Interesting tread but were does it say that making BP for your own use would be illegal as some here mentioned? BP is also used in Fireworks...
Commercial components required are readily avail/legal on shelves and one you make. One would just need to know what/where to shop.
Could someone post the no-go BP making? Thanks
I've never managed to find a law online outlawing it but several licensed pyrotechnicians have told me that it is illegal for a
business to manufacture black powder without a lot of special permits and storage requirements. They told me it's not worth risking their license to try to make some personally when it's so cheap to buy factory powder. I know many things are regulated at a commercial level that aren't on a personal level but I don't know in this specific case.
I did find a law I mentioned earlier where commercial or private laboratories are able to make batches of up to 50 grams without any permits. I don't know if a kitchen or garage can be legally considered a "private laboratory".
The couple people I've met who do make it themselves really don't like talking about it and say it's either slightly illegal or borderline illegal, whatever that means.
I've thought about making my own for my cap lock but all the reports I read of needing to use 1.4x to 1.6x normal powder charges to get the same velocity, that it's much dirtier, and the relatively inexpensive price (relative to what I use) of Goex locally I never saw an advantage to doing it myself.
It's probably one of those things where if you really piss off a cop and they are desperate to find something to charge you with, they might give it a go, but unless you go advertising it all over the place no one will probably care. There are somewhat frequent reports of police charging people with things that aren't actually crimes either because they just want to get back at them for annoying them or because they honestly don't know the laws themselves. I'm not speaking poorly of all police officers, but they are human just like us.
