At this point, there are effectively two options.
First is a flint lock muzzle loader weapon and having the ability to cast your own bullets and make your own black powder. This takes a lot of science and technology, but offers long range precision strikes.
The second option is Archery; A bow and arrow. These are easier to build, maintain and can be fired faster than a single shot muzzle loader and it is silent making it a superior weapon at close range and when stealth is necessary.
Which option is best? Both options are affordable but my priorities would be as follows.
- Buy a re-curve bow. The 60 and 62 inch are the most common lengths. A Samick Sage ($150) is a popular model. A 45 pound pull is common for an adult male.
- Measure your "draw" (how far you pull the string back) and buy a dozen quality arrows ($45) that are 2-3 inches longer than your draw. Good arrows are important as cheap arrows can splinter / explode if shot with a powerful bow and injure your arm. Now for less than $200 you have a sustainable weapon.
- Buy a sight for your bow, and a bale of hay or target to shoot at.
- Buy an extra string for your bow.
- Now you are set pretty good, but buy a few more dozen arrows and your budget permits.
- Buy a book on how to make bows and arrows. Now you are really sustainable.
- An alternative is to buy a cross bow. It is more accurate to aim for beginners but harder and slower to load/shoot. A compound bow ($300) is also more accurate and powerful but higher maintenance and requires stronger arrows to prevent them from exploding.
The current standard
composition for the black powders that are manufactured by pyrotechnicians was
adopted as long ago as 1780. Proportions by weight are 75% potassium nitrate
(known as saltpeter or saltpetre), 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur. These
ratios have varied over the centuries and by country, and can be altered
somewhat depending on the purpose of the powder. For instance, power grades of
black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in
quarrying operations, is called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with
standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur; blasting
powder may be made with the cheaper sodium nitrate substituted for potassium
nitrate and proportions may be as low as 40% nitrate, 30% charcoal, and 30%
sulfur. French war powder in 1879 used the ratio 75% saltpetre, 12.5%
charcoal, 12.5% sulfur. English war powder in 1879 used the ratio 75% saltpetre,
15% charcoal, 10% sulfur.
Potassium nitrate is a chemical
compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and
nitrate ions NO3−. It occurs as a mineral niter and is a
natural solid source of nitrogen. Potassium nitrate is one of several
nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as saltpeter or
saltpetre.
Major uses of potassium nitrate are in
fertilizers, rocket propellants and fireworks. It is one of the major
constituents of gunpowder (blackpowder) and has been used since the Middle Ages
as a food preservative. Potassium nitrate is also one of the main ingredients
in high explosives.
History of potassium Nitriate or saltpeter
From mineral sources
The earliest known complete
purification process for potassium nitrate was outlined in 1270 by the chemist
and engineer Hasan al-Rammah of Syria in his book al-Furusiyya wa al-Manasib
al-Harbiyya ('The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices'). In
this book, al-Rammah describes first the purification of barud (crude saltpetre
mineral) by boiling it with minimal water and using only the hot solution, then
the use of potassium carbonate (in the form of wood ashes) to remove calcium
and magnesium by precipitation of their carbonates from this solution, leaving
a solution of purified potassium nitrate, which could then be dried. This
was used for the manufacture of gunpowder and explosive devices.
At least as far back as 1845, Chilean
Saltpeter deposits were exploited in Chile and California, USA.
From caves
A major natural source of potassium
nitrate was the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the accumulations of
bat guano in caves. Extraction is accomplished by immersing the guano in
water for a day, filtering, and harvesting the crystals in the filtered water.
Traditionally, guano was the source used in Laos for the manufacture of
gunpowder for Bang Fai rockets.
LeConte
Perhaps the most exhaustive discussion
of the production of this material is the 1862 LeConte text. Many references
have been made to a method using only straw and urine, but there is no such
method in this work.
French method
Niter-beds are prepared by mixing
manure with either mortar or wood ashes, common earth and organic materials
such as straw to give porosity to a compost pile typically 1.5×2×5 meters in
size. The heap was usually under a cover from the rain, kept moist with
urine, turned often to accelerate the decomposition, then finally leached with
water after approximately one year, to remove the soluble calcium nitrate which
was then converted to potassium nitrate by filtering through the potash.
Swiss method
LeConte describes a process using only
urine and not dung, referring to it as the Swiss method. Urine is collected
directly, in a sandpit under a stable. The sand itself is dug out and leached
for nitrates which were then converted to potassium nitrate via potash, as
above.
From nitric acid
From 1903 until the World War I era,
potassium nitrate for black powder and fertilizer was produced on an industrial
scale from nitric acid produced via the Birkeland–Eyde process, which used an
electric arc to oxidize nitrogen from the air. During World War I the newly
industrialized Haber process (1913) was combined with the Ostwald process after
1915, allowing Germany to produce nitric acid for the war after being cut off
from its supplies of mineral sodium nitrates from Chile (see nitratite). The
Haber process catalyzes ammonia production from atmospheric nitrogen, and
industrially produced hydrogen. From the end of World War I until today,
practically all organic nitrates have been produced from nitric acid from the
oxidation of ammonia in this way. Some sodium nitrate is still mined
industrially. Almost all potassium nitrate, now used only as a fine chemical,
is produced from basic potassium salts and nitric acid.
