Do-It-Yourself Gunpowder Cookbook (Paperback)

~ Don McLean (Author) "The oldest explosive known is black gunpowder..." (more)
Key Phrases: chain mill, impact mill, survival situation, Rule Number, Indian Saltpeter, Berthold Schwarz (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Learn how to make gunpowder from such items as dead cats, whiskey, your living room ceiling, manure and maple syrup with simple hand tools and techniques that have been used for centuries. This is a practical and safe approach to making the oldest propellant/explosive known. For information purposes only.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873646754
• ISBN-13: 978-0873646758
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,871 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Conventional
  #16 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Chemical
  #37 in	Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Do-It-Yourself

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Informative and Useful, July 20, 2006

By	Scotty_G "cap sensitive" (alaska) - See all my reviews

Iv'e read some drivel that the processes in this book are too hard to follow, or that they take too long to bear fruit. Look, if you don't want to leach out potassium nitrate, go buy it. I won't tell you where I get it, but if your'e making gunpowder you should be resourceful enough to find your own. Charcoal shouldn't be a problem, and you can order large quantities of sulfur for a good price. Also, you can buy all of these items, follow the processes in the book for putting it together, and still pay less for black powder than you would at the store. It's kind of funny, but I had more success with the sugar and rust recipe than with the traditional black powder. The burn rate was absolutely amazing, and the noise from my fence post driver cannon was too. The only reason that the techniques for resting all the ingredients from the earth were included in the book was to give you an idea of how to make powder from the ground up IF YOU HAD TO. You can easily go buy the ingredients, skip to the recipe pages of the book, and make gunpowder. I wouldn't recommend it though, because it's a very interesting book. I'd say the most important part of the book are the safety rules. I can personally attest to the importance of these. Just remember, someday you will accidentally ignite this stuff. It's a fact. So keep your batches small and separated. Also, if your'e making over fifty pounds of it you might consider an explosives manufacturing license.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars class act, April 8, 2000

By	Tim Sheane (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This book tells you exactly how to make gunpowder from manure, wood, baserock and many other simple around the house and free from the land type materials. I found this book very useful and informative.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, October 30, 2008

By	Richard Gregory (Three Rivers, Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book delivers. It has valuable recipes to make your own black poweder and a sugar related substitute. This book also means it when it say to make everything from scratch. How to make your own charcoal, getting sulfur from unlikely places, and "Growing" a salt peter bed. Its not a thick book by no means but if you someday find yourself in the situation where you need to make all of these components from scratch this is a great book to have.

Just a quick little bit of help. Just because your compost pile is nitre bearing earth your going to be hard pressed to produce salt peter. your better off builiding a nitre bed like the author describes.