I tested my wood stove and with flames present the inside temp can be over 700 F, too hot for bp charcoal. When it is down to glowing coals, the temp is under 550 F and falls gradually, perfect range. I think it's a great way to easily and consistently make charcoal. Summer will be a problem, tho! 2. I also switched to brass balls due to what I discovered when I used lead media. For a year I was using 83 lead balls of 54 caliber but noticed my powder always weighed more after milling and my 54 cal balls were now about 42 cal. 83 balls (223 gr each) would originally weighed 1199 gm but now they weighed 817 gm. Media abrades media and over the year I lost 382 gm (0.842 lbs) of lead. Guess where that lead went. I got some water test strips off Amazon and a batch of my powder milled with the lead balls tested over 500 ppm of lead. So every time you shoot you are enveloping yourself in cloud of tiny lead particles. I would recommend everyone stop using lead media.

My fav part of your videos outside of all the useful info is you in the nicest way tell ppl to f*k off kindly by telling them to go make a video at the end. I'm a pyro here and love learning methods to make better BP

Waiting for dry bamboo charcoal BP. The inventors of BP had plenty of it. Just curious!

Alright , I’m pulling out all the strings on this one and I’m going to try a batch of tampon charcoal. I’ll have the results on a flow chart when the test is completed this weekend.

Thank-you for all your efforts!

Those regional variations might be something to consider. Right now I'm using western red cedar and happy. Only single pucking and using 65 gr to get 1700 fps, so my economy isn't the best but it is consistent from batch to batch. Happy to get consistent results at this point. Keep up the science.

If you read the Knight papers on Swiss manufacture, they feel that the creosote at 8% is ideal and contributes to the quality. They essentially place a measured amount of BP in acetone to extract the creosote out of the BP and pour it over absorbent packed glass tube to see it visually. Maybe the Scotts is lacking in many emollients (for skin feel) that the Cottonelle has that turn into a creosote in the finished product when the TP is chard. Thank you again for all your hard work. I just made a batch of charcoal on propane burner and collected a portion of the creosote in the condensed vapor to add it back to the finished product during pressing. If it works then I'll just have to find a way to remove the 10X liquid smoke smell, lol. On another note. I see a lot of requests for copy paper with contains 20-30% mineral filler or non-combustible ash like in your wood stove. You have proved or disproved stranger things. Maybe the 20-30% ash would create an outcome that no one would expect.

At a paper mill, the lumber and process wood varied by season. The turpentine would overflow with some wood. Other times the soap was thick! Resins vs pure wood pulp. Our tp and tissues needed various chems and treatment variations to match the raw materials! The note papers and card papers were all effected by seasonal raw wood sources!

I would have thought that the density of Scott's would have made better charcoal . I am really excited about the next charcoal test coming up . Thanks for another experimentation video that will help others in the future that are interested in this also .

I am so looking forward to a start to finish process video! Thanks to you all for the informative videos!👍

Interesting in your review of your technique for making muzzleloading propellent you mentioned purification of the nitrate. I just finished reading the book "Like Fire and Powder" by Grett Gibbons, and he devoted an entire chapter to this process. Seems quite involved, so I haven't tried it as of yet. Will be interesting to hear how you approach this. Looking forward to that full video. Thanks for what you do for the BP community.

I was not disappointed! Brilliant video and presentation, the usual sense of humor and, you're on a roll :) Sticking to the system that makes the findings matter - a flintlock as science equipment! In your early videos you were 90% as good as goex, now you're making crappy toilet paper shoot a tad better and tighter as goex! Your technique refines and that subscribe button chimes and chimes! "As good as Goex" is the benchmark but you're beyond - Really looking forward to seeing the procedure updates

A mate of mine manufactures toilet paper and paper hand towels , He told me theres all different blends , blends of Hard and soft woods, Recycled papers, different binders etc depending on if its Government supply paper thats like sandpaper on your arse or the super soft scented 3 ply..... He suggested to me, That washing the TP would help remove binders, perfumes etc etc...

YES ! ...please do a long full method of your latest production,with tips of what works and what does not

I agree! Thinner TP is not good, even if it is cheaper. As far as TP goes for cleanliness, Cottonelle got it right for a couple uses. So, if i heard correctly…you “might” have said, that swiss uses a variation of cottonelle where as goex uses a variation of scotts for charcoal?!?! Thanks for Jake for your awesome videos! I am really looking forward to watching your updated “antique muzzlelaoding propellent process”! Thank you sir!