History of use
Potassium nitrates supplied the oxidant
and much of the energy for gunpowder in the 19th century, but after 1889, small
arms and large artillery increasingly began to depend on cordite, a smokeless
powder which required in manufacture large quantities of nitric acid derived
from mineral nitrates (either potassium nitrate, or increasingly sodium
nitrate), and the basic industrial chemical sulfuric acid. These propellants,
like all nitrated explosives (nitroglycerine, TNT, etc.) use both parts of the
nitrate ion: the oxygen promotes rapid combustion (thermal energy), and the
expansion of the previously solid nitrogen to N2 gas provides kinetic energy.
Production
Potassium nitrate can be made by
combining ammonium nitrate and potassium hydroxide.
NH4NO3 (aq) + KOH (aq) → NH3 (g) + KNO3 (aq) + H2O (l)
An alternative way of producing
potassium nitrate without a by-product of ammonia is to combine ammonium
nitrate and potassium chloride, easily obtained as a sodium-free salt
substitute.
NH4NO3 (aq) + KCl (aq) → NH4Cl (aq) + KNO3 (aq)
Potassium nitrate can also be produced
by neutralizing nitric acid with potassium hydroxide. This reaction is highly
exothermic.
KOH (aq) + HNO3 → KNO3 (aq) + H2O (l)
On industrial scale it is prepared by
the double displacement reaction between sodium nitrate and potassium chloride.
NaNO3 (aq) + KCl (aq) → NaCl (aq) + KNO3 (aq)
Properties
Potassium nitrate has an orthorhombic
crystal structure at room temperature, which transforms to a trigonal system at
129 °C. Upon heating to temperatures between 550 and 790 °C under an oxygen
atmosphere, it loses oxygen and reaches a temperature dependent equilibrium
with potassium nitrite:
2 KNO3 →
2 KNO2 + O2
Potassium nitrate is moderately soluble
in water, but its solubility increases with temperature. The
aqueous solution is almost neutral, exhibiting pH 6.2 at 14 °C for a 10% solution
of commercial powder. It is not very hygroscopic, absorbing about 0.03% water
in 80% relative humidity over 50 days. It is insoluble in alcohol and is not
poisonous; it can react explosively with reducing agents, but it is not
explosive on its own.
Uses
Potassium nitrate has a wide variety of
uses, largely as a source of nitrate.
Fertilizer.
Potassium nitrate is mainly used in
fertilizers, as a source of nitrogen and potassium – two of the macronutrients
for plants. When used by itself, it has an NPK rating of 13-0-44.
Oxidizer
Potassium nitrate is an efficient
oxidizer, producing a lilac-colored flame upon burning due to the presence of
potassium. It is one of the three components of black powder, along with
powdered charcoal (substantially carbon) and sulfur, both of which act as fuels
in this composition. As such it is used in black powder rocket motors, but
also in combination with other fuels like sugars in "rocket candy".
It is also used in fireworks such as smoke bombs, made with a mixture of
sucrose and potassium nitrate. It is also added to cigarettes to maintain
an even burn of the tobacco and is used to ensure complete combustion of
paper cartridges for cap and ball revolvers.
Food preservation
In the process of food preservation,
potassium nitrate has been a common ingredient of salted meat since the Middle
Ages, but its use has been mostly discontinued due to inconsistent results
compared to more modern nitrate and nitrite compounds. Even so, saltpeter is
still used in some food applications, such as charcuterie and the brine used to
make corned beef. Sodium nitrate (and nitrite) have mostly supplanted
potassium nitrate's culinary use, as they are more reliable in preventing
bacterial infection than saltpetre. All three give cured salami and corned beef
their characteristic pink hue. When used as a food additive in the European
Union, the compound is referred to as E252; it is also approved for use as
a food additive in the USA and Australia and New Zealand (where it is
listed under its INS number 252).
Food preparation
In West African cuisine, potassium
nitrate (salt petre) is widely used as a thickening agent in soups and stews
such as Okra soup and Isi ewu. It is also used to soften food and reduce
cooking time when boiling beans and tough meat. Salt petre is also an essential
ingredient in making special porridges such as kunun kanwa literally
translated from the Hausa language as 'salt petre porridge'.
Pharmacology
Used
in some toothpastes for sensitive teeth. Recently, the use of potassium
nitrate in toothpastes for treating sensitive teeth has increased and it may be
an effective treatment.
Used
historically to treat asthma. Used in some toothpastes to relieve asthma
symptoms.
Used
in Thailand as main ingredient in Kidney Tablets to relieve the symptoms of
cystitis, pyelitis and urethritis.
Combats
high blood pressure and was once used as a hypotensive.
Other uses
Electrolyte
in a salt bridge
Active
ingredient of condensed aerosol fire suppression systems. When burned with the
free radicals of a fire's flame, it produces potassium carbonate.
Component
(usually about 98%) of some tree stump removal products. It accelerates the
natural decomposition of the stump by supplying nitrogen for the fungi
attacking the wood of the stump.
In
heat treatment of metals as a medium temperature molten salt bath, usually in
combination with sodium nitrite. A similar bath is used to produce a durable
blue/black finish typically seen on firearms. Its oxidizing quality, water
solubility, and low cost make it an ideal short-term rust inhibitor.
To induce flowering of mango trees in the Philippines.
Thermal
storage medium in power generation systems. Sodium and potassium nitrate salts
are stored in a molten state with the solar energy collected by the heliostats
at the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant. Ternary salts, with the addition of calcium
nitrate or lithium nitrate, have been found to improve the heat storage
capacity in the molten salts.
For additional information see the following links:
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