Where does everyone buy their black powder?

Gryphon Energetics said:
Making black powder is easy. Making GOOD black powder is very difficult. Legalities aside, there is far more science to it than just mixing the components together.

Charcoal is the most important element of black powder. You need one that's highly reactive with a large amount of hydrogen and oxygen trapped in the matrix structure of the carbon. Goex uses pine, most fireworkers prefer willow. The components are milled wet, pressed to several tons, dried and then corned, and the grains sorted. It's time consuming, laborious, not without risk, and there's no guarantee that your batches will approach the performance achieved by commercial manufacturers. The investment in the manufacturing hardware alone is a commitment, and also consider that Goex is insured.

It's a but spurious to state outright that making your own BP is illegal. Current legislation permits for home hobbyists to obtain their own manufacturing license under certain conditions. There are permitless provisions but I would prefer not to discuss them here; coincidentally I am in Ottawa for industry meetings and hope to have a clearer answer on that subject tomorrow.
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I used to make my own , And I can vouch for the above method. I used willow , and a 50 ton press to make 'pucks' of bp. then broke it up and screened it. My very first small batch (no press) went thru the chrony at 280fps. After refining the process and using the press I was able to get about 850fps thru the chrony.
Mostly used up in my cannon. Probably made and used 60+ lbs before I stopped making it. Still have all my fingers and toes ;) And a bit left over.
 
For those near a border point it can be purchased cheaply in the USA. Canada regs state you can bring 9kg's in one pound containers back every trip you make. M-loaders and black powder are not regulated for personal use in the USA. The infamous Homeland Security act does not get involved either. The export regs do not include BP. All of this can be checked with Canada Customs and the USA Customs as well.
 
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