Black Powder terms

[MadMat]

I've noticed a couple posts where to me it seemed that some people were misinformed as to the different terms used for black powder.  I feel it is to everyone's benefit if we are all on the same page when it comes to describing something as basic to firework making as BP. This will avoid confusion and will help with safety. These are the terms as I have known them and for over ten years they have served me well. Feel free to discuss or correct me as you see fit. OK... When the ingredients for black powder (75% KNO3, !5% charcoal and 10% sulfur) are ground finely and then simply sifted together, the resulting powder is called Polverone. It is mainly used as a flammable material to fill in the gaps between stars in a shell. If you run polverone or simply the ingredients through a ball mill for "X" number of hours the result is called "Mill Dust". When mill dust is either granulated or corned to specific sized grains it is now black powder/ gun powder.

I know there are sites out there that describe granulating polverone with a "wet method" or "precipitation method", thereby eliminating the need for a ball mill. And I guess there are people out there that have made decent black powder with these methods, so, I guess there is some room for variations in the terms, but still knowing these terms and the differences will goo a long way in stopping miscommunication.

 

Edited April 28 by MadMat

[DavidF]

I've made screen-mixed powders that beat Goex in apples to apples comparisons, so I wouldn't necessarily call them polverone. The powders were pucked, corned, and sorted for grade. The key for me was to mill the charcoal component to an extremely fine state. It seems like you are defining polverone as 'weak black powder', where I think of it as a weaker different product that usually has a binder in it.

The mixture you describe as polverone is also referred to as scratch mix sometimes. If it's made with commercial airfloat charcoal, it makes a great outer layer prime. 

Not looking to disagree here, maybe just saying not all "polverone" is too weak to be called black powder

[MadMat]

I never meant to call polverone "weak". I made no distinctions about the burn speed of the different categories. I only wanted to point out the processes used to make them. 

[DavidF]

OK. 

[MadMat]

David, I noticed something else. You mentioned that you corned your screen mixed powder. If you read the last paragraph I wrote, you will notice I mentioned that. Since you corned your powder, it would no longer be considered polverone, but rather black powder produced by a method other than ball milling the mixture.