Why is there no granulation size 6F ??

[roundball]

-----how many on here would buy 6f Goex if it was available?----- :shake: :shake: :shake:

The question was one of simple curiosity..."why is there no 6F granulation"?

And no one came up with the answer, including you.

There was nothing asked about using it, who would use it, why they would use it, what they would use it for, etc, etc, etc, etc :shake: :shake: :shake:

 

[brubincam]

-----I was just curious also----- :surrender: :surrender: :surrender:

 

[Tumblernotch]

It could be because the mesh sizes used in grading 6f powder falls within the range covered by both 5f and 7f. I only have the sizes for blasting powder and that includes 6FA powder, but I'd say that other than small differences in size, the same probably goes for military and sporting grades as well.

Grade Mesh Range

5FA 20 - 50

6FA 30 - 50

7FA 40 - 100

 

[Ohio Rusty]

I have found and powder finer that 4F doesn't burn as well in the pan, or faster. You would think if 4F burns faster than 3F, then 5 or 7F would burn faster then 4F. That isn't the case at all. A few years ago I had a can of 5F powder. I could hardly get the stuff to light in the pan. I poured a small pile in the driveway and had a dickens of a time getting it to POOF with a lit match. The I put 4F and 5F in small separate piles and lit them both. The 4F is definitely faster.

I came to the conclusion that when you have powder grains that fine (5F or finer), the smaller the grains, the less oxygen you have between the grains making the extra fine powder reluctant to ignite. When it does burn, it doesn't burn as fast as 4F The fine powder just doesn't get the resources it needs to burn quickly in a powder pan. My conclusion is the finest pan powder you should use is 4F, as that powder will give reliable ignition. Any powder finer than 4F is useless for muzzleloading.
Ohio Rusty >

 

[roundball]

You may have had a bad batch of powder...each smaller granulation indeed burns faster than the one preceeding it...ie: 7F was used as a flash gun in the early days of photography its so fast.

BP doesn't need oxygen between the kernels to burn...it generates its own oxygen as it burns...just has to be ignited and it takes over after that. ie: BPCR shooters routinely pack & compress powder charges tightly inside sealed cartridge case and once ignited in there it does fine.

I posted the Goex reply up above...they said there was simply no (consumer/industry) application that required the specific speed of a 6F granulation so one was never prepared/packaged.

 

[Tumblernotch]

I have to agree. I've used 7f as priming before and could tell a difference in the speed. However, I don't think it would make a lot of difference in one's shooting. The big problem with the 7f powder I've seen is, is the fact that it's unglazed and in humid weather absorbs moisture very quickly and that will make it slower to ignite. In a dry environment, such as an indoor studio, it would be excellent for photography flash powder. It would also work well packaged in a small cartridge as an igniter for a larger demolition charge or cannon cartridge. I believe for everyday shooting, 4f is as fine as one would need. 7f would be handy for putting in the touchhole if one wanted to remove a dryball and didn't want to pull it or didn't have access to a CO2 discharger, at least if the humidity was low.

Apparently, according to the charts I found, 6f must have existed at some point and 6FA has had a use, but I haven't found any current makers or users of it.
:thumbsup:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

From another site's references:

Sporting Grade Black Powder
Whaling 32/64" mesh 3% held 4 mesh 12% pass
Life Saving 6 mesh 3% held 12 mesh 12% pass
Cannon 6 mesh 3% held 12 mesh 12% pass
Saluting 10 mesh 3% held 20 mesh 12% pass
Fg 12 mesh 3% held 16 mesh 12% pass
FFg 16 mesh 3% held 30 mesh 12% pass
FFFg 20 mesh 3% held 50 mesh 12% pass
FFFFg 40 mesh 3% held 100 mesh 12% pass

Blasting Grade Black Powder
FA 20/64" mesh 3% held 5 mesh 12% pass
2FA 4 mesh 3% held 12 mesh 12% pass
3FA 10 mesh 3% held 16 mesh 12% pass
4FA 12 mesh 3% held 20 mesh 12% pass
5FA 20 mesh 3% held 50 mesh 12% pass
6FA 30 mesh 3% held 50 mesh 12% pass
7FA 40 mesh 3% held 100 mesh 12% pass
Meal D 40 mesh 3% held
Meal F 100 mesh 3% held
Meal XF 140 mesh 3% held

*** Shows maximum percentages held or passed by the sizing screens. Except where noted in inches, the screen sizes are in wires per inch. The higher the mesh number the smaller the opening size.

*** Note that, for any given number of "F"s, the blasting powder is much coarser.

Reference: AMCP 706-175 Engineering Design Handbook - Explosives Series - Solid Propellants Part One.

 

[roundball]

So that's generic engineering data, not any specific BP company's line of products?

 

[Joel/Calgary]

So that's generic engineering data, not any specific BP company's line of products?

It's sort of awkward when one is quoting information from another muzzleloading list's FAQs (hence, cannot be directly cited here), and the powder FAQ was acknowledged back to a pyrotechnics board. There is mention of 5Fg no longer being manufactured by GOEX, and I've just found a pyrotechnics site that lists the same specifications as being explicitely GOEX's.

I have seen other similar tables in the past, but cannot locate any at the moment, and I've seen other references to these differences between Fa & Fg powder, including from Australia & N.Z. where shooters have sometimes had to make do with blasting powder (Chinese?) when they couldn't get (or couldn't afford?) sporting powders.

Joel