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Black Powder
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Black Powder
Black powder is explosive. Whereas modern smokeless powders are considered to be flammable, the slightest spark of static electricity or physical trauma may set black powder off. Never store large quantities or try to produce it yourself. When loading a black powder firearm, pour the powder from a can or flask into a measuring device. Then pour the small charge from the measure into the firearm. A small ember in the bore could ignite the charge being dispensed. Keep the muzzle pointed safely away from the face when loading, and when ramming a ball down the bore, use only that part of the hand or those fingers you won't need in the future. Please read all the cautions and warnings on the factory powder containers, and, when empty, dispose of then carefully. Faldala's Black Powder Handbook and Lyman's black powder reloading manual are two of the best sources of information.
It is generally believed that the Chinese discovered black powder. At the end of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo reported their using it in fireworks, and Europeans wasted no time harnessing its energy for more sinister purposes. Black powder is made with three ingredients. Charcoal, or partially burned wood, provides carbon. Sulpher powder helps everything react violently. And lots of oxygen, concentrated in potassium nitrate, fuels the explosion. Their sudden reaction produces large, white volumes of carbon dioxide, sulpher dioxide, and other gasses, along with a searing flame and a gummy black residue that necessitates frequent cleaning during shooting. For illustrative purposes only, here is a more complete description of the combination process. Again, please don't try this at home. Manufactured black powder is widely available and relatively inexpensive when compared to reconstructive surgery.
Bird and bat droppings are a similar source of concentrated oxygen. It could be speculated that the origin of this explosive goes back in time to some cave dwellers of the far east. If they built a cooking fire over charcoal remains of a previous fire on a vein of sulpher near nesting birds or inside a bat cave, they may have discovered an early meaning to the concept of fast food.
Moisture will degrade black powder, so keep your powder dry. Moisture will try to combine with the fired black powder residue and quickly forms a corrosive sulfurous acid. After shooting and cleaning a black powder arm, a second cleaning within a few days would be a good precaution against rust. The few black powder arms that survive today must have been kept very clean by their successive owners.
Powder Horn Inscription
See the Black Powder Firearms page for selected replicas that are offered.
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