As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I have a fascination for chemical reaction, as it makes no sense to me that sulfur, potassium nitrate and charcoal, when combined would produce an oxygen-fed detonation which would explode, in what we know as gun powder.
This fascination began with a buffalo hunter recording that European powders burned superior to American powders. It had to do with the raw materials as Greener, the great English munitions maker released the recipe as I recorded it here in it had to do with Americans used hardwood and the English used brush wood.
Nothing has changed in this today, in Goex uses hard maple and the Swiss use Alder. The difference in this is European powders burn moist and therefore produces more energy released, than the American powders.
The key ingredient in the Alder wood is creosote which is missing from the American maple wood.
Here are some fun facts for my records and your learning.
First being KIK. on page 13 note the velocity test results.
http://www.laflinandrand.com/madmonk/KIK.pdf
Second being Swiss, note the overall openness and the 'cut the BS' approach.
http://www.laflinandrand.com/madmonk/Swiss_Booklet.pdf
Regardless of the smoke/mirror and 'trade secrets' that I kept running into with Goex I did find the following. There also has been rumors, claims and so forth of using a 'blend' as well. I have to question if they really do know themselves.
Gearhart-Owen (GOEX) was then forced to purchase charcoal from another
source. The new source of charcoal was the Roseville Charcoal Company of Zanesville,
Ohio. The actual wood charring operation was located in West Virginia. This plant used
kilns, rather than cylinder retorts, and charred mainly hard maple wood.
While Swiss we have the following.
Charcoal.
This ingredient is produced "in house" using Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula) wood
imported from Slovenia. The wood being prepared and charred “in house”.
Also worth note. the PDF and site I posted at the start of the thread clearly shows the process detail of the charcoal, clearly identifying what type of wood it is, where it is grown and that it is all processed 'in house' therefore making it as uniform and consistent as possible. We even have
The Acetone test results in Swiss powder using creosote oil and Goex using very little if any. Creosote usage is the key to 'moist burning', i.e. damp, high humidity locations.
What makes me interested is would American mesquite be a more perfect solution to creating an American powder which would burn more moist. I just do not comprehend why the Americans, having known for over a century the superior nature of the European formula, still adhere to this klinker base they have.
Then again, why not just infuse the correct addition of creosote to the American powder to obtain the correct moisture and therefore superior powder.
I mean you add butter to a cake to get it moist.....just as you would add the creosote to the mix.
When the Swiss limit there wood charring temperature to 300 to 320 degrees Centigrade they insure that the creosote produced during the destructive distillation process is retained within the charcoal. Allowing the charring temperature to rise above 320 degrees Centigrade will cause the creosote to flash off and leave the cylinder in the cylinder exhaust gases. By 350 degrees Centigrade, all of the creosote will have been flashed off and lost through the cylinder stack vent.
The Swiss charcoal will show about 8% by weight of creosote while other brands will show none to only a slight trace.
Nuff Said
agtG
