you sure weren't kidding about it being hard to get I tried a few days ago to order some cuz I'm down to about 5 lb and there just isn't any out there I was hoping this post was about actually manufacturing your own powder LOL
I saw midway USA had some a few months ago selling one pound at a time so didn't have to buy 25 lbs I'm still kicking my self for not buying some as for homemade here you go
How to Make Black Powder
To make your own black powder at home, you need only 3 fairly easy to obtain ingredients. You can buy a 5 pound bag of 99.8% pure potassium nitrate for $14 and a 1 pound bag of sulfur for $2.99 online at dudadiesel.com.
Then just make your own charcoal. Activated charcoal isn’t really good for making black powder. You want regular, raw charcoal.
Ingredients for black powder:
Saltpeter (potassium nitrate)
Charcoal
Sulfur
The ratio for the ingredients in black powder is:
Five parts (75%) potassium nitrate
One part charcoal (15%)
2/3 of one part sulfur (10%)
An example of a mixture with these proportions would be 5 ounces of potassium nitrate, 1 ounce of charcoal, and 2/3 ounce sulfur.
Here are another couple of recipes for black powder:
5 ounces potassium nitrate
0.9 ounces charcoal
0.8 ounces sulfur
Here is a sulfur-less mixture for black powder:
5 ounces potassium nitrate
1.2 ounces charcoal
So you see, every recipe is right around the same proportions.
All percentages are by weight, NOT volume, so an accurate small measure scale is a must. You can use triple beam scales or a digital scale. Precise measurements are vital for the results desired. Currently, in modern society, all of these components are fairly easy and perfectly legal to acquire.
You can order the ingredients online currently, as mentioned above. But in the event that is no longer an option and you have to seek the ingredients elsewhere, many common products contain the chemicals needed for making black powder.
One example is certain garden sprays contain the potassium nitrate and sulfur required. You pour out the liquid and let the water evaporate out, then scrape up the residue. Then you only have to make the charcoal and measure your proportions
STEP 1) Grind each dry ingredient separately
STEP 2) Mix dry ingredients and grind together for approximately 10 minutes to mix thoroughly
STEP 3) Add small amounts of water to the mixture and continue to mix approximately 20 minutes until the consistency of clay then form into a ball (Author’s Note) You can mix the ingredients dry but it doesn’t perform as well as wet mixed.
STEP 4) Corn the mixture (make granules) by rubbing over a screen with 1.5 mm holes onto a sheet of paper, then let sit until dry. Then gather it and rub it through the screen again.
Lastly, sift the contents through a kitchen flour sifter to remove the dust. Put the dust in a new batch of mix so it doesn’t go to waste. TRY AT YOU'RE OWN RISK (edited because accidentally copy paste an entire web page)