Introduction: How to Make Potassium Nitrate(used in Fuses, Nitrocellulose, Etc.)

About: i like everything, art is cool, but practicality is more my style... looking to make my own metalshop and everything. i do a little bit of glasswork, a little bit of jewelry, a little bit of leather and other …

this is my first instructable, and i don't have any objections to fuses, or flash powder, gun cotton etc, but i'm legally required to make a disclaimer. NITRATES OF ANY KIND ARE DANGEROUS AND SHOULD BE USED ACCORDINGLY. I'M NOT LIABLE FOR ANY STUPID THINGS YOU DO WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE, LIKE SAY, BLOW UP YOUR HOUSE. DON'T BE STUPID. i'm gonna tell you how to get potassium nitrate from fertilizer, or those bags of steer manure or whatever. 

Step 1: Materials List

3 gallons of nitrate bearing earth or other material(i like using those spongy fertilizer stick things, they're fairly rich in nitrates
1/2 cup of wood ashes(whitish powdery stuff, no black crap, unless it's burned paper, that works well too)
Bucket or other similar container about 4-5 gallons in volume
2 pieces of finely woven cloth, each a bit bigger than the bottom of the bucket
Shallow dish or pan at least as large in diameter as the bucket
Shallow, heat resistant container(like a pyrex brownie dish or somethin?)
2 gallons of water
Something to punch holes in the bottom of the bucket
1 gallon of any type of alcohol(vodka works well, but expensive) rubbing alcohol will work, but it's better if it's higher concentration, 20 percent or more is best.
A heat source
Paper & tape
note: only ratios are important, feel free to double or triple quantities for more nitrates. 

Step 2: Make Your Apparatus.

punch holes in the bottom of the bucket... like a lot of them. then put one piece of cloth over the inside of the bucket, make sure all of the holes are covered. put all the wood ashes over the cloth, and put the second cloth over the top. now you put the dirt or whatever in there, on top of the second cloth. put the bucket over top of the shallow dish, use sticks or rods to hold it up. 

Step 3: Get the Nitrate Out

boil your water and pour it over the top of your earth or fertilizer stuff. make sure it goes through all of the dirt, work slowly and allow the water to drain out. 

Step 4: Waiting

wait for the water to cool for 2-3 hours. then pour it out into ther heat resistant container. discard the sludge at the bottom. it's worthless. 

Step 5: Boiling

boil the mixture for at least 2 hours, salt crystals will appear, scoop them out and continue going... over and over again until the mixture is about half of its original volume. let it cool. 

Step 6: Alcohol

add the alcohol(same amount of alcohol as mixture is left and then run it through paper, or maybe a coffee filter. small crystals will form on top... 

Step 7: Purification

take all those crystals and redissolve them in a small ammount of boiling water. like as little water as you can to dissolve it all. 
take the crystals as you boil again. heat it until it's dry. spread the crystals over a flat surface and wait to dry... be careful, this is very fragile and unstable at this point... well moderately unstable. you now have potassium nitrate. you can use this in lots of ways, there are many other instructables on those uses. have fun, and make things go boom.