Author Archives: Woodsbum

Making Black Powder

by Woodsbum

I was messing around online about burn rates of black powder and came across this video. Supposedly, according to this guy, in Florida it is legal to make your own black powder. I was under the impression that it was illegal to make your own black powder so I will have to do some serious investigation on this. Either way, this guy has a fairly decent video on the process.

Here is another video on the process. This guy’s use of the strainer really shows how it is granulated.

This last video is really nice because he explains what the dextrin is and he shares information on the ball tumbler.

I will reiterate that I am none too sure how legal it is to make your own black powder. From what I have seen, this is restricted by the BATFE guys. I find it interesting that these people are sitting here in full view of the camera making it if it were illegal, however.

*****************UPDATE***********************

I found several links and pages where it is supposedly LEGAL to make small quantities of black powder for your own use. You cannot give or sell it to someone else unless you have a special license and there are some restrictions based upon state/county/city ordinances. This particular link actually has a bit of summarized information on it, but I would suggest you check your local and state laws before you start buying components.

SPL Antler Awl

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by Woodsbum

Well, I am at it again. Rather than just being smart and building my own stuff I have purchased something from a craftsman to give me more project ideas. This time I picked up an awl made from a sail making needle and an antler.

SPL Awl

Not that I couldn’t have thought of this myself, but I never really saw anyone do this in a way that was memorable. I think he drilled a very small hole and just epoxied the needle into the antler. The important aspect of this is that I now have several ideas on what I should build for myself…… You will see some of these projects in a few weeks.

I have been using a Craftsman awl that came with a screwdriver set to poke the holes for my rawhide projects. When doing this I had to be really careful to not make the hole too big because the Craftsman awl has a fairly large shank/shaft/base on it and really isn’t made for what I was using it for. This will work much better. I do need to make some sort of a “sheath” for the pointy end before I end up sitting on it and giving myself a way to sew my butt crack together.

Steven also sent me some buttons he made and I should be getting a firesteel as well. The buttons are actually nice to see. I had been wondering how people did them.

Antler Buttons

These are just thinly sliced pieces of antler that have three small holes drilled in them. Nothing special for fancy, but I really needed to see how they were done. The core of an antler is not as strong as the outside so I was worried that there was some “magic” involved with the process to keep the holes from pulling through. Evidently there is not. Because I was not going to rush up to some other bushcrafter and stare at their buttons while out in the woods, I needed to get my hands on some myself. Important safety tip: Don’t rush up on a bushcrafter unannounced – they might be armed and almost always have a sharp knife.

I really love getting small project and craft pieces from people. By backward engineering their work I always get ideas for my own projects. Of course Steven’s work is impeccable, but I like to have ideas for ways to occupy my own time.

Again, keep checking back. I have a few ideas for some muzzleloading things made from antler now.

Possible Bag

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by Woodsbum

The art and skill associated with muzzleloading, particularly traditional designs, has become something of a scarcity in today’s world. The more I gravitate back to those older tools and traditions the more I see that there is less and less support available. Whether this is by design for by consumer preference that drives different industries doesn’t really matter. The symptom is the same either way. I end up having to build or modify my own gear 90% of the time.

Let’s take for instance my pursuit of an old school style possible bag. For those of you who are not sure what a possible bag is, let me elaborate. A possible(s) bag is used to store your odds and ends needed when shooting black powder firearms. These bags are designed to hang across your body with a strap and, in all reality, resemble a colonial purse. You could call it a murse for gun crap I suppose. The real problem I ran into while trying to find one that was “manly” enough and had a long enough strap was that most are built in Asia and designed for the average worker over there. If you are over 5’5″ tall, you no longer have a bag. You have a necklace.

At first I was going to build my own. I figure that it couldn’t be too hard to do. The old school shooters built theirs with less equipment and probable lack of Corona to drink while sewing. That means that I should be good, right?

Lucky for me I found a company that builds the items they sell on site and at a reasonable price. Most “custom” orders or “special order” bags I looked at were in the $180 – $250 range. October Country Muzzleloading hooked me up. A guy names John answered the phone over there, answered all my questions, and they added an extra 12″ of strap to my bag at no extra charge.

