4 ms·
Saltpetre was available from chemists (ie pharmacies) in the UK, but me and my pals had limited success making decent gunpowder with it - I strongly suspect it
by tragomaskhalos 4y ago
Saltpetre was available from chemists (ie pharmacies) in the UK, but me and my pals had limited success making decent gunpowder with it - I strongly suspect it was heavily laced with some form of fire retardant precisely to thwart pyromaniacal little herberts like us.
- thesaintlives 4y agoDry all parts. Mix in food blender, bingo!
- dtgriscom 4y ago... hopefully the "bingo" is delayed until after the mixing process.
- nibbleshifter 4y agoIts still sold in the UK for certain culinary purposes, surprisingly enough. As for why your experiments weren't as spectacular as you hoped: the particular charcoal you use is really important. Its best to make your own with a paint can, some willow, a nail, and a campfire. Adequate crushing of components into floury powder follows, then adequate mixing, and ideally wet-pressing and corning. Source: an extremely misspent youth.
- matthewaveryusa 4y agoyeah its a meat preservative. I used to buy it at the butchers, then cook it into sugar and some cotton balls to make spectacular smoke bombs
- kqr 4y agoThe thing sold in grocery stores is usually CaNO3 though and not KNO3.
- nibbleshifter 4y agoThe potassium salt is sold for curing meat from a fair few somewhat specialist providers in kilogram amounts, or in small bags from a fair few shops catering to Eastern Europeans. Its actually quite fun to read the labels on stuff when browsing shops, you find all kinds of bizarre shit.
- mlindner 4y agoIt's still available from hardware stores in the US, in the form of stump remover. It's really pure as well.
- User23 4y agoMaking good black powder is quite dependent on the quality of the charcoal[1]. [1] https://schuetzenpowder.com/swiss-black-powder/ https://schuetzenpowder.com/swiss-black-powder/