“’Cotton’?? Nitro cellulose? Yes, it is dangerous crap”
True it is. But, I believe a “cotton” also refers to the of ‘bomb’ because of the huge clouds of smoke and gas that form after the explosion.
Gun cotton was an old form of explosive. But it can be very dangerous. It is possible to make it, but not practical to use for small arms. I reload.
Black powder is also easily made from scratch, but it is corrosive. And it is often an unstable compound. (precision issue)
Black powder gets around the issue of pressure containment by having all loads compressed, no void space in the barrel or in the brass cartridge if it is not a muzzle loader.
Actually the use of the word “cotton” by Ukrainians is to mock the Russians:
“ridiculing Russian media use of a word хлопóк (a bang) in a sense of explosion, which is written in the same way as cotton - хлóпок”