Be careful with Black Powder...You never know!

[CW the ShopDog]

John Smith apparently!

Umm… Nylon was created by DuPont company and commercialized in 1937. It is a wholly synthetic modern material. Certainly you jest with your anachronism…

 

[CW the ShopDog]

John Smith apparently!

No he was too busy reading Muzzelloading forum posts on the Internet and the lithium battery in his laptop overheated and caused the explosion.

 

[Marplot]

Oh, come on! I guess it could have happened, but with the extent of his injuries, he could not have survived!

"The resulting explosion tore Smith's flesh 'from his body and thighs....in a most pitiful manner', removing a section of his midriff 'nine or ten inches square' including his genitals...."

But he would not able to "Poke-a-hontis" ever again!

Either the injuries were not severe, or this could be a "Tale" spun out of an event concocted over time with "embellishments" to horrifically frighten people.

In either event we need to be very careful with black powder! I sure as hell will not be sleeping with black powder!

 

[waksupi]

Umm… Nylon was created by DuPont company and commercialized in 1937. It is a wholly synthetic modern material. Certainly you jest with your anachronism…

Ya think????!!!!!~

 

[FLTaft1948]

I am thinking. Rowing back 60 miles without an outboard motor....I almost cry when I burn my hand on a skillet! And a 2 month sea voyage? Tough son of a gun...he almost met his doom earlier when the Indians had him tied up and were beating his head against a large rock when Pocahontas saved him! I think he was 27 at the time.

One of the old timers, Mr. McMahan, lived on my island in the early 1900's. His wife went into labor one winter's night and was having difficulties. He got into his dory and rowed 10 miles, at night and against the current to Bath, ME to get a doctor. The doc wasn't available so he rowed 10 miles back to the island, checked in on his wife, then rowed 11 miles to Boothbay Harbor to get another doc and 11 miles back home. The next morning he rowed the doc the 11 miles back to Boothbay Harbor and rowed home again (another 11 miles). He then went out for a day of tending his traps.
Yeah, those old ones were a tough bunch! (or as my BIL recently said, " Ohhh!, ohhh!, ohhh!, Shxt!, Help me, I've got Grand Marnier in my paper cut!). Nope they don't make them like that anymore!

 

[Mike in FL]

I was an explosives tech for the state police. I learned that pyrotechnics as in fireworks

PROVEN
THROUGH
NUMEROUS
EXAMPLES
THROUGH
HISTORY
STATIC
ELECTRICITY
WAS
THE
NUMBER
ONE
CAUSE
FOR
LAND
BASED
BLACK
POWDER
MAGAZINES
EXPLODING

Guys, you need to be MORE PRECISE in your wording, because, lightning IS a static electric charge. Lightning rods weren't installed on all land based black powder magazines for decoration.

I know what you mean is that the static electric charges experience by most folks in their homes, won't set off modern made black powder, but it's NOT intuitive understanding

LD

part of my job as an explosives tech with a state police agency was to dispose of fireworks which are illegal there. I learned sparks emitted, even kid's sparklers, "cold sparks that are neither hot nor flammable.

 

[Mike in FL]

I was an explosives tech for the state police. I learned that pyrotechnics as in fireworks

part of my job as an explosives tech with a state police agency was to dispose of fireworks which are illegal there. I learned sparks emitted, even kid's sparklers, "cold sparks that are neither hot nor flammable.

Another point is that a copper item such as might be used in k napping hammers also produce cold sparks. Never tried that, even though those sparks are bits of metal (think frizzen) and not the flint.

 

[earlwb]

Static electricity and nylon clothing are the worst enemy when carrying or using black powder .
Feltwad

I was taught that you never ever shake a can or bottle of black powder to see/feel how full it is as it could build up a static charge with the particles and a tiny spark could set it off on you.

I’ll still error on the side of caution with black powder.

John Smith was probably wearing some silk. Silk was sort of like nylon cloth today. But very expensive though.

 

[andy52]

Static electricity can be deadly when I was in the Navy doing underway replenishment with choppers one person would touch the chopper with a grounding rod as it was hovering to discharge the frame because the rotors create a lot of static charges, plenty enough to kill a person.

 

[Carnavore Phil]

Ouch!

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Aren’t modern powders coated with graphite, specifically to protect them from static electricity? I could be very wrong though…

The graphite actually coats the grains and appears as a sheen on the granules (sort of a semi-gloss). The graphite is specifically used to help repel moisture and keep the powder dry longer than it would without it. When I lived in Vermont, our reenactment group had a lot of BP options open to us because Black Powder is used at slate quarries and one of them was just a few miles from our house. They use BP because it produces a lower frequency shock wave that breaks off larger chunks of slate. We originally used FFFg powder in our blank cartridges. Then we found out there was an equivalent cannon grade of BP that did not have the graphite coating for a significantly lower price.

So we would buy that "cannon powder" in bulk in two 25-lb. plastic bags and then fill everyone's empty GOEX cans (back when GOEX came in cans) with blacked out labels so we didn't accidentally use it for hunting. We'd roll our own cartridges using that powder. One of the guys had a sunken vault in his back yard where he stored the excess supply if we had any left over. It worked great for the blanks we used in reenactments because the powder was in pre-filled cartridges in our cartridge boxes and we only primed the pan immediately before firing. So not much exposure to moisture that way. There wasn't really any problem with it getting too damp to use.

