Hi Everyone,

Rebecca had the most complete answer to this - you have to be
conscious that when you call in the police or bomb squad that they
very well may engage in a process in which the entire artifact will be
blown-up and safely "disposed". She is also correct that when you let
the police or other officials into your collection that then may have
the desire to roam through it and conficate items - only show them the
one artifact in question and no more. And make sure that you are in
compliance with the Federal Firearms laws and have a detailed
inventory of all arms with their attribution (date, maker, etc.).

You are at very real risk of doing anything with black powder or
gunpowder yourself (even static electricity can set it off under
certain conditions and steel tools are highly risky!!!). I had years
and years of training and experience and I still was extremely leary
of dealing with old powder.

When I was running an Arms and Metals Conservation lab one of our
technicians asked me what that "black stuff" was that she kept seeing
on the vacuuam filters when she vacuamed the barrels of the muskets.
Needless to say, she had been pulling olf black powder into the
vacuuam, past the electric motor, and into the filter! So we started a
regimine of swabbing out the barrels with cotton patches that had been
soaked in a non-ionic penetrating oil. This picked up the residues and
also formed a protective thin coating on the iron.

I have also dealt with archaeological 18th century grenades, and
again, the protocol is soak the artifact as Rebecca had outlined, and
using bronze tools, to carefully remove the powder and accretions, and
then to dispose of those residues in accordance will all federal,
state, and local laws.

I would NOT recommend that anyone take black powder - whether it is
old or new - and light it off to see what it can do!

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California


On 4/10/07, Rosie DiVernieri <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I was wondering if anyone has had any experience in disposing of old gun
> powder?
>
> Feel free to reply off list.
>
> Thanks,
> Rosie DiVernieri
> Collections Coordinator
> Chemical Heritage Foundation
>
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