Does anyone have the specifications of RFG2 blackpowder?  Burn rate,  screen size, glazings?
 

David,  
 
RFG, and RFG2 are the powder designations listed in the L.o.C. for loadings of the 577 Snider and the 577/450 Martini Henry ... References to these powder grades are also found in other documents of that time period.  
 
Coyot�

The booklet is earlier then I thought; "Pamphlet on the Manufacture of Gunpowder as carried out at the Government Factory, Waltham Abbey". It is dated 1857 so predates the Snider.
 
There's a paragraph on "The Powder Best Adapted to the Enfield Rifle" which includes:
 
"As far as expermiments have been carried out at present, it is considered that a Powder made from small-wood Charcoal, from 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in diameter, incorporated for 4 hours, slack pressed, and separated so as to obtain an even grain, between a 16 and 20 or 20 and 38-mesh wire sieve, will ansewer, in all respects, for this service better than any other."
 
A table of results of experiments with a one-pounder gun pendulum is published for 26 differnet kinds of powder. Charge was 1/4 pound. Results give Initial velocity of ball and relative force of powder. RFG2 is not listed. (R.15' and R.90' are but there is no explanation as to the gradings or pupose of all these powders).
 
A long winded way of saying I havn't found the answer to your question I am afraid!  
 
David

From Treatise on Service Explosives 1907
 
Page 24 Granulation.  "......that which is retained by the 20 mesh is RFG2 powder."
 
These finer grades of powder were made with dogwood charcoal.  The composition was 75/15/10 and they were glazed with one ounce of graphite per 100 pounds of powder as part of the final process.
 
Full details are also available of the times in the incorporating mill, pressing pressures, times in the granulation machine, dusting reels, glazing drums, in all, pages of it, not a lot of use to anyone not making it themselves.

So what is the mesh size of RFG?

I pulled a couple of original martini cases a few years ago. The powder grain size was roughly equal to nutty slack, (for those of us who remember coal fires). The thing that interested me was that every flake of powder appeard identical in size and shape when viewed through a magnifier.
For 100 yard shooting, try the carbine load: 75 grains of ffg with a 410 grain bullet. I use a thin card wad over the powder in black powder cartridges of all types and then top up with semolina. There is a new product available in Texas which appears to be a mixture of cellulose and molybdenum disulphide---its called Puff-lon and the two shooters in our club that have obtained supplies claim that it improves groups and virtually eliminates fouling. WWW.pufflon.com.
Fred.