My research is turning up a lot of contradictory answers. Is it legal to make small quantities of black powder for, say, muzzle loaders?
Thanks,
Rob
Legal where? You need to specify your jurisdiction.
What law do you think you would be breaking?
Of course, the moment you start buying sufficient quantities of material that has no other normal use - ie. saltpeter - some Nosy Parker in the chemical store is going to report you thinking you are a terrorist making bombs. Ditto if you buy large quantities of fertilizer and are not obviously a farmer.
Canada, for example has laws against buying or selling (not sure about possesing) ammunition without the FAC - Firearms Acquisition Certificate. Just because you make your own guns or ammo does not in Canada exempt you from following the gun control laws. You need an FAC to own a gun, even if you didn’t buy it. Safe storage rules also apply.
Then there are laws about the storage and labelling of explosives, safe transporting, etc. Having a plain can full of homemade black powder in the back seat probably violates a dozen safety laws in any country.
Are there no garden supply houses where you live, no Asian grocery stores?
No barnyards of waste?
Do they actually sell ammonium nitrate at garden supply stores? I’ve just seen little fertilizer pellets with the NPK rating.
Sorry for leaving this out. I live in Austin, TX. I can certainly buy it legally. Also, let’s leave aside where to get the raw materials or whether or not it is sensible to make it when I can buy it.
Thanks,
Rob
For black powder, you want potassium nitrate, not ammonium nitrate. I had a college research project where I tried to buy some in the local garden supply stores (rather than spending $$$ at the big chemical suppliers), but I had no luck. But according to my research at the time, you can buy bags of potassium nitrate in some parts of the country, and it’s more commonly available as “stump remover”. It’s certainly not impossible to find.
And, historically, it was produced from manure or other common wastes.
Charcoal is obviously trivial to find. Dunno about sulfur, off the top of my head.
When I was a kid you could get potassium nitrate off the shelf at any drugstore; didn’t even need an adult to buy it for you. Sulfur was plentiful in my chemistry set. Charcoal briquettes were in the garage. 
When i was a kid (70s), you could buy both Saltpeter and Sublimed sulfur at a local drug store. You were 2/3 of the way to black powder. Both were in little tin boxes with a lid you had to pry off with a knife-edge. The pharmacist would ask what you wanted saltpeter for - we were told the stock answer was “for my dog”.
I have no idea what sublimed sulfur was for.
We added iron filings to give a little bit of sizzle.
Interestingly, that same pharmacy also sold ammonium nitrate in the same sort of packaging as the saltpeter and sulfur.
Ammonium nitrate’s no good for gunpowder. You want potassium nitrate, ‘stump begone’; or, in the asian grocery’s spice aisle, ‘nitre’.
As both a licensed pyrotechnician (in Canada) and a hobbyist, I can tell you that without the proper licensing and storage facilities in Canada, it’s very illegal to manufacture your own black powder. I honestly couldn’t tell you how it is in the states, but the hobbyists I know down there are usually a bit guarded about how they make and obtain their powder. Regardless of legality, it’s always going to be an issue if you’re pulled over and have 5lbs of raw non-commercial BP in your car; whether you’re heading to the local muzzle-loader range or not.
KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) is used very commonly in hydroponic and fertigation operations as an additive to the nutrient rich solutions therein. I’ve purchased 50lb bags (as a contractor in these industries, mind you) with little to no problem. This is probably due to my using them for their intended purpose, but I’ve never heard of them denying purchase. Sulfur is also very, very easy to obtain.
I do know that in the States, the BTF is now starting to crack down very hard on the sale of oxidizers (ie: KNO3) to people without proper licensing. For instance, Firefox out of Pocatello is now no longer shipping to Canada as well as limiting purchases to 1lb of oxidizer to any one customer per year.
Oh right. I had jumped from gun powder to general explosives.
It was legal right up until the time my Dad found my little factory…
I once worked in a mine. A guy drpped a bag of explosives (AMEX) 300 feet down a chute; they caught him going out the door on surface. He cried “I didn’t mean to kill them…”
It’s ammonium nitrate and diesel. They had to demonstrate to him that you can hit the stuff with a hammer and it still won’t go off. It takes a blasting cap to create a real explosion. All he did was spread 50lbs of orange powder all over the workplace down below.
Saltpeter is used to cure meat.
Again, I know how to make it and I know where to get the materials I need. I am well out of my bomb-making years and sufficiently well-to-do to buy it if need be, so I wasn’t even planning to make it. I just want to know if it is legal to make it (in Austin, TX).
Thanks,
Rob
They made it look very difficult to get something usefull on Mythbusters. The stuff they ground together was more of a foomf than a pow.
Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil is ANFO, not AMEX, although if it was an orange powder it could have been a commercial variant with a few additions.
You’re completely correct about the insensitivity of AN-based explosives though. In fact, plain ANFO won’t even go off with a blasting cap - you need a booster charge to fire it. A 1lb TNT stick is the standard ANFO booster.
Missed that one! But charcoal quality, the kind of mechanical mixing (you need to mash the ingredients together somewhat) and the degree of confinement when it’s ignited are all important.
Incidentally, if you’re firing percussion-cap muzzleloaders, you can dispense with the sulphur. It’s main role is to lend spark sensitivity, and if you leave it out, you get a lot less smoke. Don’t try it with flintlocks or matchlocks though - you’ll get a lot of hangfires.
I bought some KNO3 from a drugstore in the '90s; not to make black powder, but to make nitrated paper for combustible cartridges for my Colts. I have lots left (I bought a large ‘jar’ of it) and I haven’t been shooting BP lately, so I haven’t looked for any recently.
Mythbusters has been mentioned. I saw the episode where they tried to recreate Captain Kirk’s canon from the ‘Arena’ episode, and it took them many tries to come up with ‘something’. Though I haven’t tried it myself, making BP is actually fairly involved if you want to make it right (that’s the reason I haven’t tried – it’s easier to just buy it), and there’s some potential danger as well.