The search began where every search begins. Google.
Searching
for each of the 3 primary ingredients Potassium Nitrate (KNO3), Charcoal
and Sulphur, I found that Charcoal is very easy to make. Willow is the
wood of choice but pine works well too. Potassium Nitrate is a common
stump remover but also works as a fertilizer.
Sulphur is where
things get a little complicated. To start there are a variety of forms
of sulphur and its -ites and -ates but I need pure elemental sulphur of
which there are a variety of states but that can go on and on. What I
know is that I need to find a source of crystalline sulphur or a sulphur
containing product that I can purify without having to melt the sulphur
(MP= 239.4F=115.2C) (changes the state/flavor to something
undesirable).
With a vague idea of what I was looking
for I hit the stores first to make charcoal because its the easiest. I
grabbed a paint can, put a hole in the top, loaded it with pine shims,
sealed it up and cooked it for about 2 hours.
The shims are convent since they are fairly consistent in their shape and cook evenly.
Next I went on the chemical component hunt.
Turns
out Spectracide Stump remover says it is 100% Potassium Nitrate but I
think there is some sort of binder in it that keeps it powdery so I will
recrystallize it to purify it. I tried every big box store out there
before I was able to find the stump remover it was only in one place
that I would rather not advertize for but their name starts with an "L"
and ends with an "owes". Anyway that was the only chain type store that
kept it in stock.
So I attacked the KNO3 first by
dissolving ~450 grams in 1L of boiling distilled water. KNO3 has a very
high solubility/temperature correlation. I simmered it until I saw
crystals start to crash out. Poured the solution into a Pyrex glass
baking dish. Then I slowly cooled it in an oven over the course of a few
hours. Next it went up on top of the refrigerator for a week or so and
very large crystals formed. I filtered these out and rinsed them with
ice water. Resulting in a VERY high purity product (>99% for sure).
Next
I found this garden sulfur. The ingredients are 90% elemental sulfur
10% "inert ingredients". Which of course are proprietary on the
MSDS. Considering the fact that sulfur is hydrophobic and insoluble in
water apart from its tendency to form clumps in powder form, I figure
the inert ingredients have to be some sort of binder that readily
absorbs water giving their product the "wettable" property. This could
be a number of things the most likely candidates are CaCO3 calcium
carbonate or chalk OR Bentonite Clay which is basically kitty litter. I
am fairly sure it is the clay so I have been researching how to separate
the two but it is more difficult than I thought.



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