You catch that? No extra charge for the extra length strap.

The bag was ordered on Thursday morning. By Friday, the bag was already built and shipped. The special order bag was built the same day as being ordered and was in the mail the next day.

Here is the bag:

Possible bag with really long strap

As you can see, I kind of over guessed the length I need. When I told them 72″ long I thought that the very end of the strap would be 72″. They measured from the top most whole. This really isn’t a big deal because I know how to poke holes in leather and can cut the end if I need to. I probably won’t cut it and will just put stropping compound on the back of it so I can sharpen knives in the field. Either way, they definitely delivered.

I am not sure you can see from the pictures, but there are two compartments. The back compartment has a small pouch as well.

Back pocket

Here is the front compartment.

Front Compartment

I was actually hoping that this would have been bigger. When I read the description I was envisioning one big bag with purse type dividers in it. Instead it is two pouches that are kind of hinged at the top. Ultimately, I may like this design so I am not looking through my colonial murse when I need to reload my rifle. It is 5000x better than using cargo pockets, however. Loading this bad boy up will be a lot of fun tonight.

If I had to grade October Country’s product I would give it a solid A-. The bag is a little smaller than I thought, but the fit/finish push it back up to the grade I gave out. The company’s customer service, quality for price, and speed of build/shipping get a very enthusiastic A++. Over time I know I will love this bag for either the quality and/or the function. I realize this will happen, but at this time I am just a VERY small bit disappointed that it wasn’t just a touch bigger.

From what I can see on their website and after talking with John, I would have to say that October Country is a great source for your muzzleloading needs. When I take into account the way they treated me when I called, the order process, and everything else I have a sneaking suspicion that they probably know better than I do as to what size bag I should carry…… They are colonial murse experts, if you will.

In conclusion, I would not hesitate to call them for help again and plan to the minute I need additional assistance. At this point I am not only an enthusiastic supporter, but a happy customer. I strongly recommend them.

Muzzleloading Bug Has Hit

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by Woodsbum

Lately, I have discovered that I spend WAY too much money on guns and ammunition just so I can go and shoot on the weekends. To make it even worse, I find that most of the time I supply all the equipment to include guns and ammunition in addition to being the only one to clean up afterwards. The entire thing become a huge chore and hit to my bank account. To cut overall investment without cutting the fun I decided that I needed to start taking the muzzleloader. This created a whole new set of problems because cleaning my Knight is anything but fun.

In yet another attempt to spend money to save money I went on a search. It became clear that the only solution that I could live with was to go and find a traditional muzzleloader rifle that was easy to clean, would be fun, and other people would find fun enough to ignore the lack of modern rifles I was taking out. The first thing I realized was that muzzleloaders are not the cheap rifles I was used to seeing when I was younger. Lyman and TC Hawken models ran between $450 and $700 on average. Now, I began to kick myself for not grabbing a $100 kit that I remember back in high school.

Whenever price becomes an issue I find that doing some serious online research will help to find me a cheaper solution. In this case I was not let down. I discovered that there were only a few companies that manufactured production muzzleloader rifles and they were resold under other names. This is no different than the American Arms .44 mag pistol I purchased some years ago. The .44 mag is actually manufactured by Uberti. Muzzleloaders are really no different. Lyman and Cabela’s rifles are actually made by Investarm out of Italy. TC makes their own. The third big manufacturer is Traditions. CVA does make some as well. Some other brands seem to be a bit murky as to who really makes them, so I took some literary license and just ignored those.

After I was armed with this information, I stepped up my search and went looking for used rifles that I might find at a bargain. Lo and behold I came across reference to an unused, never shot Hawken style rifle earmarked as a KBI/Kassnar brand. It had been advertised for almost a month without anyone even asking about it. I did some research on KBI/Kassnar and discovered that this company imported firearms until they closed up shop in 1989. They did business with gun manufacturers in England, Spain and Italy. Considering that Investarm is out of Italy, it didn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out who probably made this rifle. Not only that, but the wood grain was incredible and it had brass accents to include a patch box in the stock.

