25 replies to this topic

[rocket]

My god thats shinny, it looks like chips of black glass. Never seen BP like that before. How did you get it like that?

[marble]

I have never seen bp take on a shiny look, you must of added something..

[maxman]

I am about to make a new batch of BP and am intrested in Polishing the grains after i have corned it..I have found an old batch of powder that i have kept in an airtight drum...The grains varied from 4 mesh to 30 + mesh..I half filled my Hexagonal Milling Jar with this BP i added a few grams of Graphite..and left it to run for a few hours..

I have noticed some of the larger grains 4 to 8 mesh...were smoother with no jagged edges there was a slight sheen to the larger grains but overall the powder did not shine like i was hoping..Any ideas how long i should tumble the powder for?.

Yes he did! if you read the post, sasman says that he polished it with a few grams of graphite!

[Creepin_pyro]

That's some sexy BP you've got there! I'm definitely going to give glazing a go next time I make some corned BP!

[Pyromaster2003]

That looks like the lift powder that air b**bs used to use, i opened one years ago to see what was inside and found that the air b**b was sat on half a teaspoon of granuals that looked the same as yours all shiny. I put a granual on the floor tried to light it with a lighter, it took about 10 seconds to ignite so looks like it is a bit more resistant to ignition than uncoated powder. How long did you run the mill for??

[TzaRocket]

Can you record how that shinny BP burns and show us?Tell me what exactely did you put in that BP?

[Creepin_pyro]

Tell me what exactely did you put in that BP?

Graphite powder.

I have seen some commercial glazed BP, and while it was shiny, it wasn't nearly as lustrous as that!

[TzaRocket]

OK.That ansers my question but I know from my own experiments that BP whit pure carbon does not burn how it should.Am I wrong?

[portfire]

The B.P is still made with normal charcoal but it is coated in graphite powder

[TzaRocket]

Oh now I understand,thanks.

[sasman]

I havent really tested the glazed powder.. i intend to use it for lift for my next batch of 6" shells...so will see how it goes, glazed powder does burn slightly slower than unglazed..but burning a loose pile of powder you cant see the difference..I intend do do some accurate testing of my BP using my sonys 250 frames per second super slomotion that will enable very accurate timing..

To glaze your powder just tumble your grains with some graphite powder for a few hours..