It appears that you are somewhere in the sw and wondering if you hav ever had to get rid of tumbleweeds they burn fast and so hot you have to back away. Maybe you could try them

The Cottonelle may vary regionally, since Georgia Pacific or whoever it is that is making it may have more than one paper mill. Most mills blend the wood that is used as the fiber source, for the best quality paper softwoods are greatly preferred, mills will accept hardwood for pulping but usually in small amounts - in whatever amount their engineers say can be accepted. The finest wood for fiber is fir and spruce, this worked out for them because before the mills were built eastern fir was basically a weed and was not considered to be good for much. Pine is good too and the mills will take however much is brought in. I grew up in a paper mill town and absorbed (lol) a bit of pulp and paper knowledge, and have worked in mills at times for outside contractors repairing stuff. Part of the pulping process is to remove all the lignin from the wood, leaving clean cellulose fiber, which is good for making charcoal. Since fir and spruce are already acceptable for making charcoal for bp, and eastern pine is already quite good in fact for that purpose, in hindsight it is not surprising tp can be a good carbon source. As to why cottonelle is better than Scotts, it may be that the particular mill that is making the rolls you are using is sold a lot of pine, or maybe if it is a West Coast mill one of the West Coast softwoods is particularly good. I live near a mill that makes tp and tissue paper, I don't know if the tp is sold out West or not.

I'd love to see a video on your updated method and what you've learned over time. I think your videos are informative and fun to watch!

Fascinating project! Thank you for your presentation

Looking forward to the updated method video. It is very interesting seeing how different carbon sources perform.

Thanks for all your Hard work!! and I know you love BP please keep on keeping on!!

Thanks for another great video. I look forward to seeing a video on your current methods of antique muzzle loading propellant.

Well you answered my question about kind of mixing grain sizes. Im going to rescreen my powder. Thank you so much. I have learned so much from you. Now I seem to be sharing this knowledge.

Agreed,bamboo would be very interesting!

Great video Jake. Just made Makers Mark for shoot sunday. The pucks were very dense. I also made Sassafras. Thanks for your info

Excellent content as always. I am looking forward to your complete video on making antique muzzleloading propellant. Thanks for putting these videos together.

Thanks for the video I've been making powder like your doing and taking your advice so thanks for the lessons I greatly appreciate it 👍👍👍👍👍

Thanks for your efforts on this it’s very helpful for those of us without the time and equipment to do this. Keep up the great work!

Really enjoying your channel. Appreciate the information. I shoot a lot of black powder, can reload, and now am learning how to cast bullets and look forward to giving small batch powder production a whirl (when I feel semi-confident I can do it safely). God bless.

Man I love your videos. I hope you continue putting out black powder content!!!

I would love to see your methods of quality control so we can replicate better blackpowder with your kind of results.

Im looking forward to the video on how to make the powder. Ive seen your others but a updated one will be nice.

Brilliant vid again sir! Thanks for sharing with us. 👏👏

I never considered how much difference the carbon source would make in the quality of black powder. I find your videos very interesting and it makes me want to try making my own powder. I have a lot to learn, haven't made BP since I was a teen and made my own firecrackers. lol Phil

Yes - 120 fps is considerable. This makes scientific sense since energy increases per the square of velocity - which means the last 100 fps you squeeze out of the powder is the 100 fps that contains the most energy, and the faster the bullet or ball flies the more energy will be packed into that 100 fps.

I’m starting to speculate that the fluffier paper might char more completely. Since softer wood makes better powder. Love your videos 👍

Once again, GREAT video informative. factual, and reliable. It is good to see that you can make very reliable black powder from a common source for charcoal. And I was going to rely on my supply of cedar, willow, silver maple, or aspen, but with a ready supply of bum wad, why bother, but not to use the recycled stuff. Thank you!

Oh LAWD! I can hear her now, " Honey, where is all the Cottonell I bought?" Me, "Down range"

The glazing probably helps with the standard deviation of the velocity since it uniforms the grains.

Great video, I will use your knowledge on making my next batch of powder.

The cottonel is quite the discovery but I think its impressive that you are getting decent results from so many carbon sources

I'm really enjoying your series of Toilet Paper reviews.

I have been using toilet paper for charcoal for making black powder rockets ever since I seen your last video. Seems to work great. 👍🏼

Love your channel and content. Not surprised about the outcome because it was a thinner product so less material to be a carbon source. This doesn't pertain to this subject but have you tried some of the newer smokeless powders that manage fouling better in your duplex studies? Was curious about the end results as far as less flash and fouling. I have heard that if you use a drop tube that you get higher velocities and less fouling and smaller groups..... haha

Thank you! Always interesting.

One thing to consider if you should choose to use bamboo. When Thomas Edison was searching for something to use for the filament in his electric light bulb he carbonized bamboo and those light bulbs lasted for many years.

Looking forward to this one!

Another great video (imo) interesting thoughts on the variables in the paper making process that could affect the toilet paper charcoal quality.

