Well I took apart a model rocket engine and carefully scraped (using a hand held razor) a small pile of very fine black powder (because the rod of fuel was black), I set a match to it to see how fast it would burn.

Well it flashed into white smoke.
So, flash powder or gun powder?

Neither blackpowder. Why take on of those apart if you don't know what is in them? Second remember blackpowder and gunpowder are different, blackpowder is used in pyrotechnics, old rifles, and other things, gunpowder is what you find in shells today and has little pyrotechnic use. Also the blackpowder in there is like blackpowder but is a slightly different comp so that it burns a bit slower.

Oh no, not this again... I'd look for the archive thread about rocket engines and black powder but I can't find it.

The blackpowder in commercial engines is so finely milled and mixed intimately that it will go off in a flash when powdered. There's another reason why those things are pressed to insane densities.

Well technically it is black powderh but it is a modified black powder comp

it's blackpowder + 2% dextrin, IIRC

According to PFP, Estes class C model rocket is

Potassium Nitrate : 71.79
Sulphur : 13.45
Charcoal, 150 mesh : 13.81
Dextrin : 0.95

So yes, its a modified black powder composition. If you knew much about flash, you would know that it wouldn't be much good as a rocket propellant, and really couldn't be safely pressed into rockets anyway.

*Rolls Eyes* Whatever you do don't light a small pile of it while holding the rest of it in your hand... Sparks fly and Mephistos Minion looses most of the skin on his hand.

Don't ask.

mmm yes also never drill a 1/8th inch fuse hole when you have a 1/16th inch fuse in a hand welded high pressure steel mortor lol that was fun


needless to say metal mortars are not only much louder but they jump more for some reason good thing i was wearing safty gear such

FYI if you stick cobs in a strong steel mortor they don't jam and they shoot the fragments into a controlled area just make sure you know what your doing and you know how to or know some one that can weld

I like to use scissors to scrape off very fine dust from the engine block, then scoop it into a pile and touch it off. It flashes and is fiery. I also made a "device" out of it and used a sparkler as a fuse. It was a huge bang. Yay.