Over on the Shiloh Sharps "Blackpowder" web page, a lot of Sharps shooters are raving about the new lot of KIK black powder than has been recently imported into this country. Kik is made in Slovenia (Eastern Europe) and I tried out a can a few years back and was not very much impressed. Apparently, there has been some "product improvement" going on at the Kik plant and this new lot of black powder is very good.
Both Kik and Swiss black powders use charcoal made from Alder Buckthorn which is considered to be something of an invasive plant and not very much appreciated when it shows up in someone's yard. That being said, it makes wonderful charcoal for black powder.
To make matters even more complicated, the Alder Buckthorn is gathered by Gypsies (I am not making this stuff up!) at the very end of Winter in Slovenia. I guess the theory is to harvest the plants before the sap gets moving again or is just starting to move thru the plant.
(Imagine nubile Gypsy girls prancing thru the forests of Slovenia gathering Alder Buckthorn to sell to the Kik plant!)
Making Alder Buckthorn charcoal is not easy, because the plants have to be dried out completely (the Swiss dry out their Buckthorn for three years before converting it to charcoal.) In addition, the bark must be completely stripped off the wood before the wood can be loaded into the retort for the charcoal making process. All in all, there is a lot of work involved.
I also understand that now GOEX is now using charcoal made from Swamp Maple as the basis for their black powder.
(Imagine nubile Cajun girls prancing thru the swamps of Louisiana gathering Swamp Maple to sell to the GOEX plant!)
Eh...Eh...Eh...
Well, anyway-there you have it. Charcoal is a very important part of black powder and the quality of the final product is partially dependent on the type of wood used to make the charcoal!
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