You make shooting black powder look easy lol. Id be all about it, but my muzzleloader went with my ex, (I took back the KitchenAid mixer and gave it to my mom as a gift). Still I'm interested in making my own powder some day. I'm subbing.

Great video as usual, it has become a given that the video and the information is going to be good. 2 questions, are the Cottonelle results repeatable, and are different lots of Cottonelle going to have a different effects on the end product? The only other question I have is how does it work in percussion rifles and revolvers, but the flintlock is the best test bed. Thanks again for the great information.

I also use brass media for my tumbler. It is better than lead for sure.😊

It would be interesting to know the consistency between several batches of Contenell purchased at different locations to determine if it’s a one off two thing. But of course all your productions are awesome. Inquiring minds want to know.

As always, great video. 👍

Nice video and amazing flinch control.

Ok cotonell Is still the best choice as a source of charcoal at least until today, I'm agree to try to make the best BP as good as the best commercially available if not even better but at the same time cheaply enough. As always thanks for your videos!

I am very interested to see further "research" with just the Cottenelle to try to judge consistency from batch to batch. I wouldn't be surprised if it did jump around as the base material may vary. I don't know how important consistancy is to paper pulp mills is, when it comes to TP. It would be nice to see very little variance, but I stand a bit skeptical. Thanks for sharing all your hard work. It is appreciated.

I’m in Australia 🇦🇺 I love your vids mate ! So in depth and real life testing 😊

Good muzzle/trigger control at 11:00 , I am trying to get better at shooting flinters myself, I have been doing caplock for some time but I want to become a better shooter and do well with flintlocks.

Again, another great video and presentation! Somewhere along the line I would really like to see you do a test on BAMBOO TP. It is rather expensive but a source of a single fiber product. Thanks so much for continuing these awesome experiments on carbon sources!!

Jake .I just tried your 77-13-10 formula FFFg made from Mulberry charcoal against my last batch of 75-15-10 +3% Dextrin FFg in my Pietta 1858 Army . Wow what a difference. My volume measure set for 33gr. gave 36.7gr. by weight avg. of 6 rds.with the new batch and 32.8 gr. with the Old formula . The new stuff compresses better in the cylinder leaving enough room for lube the Old barely fits. The real surprise was it's cleaner and much more powerful. I didn't have time to Chronograph them but the Old formula's Smoke and recoil were about the same as some paper cartridges I tried or comparison .The paper cartridges were loaded with 30gr. of FFg Grafs made by GOEX just before the Fire at the Factory. The new formula had less smoke and a much stiffer recoil. I'm going to make more tomorrow .Maybe I'll use up the old batch in my 12 ga. Reloads like I did the first batch I tried. Now what to do with all that Dextrin I made up. Maybe filler in my 12 ga. loads. I tried it to glue paper cartridges with (don't waste your time on that one it's awful).

Just charcoaled some Cottonelle. It’s some fluffy stuff! My test of two ended up 20 grams each

Cant wait to see the results.👍

Please keep up your great videos!

I proffer brass over lead for the same reason

Georgia pacific owns the scott brand as well as most other brands of paper products found in the USA , take a look at the packaging and the plant it was made at should be in print on the packaging that will give you a better idea of where it is made and from what fiber

Potlatch papermill right next to it in Lewiston Idaho Blunt ammo factory or c.f. something both have been bought out in 2012 ish. Too thin is to thin. Can't wait to watch the final process. 🎉😊

We can go further. Different regions have different soil qualities for their trees. The more variables we know about, the more we can measure. This will ultimately optimize our process to make superior quality blackpowder.

I read once that ball milling actually forces the nitre and Sulphur into the pores of the charcoal when it is perfectly incorporated. I am not sure how true that is but it would make sense that a porous fiber would be easier to incorporate into than, lets say, Graphite which has no pores. Along these lines, maybe softwood activated charcoal would have the most pores and thus the best performance

Like the person in Kuwait, Im a long distance viewer. Watching from Vietnam where watching you shoot is as close to shooting as I can get while living here. I will be back in the states someday. Looking forward to the video on how you make bp. I shoot GOEX because 25 years ago I bought more than I will admit to in print and paid less than 6 bucks a lb for it. (I bought a lot) Will make my own some day when my store bought supply runs dry.

If you continue with testing more TP brands, which i hope you do- it may be helpful data to record what the square footage is for each brand. Cottonelle seems expanded on the surface versus Scotts which is glossier. I find if i char the Cottonelle more than 8 hours in my pellet stove (can sits in egde of firebox) it burns away entirely. 5-6 hrs, with stirring every two hours gives good fluffy charcoal.

Linen / flax would be really interesting as a carbon source… All of this charcoal experimentation is truly fascinating!

