I was a carpenter for 21 years and that was definitely Alabama morning wood. Keep us posted on the Garmin, I'm especially interested in battery life. My Caldwells have eaten enough 9v batteries I could have bought the Garmin.
Never heard of it, but I don’t get out much. I’ve had a bunch of comments saying that it’s probably cedar so I’ll have to take your word for it. As for the Garmin, it’s Bitchin
Great video. Funny how one tries their best with connaisseur charcoals, and then toilet paper and a piece off the fence take the cake. This opens another question: is old weathered wood better in general by, like the cottonelle, being predigested fiber. So, a next time I propose to try another piece of old weathered wood to see if it's fast, too. Your series combines hobby and applied science, i always am on the lookout for the next installment. Keep going and critics be damned.
"Black powder go boom, make smoke" is exactly how I measure my black powder at the moment. (I run what I can get for now.) A few more years and I'll be in a place where I can make my own. I'll have a leg up with what works when I get there. Much appreciated.
Those are western red cedar boards. I was a carpenter for 20 years. Western red cedar is what almost 100% of fence slats are made of west of the Mississippi.
I called cedar, TOO, all fences back than are and looked just like that end of life, or are CMU if not chain link now in these parts. Now mine is CMU. No neighbors bulls getting into my yard. Yes he has huge long horns and 16 horses 11 mile from downtown LA Ca. I have hid on top of fork lifts out side the gates of Farmer Johns in Vernon Ca. from Ragging Bulls, and POed BOARS COPs 38's just made them more ANGREE And I still have a few aged 20 +yrs never in the light of day.
Did NOT Suck! I just made my first batch of BP with the ratio of 77-13-10 with a carbon source of Walnut from a huge tree I just had limbed. Unfortunately, I didn't get velocity faster that 1688 with a max spread of 71 using 60 grains. Granted this is my 1st ever attempt to make BP and I don't have a puck press. I had to use the wet ball method and sift for days. The powder was quite dirty, having to clean every 4 shots (I'm not kidding I bruised the palm of my hand getting my ramrod to seat the ball). Then using my 1858 (reproduction) with 30 grains the velocities were at 680-733 and I had one hell of a time rotating the cylinder on the last 2 shots due to the cylinder pin being gummed up. I'm going to keep working at it, now that I have the means to make my own. I just wanted to share with you what I came up with and thank you for all the great knowledge your channel has shared. God Bless!
The main difference IMHO of old dry rotted wood is all the organic wood resin would be oxidized or metabolised by bacteria, just leaving cellulose and lignin, its been bleached dry by Nature. Lovely results there, going in the notebook...
Hey Jake I'm going to try know this would have got here is about 50 years old I'm going to make some black powder with it and we'll see how it goes we're doing a really good job Jake I enjoy watching everything you do there buddy
I thought the same thing, all the oils and resins are gone. I bet that is why the toilet paper does so well also, no sticky resins to stick to your old hole. LOL
It occurs to me that you may know about black powder making than any other fella walking around in the states! You make great videos and send out great information. I appreciate the work and effort you put into this. Thank you Sir!
Old wood. This reminds me of a story about someone having a violin made from several hundred years old wood that was recovered after the Battle of Monte Cassino in WW2. Said it sounded like a Stradivarius leading them to think it was more about the wood used an not some special varnish. It would be hard to find 500+ year old lumber in the US to test this in powder.
AMEN I started DIY Char as a way to char oak for my still's shine to become whisky, now "I smoke pot! once, and char it again! and I chared the mash of my shine? It's a Journey? Now I retired I have time for my curiosities' Satisfations!
Douglas Fir commonly lives more than 500 years, up to a thousand...but it makes terrible BP. It burns OK, but it's filthy beyond belief...my attempt at it was, anyway. It did make nice sparks for pyrotechnic purposes, though.
From what I’m understanding about antique muzzle loading propellant the best stuff was made mid to late 1800’s. They were using all 1st and 2nd growth wood then that was much denser then what grows now. You can probably find it from someone who salvages old houses. Thank you for explaining y’all do!
It also just makes sense that the best black powder would have been made right at the end of when it was the state of the art. Past 1895 smokeless took over really quickly and it makes sense that at that point black powder started to get worse, since the incentives weren't there anymore.
@@seth094978This. Through all of Jake's testing, I've come to the conclusion that, assuming that your other components are chemically pure, the charcoal doesn't matter all that much. What matters is process. And it's that process that the people of the late black powder era had nailed down but it was all lost rather quickly once smokeless took over. Jake is simply rediscovering the trade secrets of the master powder makers of old
Glad to see you like the Garmin....That old fence timber seems to have matured to a very open grain and would mill better for that. As you have proven before, mill time is a factor and after 48-72 hours the differences between various woods just about disappears. It would seem that the other substances in the peas not destroyed by pyrolysis does cost velocity, but softens the fouling. I doubt that anyone from the beginning of the 20th century has done more detailed research on what makes BP work, and not. Keep up the good work Jake, your videos are fascinating... 🙂
Facinating! I have learned more about BP watching your videos than all the other videos, magazine articles and information put together. Thanks for sharing! Phil
PS- for the sake of validation with your new Garmin perhaps -fire 1 or 2 rounds of a known factory load of whatever, i.e. i use Winchester Ranger .45 +P 230 ball which gives 970-980 fps. If i get a quirky result thats how i check my Caldwell. PSS- as an experiment -drop your sulfur content until you cant get ignition, make up the difference evenly between kno3 and fuel. Sulfur is just lowering ignition temp which is vastly influenced by type of primer and containment of the loaded charge. Cheers
Nice video Jake! The fencepost boards looked to me like they may have been Red Pine, (many different names for it i.e.: Lodgepole Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Yellow Pine, Norwegian Pine ect.) The grain of the wood looked course like a fast-growing soft wood and the Red Pine would be plentiful in your area. Never the less it sure as HELL made some awesome powder whatever it is!
