[buwaya]

When I was in 8th grade I made nitrocellulose. It worked.
Just as well I was never inclined to a career in terrorism.

[Myrddin]

My musings as a teen included making black powder, contact explosive (ammonium nitrogen tri-iodide) and nitroglycerin. I made some good bottle rockets to loft my firecrackers. One of the more fun builds was a large hydrogen balloon carrying a seal bomb with a slow fuse made from cotton string soaked in a solution of potassium nitrate. The balloon approached 1000 ft above ground before the slow fuse ignited the actual fuse of the seal bomb.

A friend had some off the shelf FF black powder. If you roll that inside aluminum foil and toss it into a fire, it functions nicely as a firecracker.

I put the ad hoc musing away as I headed off to college. Plenty of lab work focused on meeting classroom requirements.

Speaking of S&B, I have a couple boxes of their 9mm on the table. It's good quality ammo.