Thanks for your videos. Have you had a look at the electron microscope pictures of charcoal on Google ? Maybe ten years ago, there was an article with the pictures showing how different carbon sources had different micro crevices. The opinion of the article was that the size of crevices made a difference in the quality of the powder. Supposedly, the crevices were filled with the other ingredients, making for better combustion. Just what I read.

Its a great video; thnx a lot🐎

You brought up a point that got me to thinking. When you mentioned max spreads you said it could be caused by different sized granules. Could one increase velocity by mixing some 4f in with 3f powder. I am still fairly new to this in a way so hopefully I don't get a lot of comments about asking a "dumb" question. Thanks.

My chemical intuition tells me, that the cheapest, greyest toilet paper should work best, as it would be first, with the smallest amount of any additives, pure pulp, but, recycled pulp also means the smaller size of cellulose fibres (as they were broken multiple times, paper always end as toilet paper, as fibres are too short to be used for anything else). This means smaller carbon particles also mean more surface for a reaction when burning. I can be of course wrong, but it makes sense in my head. This also could explain why cottonel works so good.

As a plumber I can assure you that Scott and the Walmart generic of it are far better for aged pipes and less than optimal toilets, cottonelle and charmin are great for plumbers not so great for homeowners. I watched your video because I’m thinking about picking up some black powder weapons, but I like the idea of being able to produce my own powder. Still haven’t seen a reliable method of producing priming compound without the help of ordering materials. Interesting video though, I never thought that charcoal from different sources would matter.

As mentioned before, the temperature that the carbon source is charred at determines the VOC content of the final carbon. It would be interesting to have a thermometer proper (k-type?) stuck in the can during your carbonizing process to gauge the temps it reaches to see if it matches the docs found on the subject.

some TP is made from mimosa tree or eucalyptus tree . two types of trees that are very fire hazardous and produce a lot of heat when they burn, which also causes them to burn quickly

Love your videos and find them very interesting, especially this series regarding various carbon sources. Subscribed and liked, but should've sooner.

When you weigh your puck, to calculate density. Is it shed right after pucking? Or after it dries? Thanks. Keep up the great content!!

I purchased a "new" paint can. It unfortunately had some sort of verathane coating inside. I'm trying to "Broil' that coating out. I have a collapsible Coleman® oven coming to use for charring store brand tissue which was the cheapest available. The only clue to the fiber source is "made from domestic and imported materials," I suspect Canada. Rather than propane to heat the oven, I might use a tray of charcoal briquets though I may be able to control the temperature better with propane.

I also use brass balls for the media, I spoke with a buddy of mine that was a lot smarter than I am regarding the differences between lead, brass, ceramic, and stainless steel media and he wholeheartedly recommended going with brass. So far I have not had any problems with the brass besides them being kinda expensive. Where are you buying your brass media from?

Thank you

I am Impressed with that none Flinch!! your still my fav BP Brother! Bitchen right!!

Just helping out the Algo. Thanks guys!

Just found you channel (been binge watching blackpowder content) If you are still open to suggestions on carbon sources, i would suggest trying the "cotton t-shirt rags" that you can find in the paint section of most hardware stores.

Love the videos!

Does anyone here see why I say...This is the BEST channel on this subject! And this man answers everyone that he has time for... let's make his subs go to the moon.

Very interesting results with toilet paper. Have you tried or considered just plain newsprint?

Outstanding video and I would like to comment on that smoke pole you shoot, it has about as fast a lock time as I have ever seen.

I wonder if there is a binder in the high end paper that leaves behind a salt that affects the composition. Like a perchlorate or something

I’m thinking the softer the more the cell structure is broken down and the faster it will burn. But different kinds of wood will also make a difference. Ash wood burns fast and leaves only ashes no unburnt charcoal in my fireplace or wood stove. The btu’s for each variety might also have a bearing on your results.

Try this, for a consistent amount of the paper dilute it with asatone and see that the binder washes out.

Aspen charcoal, not processed into roll, makes a good powder. It's best around here, mountains S.W. Or Cottonwood, very simular.

Can't wait...tried the Cottonelle Ultra ComfortCare and it was fast. Just way too expensive for anything other than a test which this is of course all about.

Id love to see straw made into BP, and different dry shrubs from your area. Since likely if we had to go back to making our own powder dry vegetation (Especially in a dry climate like here in california) would be the most available and free resource local to the user.

You could try making charcoal using: - Hemp fiber fabric; - Nettle fiber fabric. I don't know if it's true, but some say that the best black powder carbon should be made from nettle fiber.

The outer sheet is NOT a glue strip. It's water or steam sealed to the next layer. Only the cardboard core may have a water base glue.