Thank you for continuing the experiment. One enduring black powder hunting dilemma is shot load development and wadding configurations that don't create voids in the pattern. Once you figure out how to achieve "light speed" with antique muzzleloading propellant, developing a hunting load for smoothbore enthusiasts could be your next challenge. It would give you a good reason to get a Kibler Fowler. Thanks again from Wisconsin.
I don’t know how to message the channel, but I have a couple cans of vintage Goex (1966 and 1978) I would love to see compared side by side to the new stuff. Most businesses have prioritized profits through the decades of reorganization. I would gladly send some powder from both of these cans for science and entertainment.
As a woodworker, I would think that the fence wood is probably white pine. Being so weathered the sap in the wood most likely would have been leached out by the sun and rain. Good stuff! When you smoke a hide as in brain tanned leather, you use punky wood that you find which has been decomposing. If you were to make charcoal from this, I wonder what the results might be. I’ve handled this punky wood at times and you can break it apart fairly easy. Kind of like balsa. So Kind Thanks, Many Blessings and Good Shootin! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania
I've used punk wood for my charcoal and I have to say it does work very good didn't crono it but it does work good and fouling not to bad I used punk wood from old Chinese tallow tree I'm In southeast Texas so we have tallow trees everywhere I have made it from the regular wood from the Tallow trees also and it makes some really good powder that's about the only good use for the Chinese tallow tree
See...?!?!? Now this is what I'm talking about.. you needed this. A professional is only as good as his knowledge and tools.. You already had the brains..lol..now you have a pro tool to get the results you rely upon. Good job..good channel worth donating to ... 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I have been using new cedar fence boards, western red cedar, because I have a LOT of it for free. I'm only in the high 1600 range in my .45 SMR, but that's likely because I can only currently press to 8 tons. Gives me real hard fouling, in flakes. Have to swab after every 3 shots. Next batch I'll try the peas. I only make powder every 6 weeks so implementing changes comes slowly. Keep the knowledge coming because I'm not ready to make my own damned videos yet.
I have an unlimited supply of shot up target frames from the range I go to. Don't know what kind of wood those are but there is more available than I would ever need. And better than the Amazon boxes i was going to use. But they have not had four decades to dry out, that's for sure.
I dont know shit about making black powder. But it sure is damn cool to watch Your experiments with all the different materials and processes. Great Job.
Just now able to watch. 10:40pm It's been hotter than a popcorn fart where I live, and there was a Brown out. Aaanny how.... GREAT information as always.👍🍻
So I have been following instruction from you. I went with cottonelle tp, refined kno, tech grade sulfur in 77/13/10 ratio. Still milling because the stupid treadmill shuts off every 100 min, haven't figured out how to bypass the time limitation of the treadmill (any ideas?). Built a shed just for making powder. Got the same pucking die and press for when I get to that point. Really appreciate your videos and dilligence in striving for the best. You sparked my interest and a new hobby. Awesome job!
I have this finnish reloading book "Messinkihylsyisten keskisytyspatruunoiden jälleenlataus" by Esa Paananen. It says that most common mixture for black powder is 74% KNO3, 10.4% S and 15.6% C. All +-1%. Does not say what carbon source.. Good videos!
To refer back to a previous video,when you said cow pies , I remembered where I saw the making of CARBON BLACK. It was a Mike Rowe DIRTY JOBS episode where they were making it by burning COW BONES. Maybe you could try something like chicken feathers! lol Great Channel!!
I wonder how birch bark would do. That stuff is very flammable on its own. It has lots of oils tho, so it would probably not be a very clean burning or easy to clean powder, but i wonder if its flammable qualities would be helpful to velocity or hurtful
Hay hello from Wisconsin how are ya bud. You seem like a practical person and I’ve really been thinking about getting a nice muzzy loader for cow pies and giggles. But I’ve seen like 10 people show ten different ways to clean the suckers after shooting. How do you do it. Thanks fella have a great day.
Thanks for another great video. I noticed the powder kind of sticking to your plastic container. I've had good luck taking used dryer sheets and wiping my plastic containers to cut down on the static electricity.
I was worried that the worn wood with its crevices would contain dirt and sand from all those arizona dust storms. It sure turned out to be good powder though. Now we need to see some fresh fence board powder 😂. Great video
Cellulose with as little resin as possible. A lot of plant life provides that. That fence looked pretty red (as far as one can trust the color presented on a digital screen) Could it have been western red cedar? It was some kind of conifer. Pretty spicy powder. 👍
Great stuff again. As a hunter as well as shooter, I’ve come to be more pragmatic about velocity based on field experience with a wide range of cartridges/projectiles and velocities. In the sub 2000fps Black powder/handgun range, at the often much less than 100 yds I shoot game at, +/- 100Fps or even 200 in some cases makes little or no difference in terminal performance. So consistency and sight regulation are more important. And since rapid fouling build up takes the fun out of a range day with my front stuffer, I’d be inclined to choose a cleaner powder, that I could still make shoot to POA. Also I’m curious if you experimented with various ratios of pea charcoal to see what the smallest amount that gives the desired softness of fouling, and minimal velocity loss?
