Re: Black powder

On Mar 30, 11:59 am, "hhc...@xxxxxxxxx" <hhc...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 29, 12:56 am, tinca...@xxxxxxx wrote:

If I make some BP using air flote charcoal [ball milling 4 hr.] the
stuff turns out nice and black. I didn't like the mess with loading
and weighting out the air flote so I used 80 mesh charcoal. After 4
hr. in the mill, it turned out a gray color. I'm at a lost as why this
is happened.  I would think that ball milling would turn the 80 mesh
into air flote and it would end up the same as using air flote in the
first place.

Tinca, I don't own a mill, so I purchased all of my air float charcoal
from Steve Baron.  All of that was black, and I mean totally black.
When you work with it, your hands and face will become black
too...Great stuff!  :-)

Lloyd is the ball mill expert on this newsgroup, and likely elsewhere
else also, so you may want to ask him about this.

I'm assuming that you are starting with a good grade of pure charcoal,
granulating it, and then milling it.  If it goes into the mill black
and comes out gray, you may want to look at what you are using for
milling media, since it would appear to be contaminating your milled
product. Consider switching to brass or some other milling media.

Again, Lloyd is your best reference on this subject.

Harry C.

Tinca and Harry,

Bob is correct: so-called black powder is in fact a dark gray color.
Most BP (commercial or homemade) is processed with a small amount of
water after milling and in that moistened state, the powder does
indeed assume a nearly black color. Corned or riced and then dried,
you'll again see that dark gray color. If you're working with
commercial powder, remember that manufacturers often glaze their
product with graphite which produces a very black (and often shiny)
surface finish.

At 75:15:10 what color would you expect from a mechanical mixture of
powders that are, respectively, white, black and yellow?

Tom C.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Black powder
    ... and weighting out the air flote so I used 80 mesh charcoal. ... hr. in the mill, it turned out a gray color. ... charcoal) after milling is a dark gray. ... a 100 gram batch from a small mill. ...
    (rec.pyrotechnics)
  • Re: Black powder
    ... and weighting out the air flote so I used 80 mesh charcoal. ... it turned out a gray color. ... moistened first; then the black color will come out. ...
    (rec.pyrotechnics)