[LukeeeeBennett]

So, I need to make some potassium nitrate, however, a set of instructions say I have to use 3.5 GALLONS of Nitrate Soil + 1 GALLON of Alcohol, I have the other items but these seem way too much.

How big a batch would that create? If it's huge, I can just scale it all down, I only need a small amount.

[typhoon2028]

What is nitrate soil?  And why can't you mix nitric acid and potassium hydroxide?

[Frater EIE]

The only way I've heard of "making" potassium nitrate is to make a pile using the raw materials obtained from a cattle barn.
"Into the 19th century, niter-beds were prepared by mixing manure with either mortar or wood ashes, common earth and organic materials such as straw to give porosity to a compost pile typically 1.5 meters high by 2 meters wide by 5 meters long.The heap was usually under a cover from the rain, kept moist with urine, turned often to accelerate the decomposition and leached with water after approximately one year. Dung-heaps were a particularly common source: ammonia  from the decomposition of urea and other nitrogenous materials would undergo bacterial oxidation to produce nitrates. These often contained calcium nitrate, which could be converted to potassium nitrate by the addition of potash  from wood ashes. The liquid containing various nitrates was then converted with wood ashes to potassium nitrate."

So then you just wait a year, and then harvest the white powder accumulating on the poop.

[vmelkon]

I have seen the above method done with dung earth or whatever you want to call it. He didn't wait a year. Use a metal drum. Put some cloth on it and put dirt on the cloth and poor water.
Let the water settle and siphon off from the top. Well, you know what to do after.

Oh yes, he mix the powder with sugar, set it on fire, just to prove it contains nitrates.