Look I don’t make antique muzzle loading propellant. But I definitely appreciate someone like yourselves taking the time to experiment and make videos covering your results. I may never take up the wonderful hobby of making my own powder, but it’s nice to know if I ever do there’s y’all’s results provide an excellent starting point of experimentation. Personally for me, if I was to get into something like this a moderately powerful powder with easy to manage fowling is ideal with a second ideal being along the lines of replicating powders to make more historically/ballistically accurate ammunition for things like trapdoor Springfields.
Hmmmm, there is a really old barn falling down near me. The barn boards are looking appealing to me now. Would love to see a comparison of some of your best powders in cartridge guns (.44 WCF and .45-70) to compare fouling and velocity.
I saw somewhere someone said that "slightly rotted" wood from a fallen tree trunk made some excellent powder. Maybe the same thing is going on with the fenceposts. Also I wonder if there is a "happy medium" on reducing the green peas where you only lose say 25 fps but the foulding is still soft?
One method you could use that would rule out the "cold barrel" is to make 5 shots and then throw out the shot furthest from the average (outlier). It is assumed the first shot would be the outlier, but this also takes into account loading variations.
$64 question, what is the dry rot removing or adding to the wood? My guess is less wood protein, leaving cellulose. On that note, how does charcoal from starch compare?
DON'T take this wrongly, I don't think this wood is dry rot. I think this wood is plainly just weathered with age,with the softer rings wearing away leaving the harder sap rings. Having Worked on wooden boats most of my adult life,Rot comes from wood that gets wet repeatedly which is ripe condition for fungus and mold to generate "DRY ROT"
I'm on a forum where we made a substitute powder directly using starch (It was really bad) and I still have two boxes of starch left over from that experiment. Never thought to cook the starch into charcoal and make real black powder out of it instead. Now if coffee grounds made good charcoal............
you know Jake being on the west coast i doubt that is pine, pine is rare west of the eastern face or the rockies as lumber most likely it's western red cedar or hemlock which is known to builders as the west coast pine! you know harvest season is coming up i wonder how corn cob charcoal would do?
That makes me wonder about if you took a hunk of dry, desert sourced wood (like from an arroyo or gulch), if it would be as good. Does the seasoning and dessication impact the result?
Great Video once again. It's interesting that you get good results with yet another carbon source. Have you tried to mill the individual ingredients first to see if that has an effect on the results. I wonder if milling individual ingredients would give you the same results as a 72h milling in a shorter time or if it would all balance out the same overall.
We tested that a few years ago but found we got better results by just milling all the components together. We do mill our charcoal for a couple hours before we mix it with the kno3 and sulfur
I would like to see you try some slightly rotted willow wood that's about the constancy of Balsa wood. I have made this before, but I don`t have a chronograph to test it.
Jake. I noticed that you didn't bounce the ramrod as much as you did with the other one. Hence maybe not as compressed=a possible velocity loss? Different loading techniques can effect the end result. I'm not saying that it has just something that I noticed. Great job! Love your videos!!
I've been a carpenter for 69 years and I can tell you that all the other carpenters are wrong....that is straight-up hard wood.....possibly the greatest looking piece of ash I've ever seen
Great results, but it made me wonder as to how seasoned your wood is before you run it through the retort. As we have learned over the many centuries of burning firewood, the longer the wood is seasoned, the less creosote is deposited in the chimney. Could the creosote be messing with the results and lowering the velocity of the propellant? I could supply some 2 or three year seasoned woods, cherry, walnut, and white or red oak, to see if you have any different results. Sorry to say, I don't have any willow, but I could have some sassafras, come to think of it.
I wonder if the resin content of the wood makes a difference in how crusty the fouling becomes? I still have this brass hex if you want it, thinking it might help cut mill time and clumping during milling.
You are very consistent with your loading, but i would like to see a series of test with a heavier bullet. In loading smokless you have a range of choices but i find that some work much better then others. By that i mean some leave behind a lot of unburned powder. The worst being the slower powders with a light or lower sectional density bullet. Although you might get good performance it just doesnt like the pressure curve and does not burn well. Would some of these powders perform better with a heavier, higher sectional density, bullet? Example, would a lower sulfer content perform better with a heavy bullet? Can you make not just a better BP but a better BP for heavier bullets?
Be interresting to see what a ratio of 77/13/10 with the 13 being 11 fence board and 2 peas would do. I wrote this shortly before you suggested the same thing in the video.
I wish they had that Chronograph when I bought my first one .Now I'm on my third Pro Chrono and my Magneto Speed for a total of about what your new unit cost. The Magneto Speed is good for my Rifles but won't do Hand Guns especially not Cap & Ball Revolvers. The Pro Chrono's work for Revolvers but can be Frustrating as you know. Also If your Revolver has a Scope on it and you tired and trying to finish before you lose the light you may forget to allow for the sight height like I did which brought me to my second Pro Chrono. Oh Well Water Under the Bridge as the saying goes. You commented about people anxious about an awaited video ,sounds like you've become the Black Powder Version of a Soap Opera ( What Will Jake Shoot Next). You got me thinking obout that Old Split Rail Fence in my Front Yard tha needs to be replaced.
As Matt Damen said in the Martian...,"You scienced the shit outtaa that"😂. Love your videos. Hoffman reproductions said silver Maple was"ok"for carbon source. I cut down a huge one in my yard a while ago and made charcoal. Worked well for my. 69 cal and 1.75 inch cannons but i just got a traditions .50 cal Kentucky flintlock. That stuff was way too dirty...2 shots and it needed cleaning. Got some balsa milling now hope that works better. Again love your videos!!!