Sure enough, when I met up with the guy, the rifle was actually an Investarm model 120b, had never been shot, and was in 100% perfect condition (except the brass is a bit tarnished from sitting in a box). There were other “goodies” as well that were also still in their unopened and brand new state. Interestingly enough, the guy I met with was selling the items for a 75 year old man who bought everything in 1987 for a trip that got cancelled.

Now if you are in the market for a muzzleloader or have ever thought about getting into “smoke sticks” it isn’t nearly as expensive as you would think, if you are patient and look around. The majority of shooters and gun buyers completely ignore muzzleloaders and have no idea about them. This will allow you the opportunity to pick up an almost new or completely new rifle at 10-20 year ago prices. Another selling point is that the design of most muzzleloaders is not that different from the originals of yesteryear. Even better is that you don’t necessarily have to stay with the same manufacturer when looking for replacement parts. I have seen TC barrels on Traditions stocks with old, unknown manufacturer trigger assemblies. That is a great selling point as well.

If you are more into the modern muzzleloading products like the inline models, a lot of this information goes RIGHT out the window. My Knight Wolverine 209 for instance is deadly accurate and I can hit pie plates with open sights out to 200 yards. The problem is that most of the parts I might need for replacements would have to be purchased directly from Knight. It is also a royal pain in the gluteal section to clean. The barrel doesn’t just come off with the removal of a single pin. It requires disassembly of the rifle, pulling the breech plug and nipple, scrubbing and a good portion of your evening. For those of you who were wondering why I would want a traditional muzzleloader when I already had an incredible inline model, there you go. Cleaning it sucks out loud…….

Some of my best memories as a kid or with my kids have involved the outdoors and shooting. Being able to increase my options, cut the cost of shooting, and decrease the time spent cleaning really makes buying a new toy worth it. Now I need to get into casting my own bullets.

Carving a Spoon

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by Woodsbum

I have been messing around with whittling and carving stuff since I was a kid, but they have all been horrible final products. Finally, I went ahead and picked up some actual wood carving knives of various sorts so that I could have a fair chance at coming up with something decent. The fact that my son got me the Work Sharp WSKTS also made a huge difference. I now don’t have to spend more than just a few minutes to touch up any blade.

I started off with a piece of cedar that had been pruned from the tree in my front yard. I stripped off the bark to get to the wood so I knew what I was working with. The branch I chose actually had been chewed on by some bug or worm a bit, but I figured that it would just add character.

Stripping off the bark

The Steven Long I picked up a bit ago worked really well for this task. Once I got the bark all stripped off, I started carving out the actual bowl portion of the spoon to see how well the wood cut and carved. In all actuality, it seemed to cut really well.

Starting the bowl

Once I got everything rough shaped, I stared cutting away all the excess wood to get it down to the right size. This actually took a while and I found that many of my less exact cuts I made with my hook knife and chisel made a rough bowl and odd shape. Next spoon I make I will pay more attention and be more careful.

Rough Shaped

A little closer now. I am beginning to see the right shape and errors I made with carving the bowl. Of course it is too late at this point, but I start the process of trying to fix it.

A little closer

Now is the time to start sanding it. I am not too sure how “smooth” I want to get it considering that the bowl is lop sided a touch. I figure I will hit it with 120 grit and call it a day, more than likely.

Starting to sand it

Here is how it finished up. When I saw how badly I shaped the bowl, I decided that 120 grit was smooth enough and that I would relegate this spoon to camping purposes.

Completed except for final finish

Here are a few things that I learned during this process.

Buy a cut resistant glove……. and wear it…….
Make sure that the bowl is perfect, straight and shaped correctly from the onset.
Spend LOTS of time to get the bowl done and awesome before you take on the handle.
Make the bowl deeper than you want it as a final product. That way you can take some off the top to get everything straight.
The handle can be modified as needed to keep the bowl portion straight.
Buy good carving knives and keep them sharp.
Wood is much less forgiving than metal, so don’t get overzealous with each cut.

This was the first spoon that I have made that wasn’t a total embarrassment. I really learned a lot through this process and am looking forward to my next attempt. Follow on carvings should be much better for I learned a lot about how to get things on center and spaced correctly during this carving. As I do more, I will post them and let you know anything new that I learned.