Mad Monk,
Do you know what kind of charcoal GOEX is using now and what the approximate percentage of ash content is? Thanks.
Mole Eyes
My last contact with GOEX was in 2005 before the investment company that then owned it sold the business to its present owner. In 2005 GOEX thought they had found an acceptable source and were using it without problems. I did not ask about the ash content nor look at any charcoal samples from their operation.
The problem with getting an acceptable charcoal for use in black powder in this country is that any bp use would be a miniscule amount of the total produced.
Most of the charcoal is now made from wood waste. Waste from big sawmills. Big difference between a charcoal used to grill burgers and that which will make a decent black powder. Then the industry started to convert to a charring method best described as a fluidized bed process. Generally, charcoal used as a cooking fuel is charred to a very high fixed carbon content. The charcoal used to filter whiskey is about as close as one can get to a char acceptable in black powder. I know that at least one whiskey maker still chars maple wood for their processing of the whiskey. That charcoal imparts a specific flavor and color to the finished whiskey. One company in Canada tried to interest another company in a maple charcoal but the fixed carbon content was way too high and it had a high ash content.
I found with GOEX that they were at the mercy of their suppliers for both potassium nitrate and charcoal. When they moved from Moosic to Minden their long time supplier of charcoal ceased operations. They had to scramble to find another source that would work. Just as they had that arm waver under control their long time supplier of potassium nitrate ceased operations. The last potassium nitrate supplier in the U.S. other than a co op operation that did not sell on the open market. So GOEx had to look out of country for a source. And ended up with a product far better than what the U.S. company had supplied.