Peas are mad of many different things. Its likely just one that changes the fouling. If you can get just that, then theoretically you could use less for the same result, and as such you might maintain more velosity. An example maybe pure pea protien.
Very nice... (Looking at neighbour's old fence...) I am just going to get off my butt and try making my own powder, since getting powder is getting harder.
I’m beginning to think that the species of ‘wood’ isn’t really that important. Sure, some seem better than others but I don’t think there is a ‘Holy Grail’ wood species. Your fence boards are likely some kind of conifer which all tend to be relatively low density. I’d have thought that the high resin / extractives content ( compared to deciduous trees like Willow, Cottonwood, Balsa) would have some kind of contamination effect but clearly they either burn off or are of no concern. All of these woods are relatively low density compared to say Oak, Maple, Locust, Osage etc. I’m guessing the softer woods are processed more easily ( pulverised more quickly) and that the harder woods might well be just as good once they have been processed to the same level- which may take a lot longer. It’s possible your degrading fence palings were processed to a certain state in 48 hrs that fresh cottonwood might achieve after 60 or 72 hrs and Sugar Maple might take a week. My point is, while there might be some unknown chemical composition of the wood which helps or hinders the quality, my gut tells me it’s more likely a physical property that has the bigger effect. I really would love to see some samples of good, bad and ugly powder dust ( prior to pucking) or charcoal dust under high magnification. Got a university nearby with an electron microscope?
This idea is a tad crazy, and I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to do it, due to how time consuming it would be to collect. But it would be interesting to see dandelion fluff be used as a carbon source, or perhaps dried dandelion stems.
Yup... all the saccharides and terpenoids have either been beaten apart by environmental conditions or eaten by various microbes/fungi, so all you have is your cellulose, lignin, and various entrained salts that act as catalysts. Wonder if the copper content of modern pressure treated wood has more or less catalyzing effect....
I wonder how well would the soft rotten wood in trees work. (Punk would). They suggest it for fire starter kits if you don't have cotton. The biochar it produces is supposed to be extra flammable.
I wonder how wood that has been pre-digested by wood-eating mushrooms would do, it could do great if the mushrooms eat all the resin and impurities in the wood (acting like weathering but much faster). The same goes for hay of course.
Nice work Gentlemen! And yes Schuetzen is the nastiest powder I've ever burned. I have 10 lbs of Grafs (which I believe is Schuetzen) that I can't wait to use up.
Heres an observation i made. Today i uploaded a video on me shooting blackpowder 303 brit in a Lee Metford Ive noticed in a few guns of mine, shooting a rifle that normally keyholes due to a worn barrel just doesnt keyhole with black powder. It is super strange. Ive seen ot with this Metford, steyr 88/95s, M95s, 8mm mausers, mosin nagants, and 308 mausers. Not quite sure why. If you have a rifle that keyholes, try it
I was a carpenter for 21 years and that was definitely Alabama morning wood. Keep us posted on the Garmin, I'm especially interested in battery life. My Caldwells have eaten enough 9v batteries I could have bought the Garmin.
Never heard of it, but I don’t get out much. I’ve had a bunch of comments saying that it’s probably cedar so I’ll have to take your word for it. As for the Garmin, it’s Bitchin
@@EverythingblackpowderI’m fairly certain this one is a joke haha “morning wood”
@@Thee_Sinner lol man I walked right into that one…
So is it out house door😮😅
🤣🤣
Great video. Funny how one tries their best with connaisseur charcoals, and then toilet paper and a piece off the fence take the cake. This opens another question: is old weathered wood better in general by, like the cottonelle, being predigested fiber. So, a next time I propose to try another piece of old weathered wood to see if it's fast, too. Your series combines hobby and applied science, i always am on the lookout for the next installment. Keep going and critics be damned.
Thank you
I got a usable powder from charcoal sourced from a rotting log of ash I found in the woods.
"Black powder go boom, make smoke" is exactly how I measure my black powder at the moment. (I run what I can get for now.) A few more years and I'll be in a place where I can make my own. I'll have a leg up with what works when I get there. Much appreciated.
😂
Those are western red cedar boards. I was a carpenter for 20 years. Western red cedar is what almost 100% of fence slats are made of west of the Mississippi.
Long live the internet! Thanks!
I believe you
Red Fence Board tm, soon in a store near you
I called cedar, TOO, all fences back than are and looked just like that end of life, or are CMU if not chain link now in these parts. Now mine is CMU. No neighbors bulls getting into my yard. Yes he has huge long horns and 16 horses 11 mile from downtown LA Ca. I have hid on top of fork lifts out side the gates of Farmer Johns in Vernon Ca. from Ragging Bulls, and POed BOARS COPs 38's just made them more ANGREE
And I still have a few aged 20 +yrs never in the light of day.
@@In_swedish_the_jam_means_sylt CA we did have a decent amount of Red Wood fence, about 80's started to go cedar more.
Did NOT Suck! I just made my first batch of BP with the ratio of 77-13-10 with a carbon source of Walnut from a huge tree I just had limbed. Unfortunately, I didn't get velocity faster that 1688 with a max spread of 71 using 60 grains. Granted this is my 1st ever attempt to make BP and I don't have a puck press. I had to use the wet ball method and sift for days. The powder was quite dirty, having to clean every 4 shots (I'm not kidding I bruised the palm of my hand getting my ramrod to seat the ball). Then using my 1858 (reproduction) with 30 grains the velocities were at 680-733 and I had one hell of a time rotating the cylinder on the last 2 shots due to the cylinder pin being gummed up. I'm going to keep working at it, now that I have the means to make my own. I just wanted to share with you what I came up with and thank you for all the great knowledge your channel has shared. God Bless!