However, as I found out years later when I lived in Virginia, priming the pan and walking through the woods with it on a what I'd call a "real" humid day (not like what "humid" is known as along the West Coast) would turn it to soup pretty quickly.

 

[Mike in FL]

The graphite actually coats the grains and appears as a sheen on the granules (sort of a semi-gloss). The graphite is specifically used to help repel moisture and keep the powder dry longer than it would without it. When I lived in Vermont, our reenactment group had a lot of BP options open to us because Black Powder is used at slate quarries and one of them was just a few miles from our house. They use BP because it produces a lower frequency shock wave that breaks off larger chunks of slate. We originally used FFFg powder in our blank cartridges. Then we found out there was an equivalent cannon grade of BP that did not have the graphite coating for a significantly lower price.

So we would buy that "cannon powder" in bulk in two 25-lb. plastic bags and then fill everyone's empty GOEX cans (back when GOEX came in cans) with blacked out labels so we didn't accidentally use it for hunting. We'd roll our own cartridges using that powder. One of the guys had a sunken vault in his back yard where he stored the excess supply if we had any left over. It worked great for the blanks we used in reenactments because the powder was in pre-filled cartridges in our cartridge boxes and we only primed the pan immediately before firing. So not much exposure to moisture that way. There wasn't really any problem with it getting too damp to use.

However, as I found out years later when I lived in Virginia, priming the pan and walking through the woods with it on a what I'd call a "real" humid day (not like what "humid" is known as along the West Coast) would turn it to soup pretty quickly.

A question I ask myself daily: why did you move from VA? I lived in the mountains (Fincastle if you know where that is) and had it made. Cold, clear trout streams, live banjo music, and lots of mountains to play mountain man. Here, the deer are the size of miniature goats and squirrels like chipmunks with fluffy tails. I know of no hunting locations not swampy, thick, and snakey. Lord help me. Good fishing though.

 

[deerstalkert]

Even without graphite, it is very difficult to set off black powder with an electrical current.

Here is me trying to set off some home made BP (no graphite) using a taser:

you should be thankful that powder didn't go off. the heat generated would have given you some serious burns, no matter how your fast your reaction.
had a buddy that lit off 50g of bp on a scrap of carpet with a zippo. third degree burns to his hand and wrist.

 

[French Colonial]

Typical of you contrarians to take things totally in to never never land.

You know what the subject is, static electricity from normal activities in the shop, woods or target range that has never set off black powder.

You should start a new thread about having open black powder containers while getting picked up by an overhead helicopter or holding the container over your head during a lightning storm. Always taking things to the ridiculous.

 

[flntlokr]

Sounds to me like the rest of 'em had had just about enough of him, the way I read sign.

They don't say whether he was smoking in bed, or had a naked candle or lamp burning. There had to be a source of ignition somewhere.

 

[andy52]

Typical of you contrarians to take things totally in to never never land.

You know what the subject is, static electricity from normal activities in the shop, woods or target range that has never set off black powder.

You should start a new thread about having open black powder containers while getting picked up by an overhead helicopter or holding the container over your head during a lightning storm. Always taking things to the ridiculous.

My biggest concern when shooting is that I'll forget to put the plug back in my horn and a hot spark will drop down the tube and I'll have a grenade on my hip....

 

[Sam squanch]

Probably when the first kids were born in the colony, they all looked like John Smith….then a plot was hatched…

 

[DimWitworth]

On page 228 of the great book "Savage Kingdom"and I quote:
"Captain John Smith, rowed back to Jamestowne with his small company of men. That night, he decided to sleep on board the boat. As he lay on the deck, an autumn dew collection on the tarpaulin pulled over the shoulders, his gunpowder bag, which was slung from his belt, and lay in his lap, somehow ignited. The resulting explosion tore Smith's flesh 'from his body and thighs....in a most pitiful manner', removing a section of his midriff 'nine or ten inches square' including his genitals. To quench the
'tormenting fire frying him in his clothes', he threw himself overboard into the river, nearly drowning as his men struggled to pull him back into the boat.
'In this state, without either surgeon, or surgery he was to go near 60 miles' downriver reaching Jamestowne."

You see fellas...even back in the day sh_ _ can happen! Be careful!!

Don’t carry a bag of gun powder on your lap? Okay.

 

[beyu]

I was taught that you never ever shake a can or bottle of black powder to see/feel how full it is as it could build up a static charge with the particles and a tiny spark could set it off on you.

I doubt that would be a problem — any more than an old time hunter chasing a wounded deer and the powder in his powder horn exploding because his running over rough ground shook it up?

 

[earlwb]

I doubt that would be a problem — any more than an old time hunter chasing a wounded deer and the powder in his powder horn exploding because his running over rough ground shook it up?

It may be because of finely ground powder being suspended in air versus a pile of it together. You know various innocuous things in powder dust form in the air has proven to be very explosive. Thus a can of BP thst has some BP dust in it gets shook and then the dust gets suspended in the air in the can. A spark and boom. I remember seeing warning labels on non-dairy creamer containers in the past having a warning about it too. I now remember reading about some guys conducting BP tests with dust and without dust getting a boom with the dust but not with just the powder.

Learned new word phrase looking this up some more too. “Avoid Daizdein ignition sources”. That is basically organic legumes and other organic substances that can become very combustible in dust form.