blasting smallish tunnels in hard rock

negligible knowledge but - with stemming like grit the worse that can happen is a rain of grit particles - cannot become a high-velocity projectile. On the other hand I have seen videos of blasts being covered by all sorts of things.

Maybe... of course anvil launching is a thing..

Its can also reasonably be made in a home shop.

<snip>

Tannerite can make some pretty good blows too😉

Yeah , but doesn't Tannerite require a sharp impact to set it off ? Besides , I already have the Pyrodex ...

There are processes on the 'net that make it a lot easier than the traditional ball or stamping mills . I've got about 80% of a ball mill and I just bought 2 lbs of air float charcoal ...

Commercial Tannerite does require a VERY sharp impact to set it off. generally from a high power rifle. I seem to recall there is a formula that can be set off by a rim fire rifle impact, and a local associate of mine claims there is a formulation he worked with that can be set off by just fuse. His claim is the only one I have ever heard about "Tannerite", but there are lots of "explosives" formulations that can be made. Mythbusters supposedly were working on one of their dropped projects when they discovered a very easy one made with very common household products. They opted to drop that project and swear not to reveal it to the public. Adam Savage mentioned it in on his TESTED YouTube channel a while back.

There are formulae for sugar , stump remover , and horticultural sulfur ... Those compounds are usually used for "rocket motors" . Though as I understand they are "castable" ... probably not suitable for Richard's purpose unless crushed into a fairly fine (thinking FFF as in black powder) granule . Surface area to volume ratio is the key here .

You need a firearms certificate for the muzzle-loader, and a separate explosives certificate for the black powder.

Strangely, you don't need an explosives certificate to buy smokeless, double-base etc powders, though you do in theory need a firearm certificate.

You may also need a license to store the stuff (if over 15kg? iirc).

Afaik there is no limit to the amount allowable on the certificate, though a black powder certificate will say you are allowed eg 10kg: and the storage license if needed.

Not legal in the UK without a manufacturing license, which is way harder to get and WAY WAY more expensive than a certificate to just buy it unless you are talking multi-ton quantities.

There used to be a small fireworks factory license, which was cheap and you could make half a ton of BP under it; but alas no more :(

UK explosives licensing law is complex; there used to be a load of acronyms for documents - COER, RCA, POMSTER - but they "simplified" it by taking out the acronyms, and leaving everything else the same ... so if you talk about a license nowadays, it could be one of many types (make, store, transport etc) , and without the acronyms you don't know what it is.

(there is only one type of explosives certificate, it says you are a good boy and can do what it says on the certificate, generally acquire and maybe keep specified explosives in specified quantities, though that can vary widely. There is also a firearms certificate, which is different)

(this is a basic overview, there are some differences for very large quantities of BP and for storage in mines which I'm not too sure about)

Peter Fairbrother

Thanks Peter for explaining all this to our across-the-Atlantic cousins. Very much more restrictive here. It is so normal to go up to the counter at the club and buy a box of rounds for your host's handgun you are going to have a go with - in the sense of being repectful of your host's hospitality - normal in the US. Not here. No part of any of it is permitted.

Black powder licence to have typically a kilo provided you are a member of a registered firearms club and have a firearms licence is fairly readily had I gather.

There was a gunpowder mill in a valley near where I live, by the way. Buildings, dams and culverts leading to water wheels for the grindstones still there. Stayed on as a fuse works.

Nitroglycerine-based then, from 1880's (1890's). Big Nobel factory on a sand-dunes area nearby ("Upton Towans").

Thanks Peter for explaining all this to our across-the-Atlantic cousins. Very much more restrictive here.

--------------------------------------

We do understand, and fight hard to preserve our Constitutional rights. Most are under attack.

"In New York, squatters have rights after 30 days. It's written in the law that squatters have to be taken to court, making it difficult for police to have the authority to remove them."

Yes, an explosives license for BP is almost automatically issued if you have a certificate for a BP proofed firearm, and free in most Police areas.

Smoothbore firearms are technically shotguns; it's easier to get a shotgun certificate than a firearm certificate for a rifled firearm, and a shotgun certificate covers all the guns you happen to have, unlike a full firearms certificate which names each gun.

For pyrodex or smokeless powder you just need a firearms certificate.

Peter Fairbrother

There are also efforts to ban the more robust buried energy infrastructure here too, leaving us dependent on the most fragile, unstoreable and easily attacked. I wonder why.

I had <okay - self-sensoring here> - a go - with a smoothbore reproduction flintlock pistol. Some kick - best 20 grains you ever got - and when the pall of smoke cleared couldn't believe how close to the bullseye the shot had landed. Oh yes - missed out staring through a purple haze of the pan flaring for what seemed enough time to real Tolstoy's "War and Peace" before that enormous bang and recoil. In Britain you have to understand that this can only be licenced if it's an absolutely serious sport and dedication. No implication of fun and levity is implied or intended.

Saw a great "meme" - photo in the USA showing a several-locomotives coal-train snaking along with words something like "Fuel delivery for electric cars on its way".

My fear is detachment from reality. Diverse energy sources yes. Renewable energy sources - yes definitely where possible. Nuclear (fission) power - well current power-stations are barely plausible solutions. The one being built in Britain as Hinckley Point C is vastly over-budget, behind schedule and in-trouble(?). Error to scale-up the things it seems. We are with nuclear power stations about equivalent to 1830's steam locomotives - "couldn't pull the skin off a rice-pudding" and not inherently safe.

Not sure I am seeing a viable trajectory at the moment.

You might enjoy watching this  film about making rifles in Wiiliamsburg

using old school techniques. I can remember seeing it in school when  I lived in the US in the 1970s.

Saw a great "meme" - photo in the USA showing a several-locomotives coal-train snaking along with words something like "Fuel delivery for electric cars on its way".

------------------------------- That's how it is here.

------------------------------- My fear is detachment from reality. Diverse energy sources yes. Renewable energy sources - yes definitely where possible. Nuclear (fission) power - well current power-stations are barely plausible solutions. The one being built in Britain as Hinckley Point C is vastly over-budget, behind schedule and in-trouble(?). Error to scale-up the things it seems. We are with nuclear power stations about equivalent to 1830's steam locomotives - "couldn't pull the skin off a rice-pudding" and not inherently safe.

Not sure I am seeing a viable trajectory at the moment.

------------------------------- The big hurdle is sufficient safe and affordable battery storage.

Sodium-ion batteries might be cheap enough. Promising for static applications (Li-ion for mobile applications). Pump-storage hydro. schemes are viable where you have togography.

Nuclear fission power has to way improve. In the USA you can have inland water-cooled-reactors - PWR's (and BWR's)

- because you have continental-sized rivers to take away the abundant! waste heat.

Can see nuclear reactor operating temperature has to go way way up to increase efficiency. Then power plants can be small (mass-produced so cheap) and located inland - much less waste heat to disperse. Distributed, for energy security.

Reach I think it's 1060C and you can produce hydrogen no electric intermediary. So you could make electricity all day and hydrogen all night. 100% loading on the plant.