Keep working on it!
GREAT!! KEEP GOING!! You will have so much pleasure doing it.
Jake you put out some of the best videos anywhere. You don't start out with any preconceived ideas about what will work and what won't. Thank you.
Garmin sort of made all the other chronographs obsolete. Good job.
Your video's don't suck, I always look forward to the next one, keep em coming
Thank you
The viewers also appreciate not having to watch 7 shots not registering along with the reloads. Garmin rocks
The main difference IMHO of old dry rotted wood is all the organic wood resin would be oxidized or metabolised by bacteria, just leaving cellulose and lignin, its been bleached dry by Nature. Lovely results there, going in the notebook...
Makes sense, when I saw the intro I figured it would be something about the naturally aged wood would either be really good or really bad
Hey Jake I'm going to try know this would have got here is about 50 years old I'm going to make some black powder with it and we'll see how it goes we're doing a really good job Jake I enjoy watching everything you do there buddy
@larryward1082 thank you!
I thought the same thing, all the oils and resins are gone. I bet that is why the toilet paper does so well also, no sticky resins to stick to your old hole. LOL
It occurs to me that you may know about black powder making than any other fella walking around in the states! You make great videos and send out great information. I appreciate the work and effort you put into this. Thank you Sir!
Old wood. This reminds me of a story about someone having a violin made from several hundred years old wood that was recovered after the Battle of Monte Cassino in WW2. Said it sounded like a Stradivarius leading them to think it was more about the wood used an not some special varnish. It would be hard to find 500+ year old lumber in the US to test this in powder.
Yes it would!
AMEN
I started DIY Char as a way to char oak for my still's shine to become whisky, now "I smoke pot! once, and char it again! and I chared the mash of my shine?
It's a Journey? Now I retired I have time for my curiosities' Satisfations!
Douglas Fir commonly lives more than 500 years, up to a thousand...but it makes terrible BP. It burns OK, but it's filthy beyond belief...my attempt at it was, anyway. It did make nice sparks for pyrotechnic purposes, though.
From what I’m understanding about antique muzzle loading propellant the best stuff was made mid to late 1800’s. They were using all 1st and 2nd growth wood then that was much denser then what grows now. You can probably find it from someone who salvages old houses. Thank you for explaining y’all do!
It also just makes sense that the best black powder would have been made right at the end of when it was the state of the art. Past 1895 smokeless took over really quickly and it makes sense that at that point black powder started to get worse, since the incentives weren't there anymore.
@@seth094978This. Through all of Jake's testing, I've come to the conclusion that, assuming that your other components are chemically pure, the charcoal doesn't matter all that much. What matters is process. And it's that process that the people of the late black powder era had nailed down but it was all lost rather quickly once smokeless took over. Jake is simply rediscovering the trade secrets of the master powder makers of old
Glad to see you like the Garmin....That old fence timber seems to have matured to a very open grain and would mill better for that. As you have proven before, mill time is a factor and after 48-72 hours the differences between various woods just about disappears. It would seem that the other substances in the peas not destroyed by pyrolysis does cost velocity, but softens the fouling. I doubt that anyone from the beginning of the 20th century has done more detailed research on what makes BP work, and not.
Keep up the good work Jake, your videos are fascinating... 🙂
Thank you
keep doing the tests...saves me a lot of time with you doing the research
Facinating! I have learned more about BP watching your videos than all the other videos, magazine articles and information put together. Thanks for sharing! Phil
Thank you
I'm glad you have the patience and the willingness to keep showing your experiments with antique muzzle loading propellants.
Seems like the ignition time was very fast with this powder, almost no delay.
Good CATCH! I missed it! and I look.
Well Jake I must admit I am just a plinker so speeds really don't matter to me but cleanliness of my powder does thank you so much
PS- for the sake of validation with your new Garmin perhaps -fire 1 or 2 rounds of a known factory load of whatever, i.e. i use Winchester Ranger .45 +P 230 ball which gives 970-980 fps. If i get a quirky result thats how i check my Caldwell.
PSS- as an experiment -drop your sulfur content until you cant get ignition, make up the difference evenly between kno3 and fuel. Sulfur is just lowering ignition temp which is vastly influenced by type of primer and containment of the loaded charge. Cheers
Nice video Jake! The fencepost boards looked to me like they may have been Red Pine, (many different names for it i.e.: Lodgepole Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Yellow Pine, Norwegian Pine ect.) The grain of the wood looked course like a fast-growing soft wood and the Red Pine would be plentiful in your area. Never the less it sure as HELL made some awesome powder whatever it is!
Thank you for continuing the experiment. One enduring black powder hunting dilemma is shot load development and wadding configurations that don't create voids in the pattern. Once you figure out how to achieve "light speed" with antique muzzleloading propellant, developing a hunting load for smoothbore enthusiasts could be your next challenge. It would give you a good reason to get a Kibler Fowler. Thanks again from Wisconsin.
love your stuff EBP but just have to say rest in peace Paul Harrell
Amen
I don’t know how to message the channel, but I have a couple cans of vintage Goex (1966 and 1978) I would love to see compared side by side to the new stuff. Most businesses have prioritized profits through the decades of reorganization. I would gladly send some powder from both of these cans for science and entertainment.
