Not BLACK-Powder.. the Real Golden Powder?

- Back on June 6th 2015 I blogged about different gun powders -  'Colourful Gun Powders'  - and how there might be an alternative blend (not modern 'smokeless powder') that could be used instead of the dirty corrosive old 'Black Powder' that is made from nitre, charcoal & sulphur (sulfer).

A key alternative formula seemed to be Skip Kurtz's 'Golden Powder' which is a 60:40 blend of Potassium nitrate : Ascorbic acid and there's a fair bit of information about this early attempt to develop a superior black powder alternative.

Skip Kurtz was a long-time singer and stage performer and a keen shooter and gun collector - who wrote his own book about the sorry tale of his twenty-six years trying to bring his invention to shooters:

- Driven by curiosity I gave in and paid far too much for a copy of his book to be sent from Amazon but I guess it was worth it to read of the greedy, underhand dealings of many competing investors who seem to have acted like crude teenagers brawling over a torn bag of lollies.

While the book tells only one side of the tale - the stories of dirty dealings leave a nasty taste - but it certainly explains how patent disputes and poor manufacturing methods coupled with financial failings - have lead to several inferior versions that bombed commercially .. as well as the current successful black-powder substitutes.

The book includes pages of copied documents and patent records as verification of Skips story and Court cases. - Well illustrated with some good shooting interest.

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- When I finished the book I looked for any updated information online and found his obituary:

Earl F 'Skip' Kurtz died September 21 2013 aged 76 in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Marty K.