RAEDWALD
40 Cal.
Corning was first made by pressing damp meal powder through some species of sieve or colander. Later the meal was first pressed into a hard 'cake' and then broken up and sieved into much harder grains. By the 19th century the 'cake' was broken up by passing through rollers of differing spaces and then sieved into grains. Glazing began with the harder grains to polish them smoother and reduce the influence of dampness and friction in transport. Marketing then brought in the pernicious use of graphite to make them look well glazed without the trouble of proper glazing by rolling them in drums for hours. It does slightly help with the prevention of dampness though. Bill K has opened my eyes to how complex black powder can be despite the simplicity of the basic formula. It is still not fully understood.
Be careful with older references to British powder. Especially service powder. Not only is there the perennial confusion between 'dram'(27 grains) and 'drachm' (60 grains) but sometimes the pound is the Apothecaries (of 12 ounces and of 5,760 grains) and sometimes the Avoirdupois Pound (of 16 ounces and 7,000 grains).
Then, as now, there was good and expensive and cheap and poor. This applied to armies as well as individuals. Quality to quality, in that sense, the best today is as good as in the past but just shy of the 'moist burning' best of the end of the black powder period. The worst of today (Chinese, effectively firework) is almost as bad as the bad back in the day. The ancestors of most of us would covet the best but only have pockets for the low middling sort. Today most black powder is for military artillery iniatiator use, blasting or for fireworks. Small arms powder is a very, very tiny proportion of the market.
As far as British service power was concerned, the circa 1750 powder was rubbish from fraudulent contractors. By the early 19th century it could stand comparison with the best service powders of the world and in the latter part of the century it could stand comparison with best of commercial sporting powders.
Be careful with older references to British powder. Especially service powder. Not only is there the perennial confusion between 'dram'(27 grains) and 'drachm' (60 grains) but sometimes the pound is the Apothecaries (of 12 ounces and of 5,760 grains) and sometimes the Avoirdupois Pound (of 16 ounces and 7,000 grains).
Then, as now, there was good and expensive and cheap and poor. This applied to armies as well as individuals. Quality to quality, in that sense, the best today is as good as in the past but just shy of the 'moist burning' best of the end of the black powder period. The worst of today (Chinese, effectively firework) is almost as bad as the bad back in the day. The ancestors of most of us would covet the best but only have pockets for the low middling sort. Today most black powder is for military artillery iniatiator use, blasting or for fireworks. Small arms powder is a very, very tiny proportion of the market.
As far as British service power was concerned, the circa 1750 powder was rubbish from fraudulent contractors. By the early 19th century it could stand comparison with the best service powders of the world and in the latter part of the century it could stand comparison with best of commercial sporting powders.