Absolutely Awesome results. Great video and a big Thumbs up!~John
@@WORRO thank you
As a woodworker, I would think that the fence wood is probably white pine. Being so weathered the sap in the wood most likely would have been leached out by the sun and rain. Good stuff! When you smoke a hide as in brain tanned leather, you use punky wood that you find which has been decomposing. If you were to make charcoal from this, I wonder what the results might be. I’ve handled this punky wood at times and you can break it apart fairly easy. Kind of like balsa. So Kind Thanks, Many Blessings and Good Shootin! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania
I've used punk wood for my charcoal and I have to say it does work very good didn't crono it but it does work good and fouling not to bad I used punk wood from old Chinese tallow tree I'm In southeast Texas so we have tallow trees everywhere I have made it from the regular wood from the Tallow trees also and it makes some really good powder that's about the only good use for the Chinese tallow tree
@@texascelt8363 Thanks Much! DaveyJO
Black powder gun go boom, make smoke!!!!!!!! Yeah baby, that's what it's all about, lol.😂
See...?!?!? Now this is what I'm talking about.. you needed this.
A professional is only as good as his knowledge and tools..
You already had the brains..lol..now you have a pro tool to get the results you rely upon.
Good job..good channel worth donating to ...
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you!
I have been using new cedar fence boards, western red cedar, because I have a LOT of it for free.
I'm only in the high 1600 range in my .45 SMR, but that's likely because I can only currently press to 8 tons.
Gives me real hard fouling, in flakes. Have to swab after every 3 shots. Next batch I'll try the peas. I only make powder every 6 weeks so implementing changes comes slowly.
Keep the knowledge coming because I'm not ready to make my own damned videos yet.
Are you using lead milling media? Do you know the density of your powder? Have you checked the weight versus volume?
I have an unlimited supply of shot up target frames from the range I go to. Don't know what kind of wood those are but there is more available than I would ever need. And better than the Amazon boxes i was going to use. But they have not had four decades to dry out, that's for sure.
I dont know shit about making black powder. But it sure is damn cool to watch Your experiments with all the different materials and processes. Great Job.
Those boards look like the cedar or redwood that I've worked with on decks or wood shingled sheds.
That’s very possible
More than likely it's redwoood.
Probably the only thing that could weather that length of time presumably untreated, and hold up at least this well.
Living in the south, a lot of fences are made out of cypress because of their resistance to rot & weather.
You really gonna tease us with that contonelle 72 hours-short?
@@PwntifexMaximus these things take time.
@@PwntifexMaximus next week
@@Everythingblackpowder A little more than 72 hours, it would seem.
No fine wine is ready before it's time...
@Everythingblackpowder take your time there Jake. Glad for everything you are doing to educate us on this.
Great to see another thoughtful vid - thanks so much for sharing your time and genius
Thank you
Just now able to watch. 10:40pm
It's been hotter than a popcorn fart where I live,
and there was a
Brown out.
Aaanny how....
GREAT information as always.👍🍻
So I have been following instruction from you. I went with cottonelle tp, refined kno, tech grade sulfur in 77/13/10 ratio. Still milling because the stupid treadmill shuts off every 100 min, haven't figured out how to bypass the time limitation of the treadmill (any ideas?). Built a shed just for making powder. Got the same pucking die and press for when I get to that point.
Really appreciate your videos and dilligence in striving for the best. You sparked my interest and a new hobby. Awesome job!
Glad to hear it!
I have this finnish reloading book "Messinkihylsyisten keskisytyspatruunoiden jälleenlataus" by Esa Paananen. It says that most common mixture for black powder is 74% KNO3, 10.4% S and 15.6% C. All +-1%. Does not say what carbon source.. Good videos!
To refer back to a previous video,when you said cow pies , I remembered where I saw the making of CARBON BLACK.
It was a Mike Rowe DIRTY JOBS episode where they were making it by burning COW BONES.
Maybe you could try something like chicken feathers! lol Great Channel!!
I wonder how birch bark would do. That stuff is very flammable on its own. It has lots of oils tho, so it would probably not be a very clean burning or easy to clean powder, but i wonder if its flammable qualities would be helpful to velocity or hurtful
Great job with the fence board Jake!
Wow! Amazing guys! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Ben
Hay hello from Wisconsin how are ya bud. You seem like a practical person and I’ve really been thinking about getting a nice muzzy loader for cow pies and giggles. But I’ve seen like 10 people show ten different ways to clean the suckers after shooting. How do you do it. Thanks fella have a great day.
Thanks for another great video. I noticed the powder kind of sticking to your plastic container. I've had good luck taking used dryer sheets and wiping my plastic containers to cut down on the static electricity.
Interesting, thank you
@@Everythingblackpowder yw
I was worried that the worn wood with its crevices would contain dirt and sand from all those arizona dust storms. It sure turned out to be good powder though. Now we need to see some fresh fence board powder 😂. Great video
Cellulose with as little resin as possible. A lot of plant life provides that.
That fence looked pretty red (as far as one can trust the color presented on a digital screen)
Could it have been western red cedar? It was some kind of conifer.
Pretty spicy powder. 👍
It’s very possible
Great stuff again. As a hunter as well as shooter, I’ve come to be more pragmatic about velocity based on field experience with a wide range of cartridges/projectiles and velocities. In the sub 2000fps Black powder/handgun range, at the often much less than 100 yds I shoot game at, +/- 100Fps or even 200 in some cases makes little or no difference in terminal performance. So consistency and sight regulation are more important. And since rapid fouling build up takes the fun out of a range day with my front stuffer, I’d be inclined to choose a cleaner powder, that I could still make shoot to POA. Also I’m curious if you experimented with various ratios of pea charcoal to see what the smallest amount that gives the desired softness of fouling, and minimal velocity loss?
Look I don’t make antique muzzle loading propellant. But I definitely appreciate someone like yourselves taking the time to experiment and make videos covering your results. I may never take up the wonderful hobby of making my own powder, but it’s nice to know if I ever do there’s y’all’s results provide an excellent starting point of experimentation.
Personally for me, if I was to get into something like this a moderately powerful powder with easy to manage fowling is ideal with a second ideal being along the lines of replicating powders to make more historically/ballistically accurate ammunition for things like trapdoor Springfields.
Hmmmm, there is a really old barn falling down near me. The barn boards are looking appealing to me now. Would love to see a comparison of some of your best powders in cartridge guns (.44 WCF and .45-70) to compare fouling and velocity.
I love your antique muzzleloading propellant videos lol
I see fence board and my mental image is the Mr. Fusion home energy reactor stuffed with wood.
😂
BLACK POWDER MATTERS ! ✊
I saw somewhere someone said that "slightly rotted" wood from a fallen tree trunk made some excellent powder. Maybe the same thing is going on with the fenceposts. Also I wonder if there is a "happy medium" on reducing the green peas where you only lose say 25 fps but the foulding is still soft?
You should try freshwater driftwood. It could be that the weathering strips out something.
And you still have to long mill some BBQ charcoal.
Thanks !
Always super interesting !!!
Thank you
LMBO anxious folks for tp powder 72 lol ty guys for your hard work
Being easier to load and being able to be fire more without cleaning would certainly appeal to new shooters or those with hand strength issues.
One method you could use that would rule out the "cold barrel" is to make 5 shots and then throw out the shot furthest from the average (outlier). It is assumed the first shot would be the outlier, but this also takes into account loading variations.
Nice Jake....pretty slick handgun skills 😉
$64 question, what is the dry rot removing or adding to the wood? My guess is less wood protein, leaving cellulose. On that note, how does charcoal from starch compare?
Correct. I haven’t tried starch yet
DON'T take this wrongly, I don't think this wood is dry rot. I think this wood is plainly just weathered with age,with the softer rings wearing away leaving the harder sap rings. Having Worked on wooden boats most of my adult life,Rot comes from wood that gets wet repeatedly which is ripe condition for fungus and mold to generate "DRY ROT"
@@Everythingblackpowderhaven't tried that sugar recipe yet have ya?
I'm on a forum where we made a substitute powder directly using starch (It was really bad) and I still have two boxes of starch left over from that experiment. Never thought to cook the starch into charcoal and make real black powder out of it instead. Now if coffee grounds made good charcoal............
@@Saltpetere hmm coffee grounds? Might work...makes good worm food
Once again you have produced a very enjoyable and interesting video thank you for always sharing with us six stars brother
Thank you kindly
you know Jake being on the west coast i doubt that is pine, pine is rare west of the eastern face or the rockies as lumber most likely it's western red cedar or hemlock which is known to builders as the west coast pine! you know harvest season is coming up i wonder how corn cob charcoal would do?
Very interesting! Love your content!
That makes me wonder about if you took a hunk of dry, desert sourced wood (like from an arroyo or gulch), if it would be as good. Does the seasoning and dessication impact the result?
Great Video once again. It's interesting that you get good results with yet another carbon source.
Have you tried to mill the individual ingredients first to see if that has an effect on the results. I wonder if milling individual ingredients would give you the same results as a 72h milling in a shorter time or if it would all balance out the same overall.
We tested that a few years ago but found we got better results by just milling all the components together. We do mill our charcoal for a couple hours before we mix it with the kno3 and sulfur
As always thanks for the great info. Great to see the Garmin crono. Mine arrives on Monday.
You won’t be disappointed
I would like to see you try some slightly rotted willow wood that's about the constancy of Balsa wood. I have made this before, but I don`t have a chronograph to test it.
Jake. I noticed that you didn't bounce the ramrod as much as you did with the other one. Hence maybe not as compressed=a possible velocity loss? Different loading techniques can effect the end result. I'm not saying that it has just something that I noticed. Great job! Love your videos!!
I noticed that as well
@@dcmtraderyes that did cross my mind. We thought maybe the wider spreads might be from inconsistent loading pressures
I miss the "bounce".
Have you tried Horse Biscuits yet? Might have a kick to em?
I've been a carpenter for 69 years and I can tell you that all the other carpenters are wrong....that is straight-up hard wood.....possibly the greatest looking piece of ash I've ever seen
hmmmm, I've a large pile of old desiccated Barn wood (not painted) from the 1920's that collapsed about 20 years ago.
Great results, but it made me wonder as to how seasoned your wood is before you run it through the retort.
As we have learned over the many centuries of burning firewood, the longer the wood is seasoned, the less creosote is deposited in the chimney. Could the creosote be messing with the results and lowering the velocity of the propellant?
I could supply some 2 or three year seasoned woods, cherry, walnut, and white or red oak, to see if you have any different results.
Sorry to say, I don't have any willow, but I could have some sassafras, come to think of it.
Have you ever used simple green on your patches?
Not as a patch lube. Does it work?
Great video per usual… my only question… what’s with the top strap on your Remington?
Your next April Fools Day video is going to be amazing!
I wonder if the resin content of the wood makes a difference in how crusty the fouling becomes? I still have this brass hex if you want it, thinking it might help cut mill time and clumping during milling.
I’ve heard southern black powder was superior because it was made with dogwood carbon. I’d be interested to see if that makes any difference.
Yeah!!!! 72 hour cottonell! Can’t wait!
You are very consistent with your loading, but i would like to see a series of test with a heavier bullet.
In loading smokless you have a range of choices but i find that some work much better then others. By that i mean some leave behind a lot of unburned powder. The worst being the slower powders with a light or lower sectional density bullet. Although you might get good performance it just doesnt like the pressure curve and does not burn well.
Would some of these powders perform better with a heavier, higher sectional density, bullet? Example, would a lower sulfer content perform better with a heavy bullet? Can you make not just a better BP but a better BP for heavier bullets?
Be interresting to see what a ratio of 77/13/10 with the 13 being 11 fence board and 2 peas would do. I wrote this shortly before you suggested the same thing in the video.
I wish they had that Chronograph when I bought my first one .Now I'm on my third Pro Chrono and my Magneto Speed for a total of about what your new unit cost. The Magneto Speed is good for my Rifles but won't do Hand Guns especially not Cap & Ball Revolvers. The Pro Chrono's work for Revolvers but can be Frustrating as you know. Also If your Revolver has a Scope on it and you tired and trying to finish before you lose the light you may forget to allow for the sight height like I did which brought me to my second Pro Chrono. Oh Well Water Under the Bridge as the saying goes. You commented about people anxious about an awaited video ,sounds like you've become the Black Powder Version of a Soap Opera ( What Will Jake Shoot Next). You got me thinking obout that Old Split Rail Fence in my Front Yard tha needs to be replaced.
To determine the identity of the fence wood, drop by a forest service station and ask if they can tell.
Id be interested in seeing reduced percentage of pea carbon. Like finding the right balance of smoother cleaning with minimal loss of velocity
As Matt Damen said in the Martian...,"You scienced the shit outtaa that"😂. Love your videos. Hoffman reproductions said silver Maple was"ok"for carbon source. I cut down a huge one in my yard a while ago and made charcoal. Worked well for my. 69 cal and 1.75 inch cannons but i just got a traditions .50 cal Kentucky flintlock. That stuff was way too dirty...2 shots and it needed cleaning. Got some balsa milling now hope that works better. Again love your videos!!!
@@thomasboylan3751 excellent! Balsa is one of my favorites
Supposedly, GOEX uses maple. I haven't tried the harder maples but sycamore (large leaf maple) works well if you have access to it.
Peas are mad of many different things. Its likely just one that changes the fouling. If you can get just that, then theoretically you could use less for the same result, and as such you might maintain more velosity. An example maybe pure pea protien.
Thanks!
Thank you!
The thing I'm interested in is that powder and cotton wood powder in your 303 biritsh along with your 30/06.
Cleaner will be helpful if you want to load the powder into brass cart and use due to the lack of smokeless.
Very nice... (Looking at neighbour's old fence...) I am just going to get off my butt and try making my own powder, since getting powder is getting harder.
I’m beginning to think that the species of ‘wood’ isn’t really that important. Sure, some seem better than others but I don’t think there is a ‘Holy Grail’ wood species. Your fence boards are likely some kind of conifer which all tend to be relatively low density. I’d have thought that the high resin / extractives content ( compared to deciduous trees like Willow, Cottonwood, Balsa) would have some kind of contamination effect but clearly they either burn off or are of no concern. All of these woods are relatively low density compared to say Oak, Maple, Locust, Osage etc. I’m guessing the softer woods are processed more easily ( pulverised more quickly) and that the harder woods might well be just as good once they have been processed to the same level- which may take a lot longer. It’s possible your degrading fence palings were processed to a certain state in 48 hrs that fresh cottonwood might achieve after 60 or 72 hrs and Sugar Maple might take a week.
My point is, while there might be some unknown chemical composition of the wood which helps or hinders the quality, my gut tells me it’s more likely a physical property that has the bigger effect.
I really would love to see some samples of good, bad and ugly powder dust ( prior to pucking) or charcoal dust under high magnification.
Got a university nearby with an electron microscope?
This idea is a tad crazy, and I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to do it, due to how time consuming it would be to collect. But it would be interesting to see dandelion fluff be used as a carbon source, or perhaps dried dandelion stems.
72 hour cottenelle sure, but what about other refined paper products? A ream of printer paper? Card stock? Napkins? Paper towels?
P.S. I did work in a hardwood lumber yard for a few years in the mid 80's 😁
Yup... all the saccharides and terpenoids have either been beaten apart by environmental conditions or eaten by various microbes/fungi, so all you have is your cellulose, lignin, and various entrained salts that act as catalysts.
Wonder if the copper content of modern pressure treated wood has more or less catalyzing effect....
I wonder how well would the soft rotten wood in trees work. (Punk would). They suggest it for fire starter kits if you don't have cotton. The biochar it produces is supposed to be extra flammable.
I wonder how wood that has been pre-digested by wood-eating mushrooms would do, it could do great if the mushrooms eat all the resin and impurities in the wood (acting like weathering but much faster).
The same goes for hay of course.
Nice work Gentlemen! And yes Schuetzen is the nastiest powder I've ever burned. I have 10 lbs of Grafs (which I believe is Schuetzen) that I can't wait to use up.
Graf's is Wano.
@@grizsgarage Thanks for the info. Either way it's nasty stuff.
Heres an observation i made. Today i uploaded a video on me shooting blackpowder 303 brit in a Lee Metford
Ive noticed in a few guns of mine, shooting a rifle that normally keyholes due to a worn barrel just doesnt keyhole with black powder. It is super strange.
Ive seen ot with this Metford, steyr 88/95s, M95s, 8mm mausers, mosin nagants, and 308 mausers. Not quite sure why. If you have a rifle that keyholes, try it
@@theblindsniper9130 thats interesting.
Yes, antique muzzle loading propellant is just dirty. Fact of life. I like the dry wood.
That’s some good powder
Thanks again for the educational content
You bet