"Michael Baugh" wrote in message ...
All right, let's give you an introduction to explosives.
Something explodes because it is in a confined space.
A cork plugging the hole is not sufficient to keep the
gunpowder from simply burning quickly and popping
the cork.
Frankly, I cannot BELIEVE that people haven't told
you about the most common way to make an explosive,
but perhaps it's so they don't want to share it with a few
dozen teenagers looking for a way to blow something up.


Thats not correct. Smokeless powder is not an explosive, it burns
very fast and when it is confined has explosive properties due to the
rapid expansion of gases. Blackpowder, on the other hand IS explosive
and needs no confining to make it so. A hand full of smokeless powder
can be touched off with a match and will only burn, admittedly very
fast and you may loose some eyebrows, but a hand full of blackpowder
would take your hand off when a match touched it.

I would not recommend either method.

The most common method and one we used when was working on a pipeline
is ANFO.

But trying any of these is unsafe and probably would earn you a
comfortable stay in a warm place with 3 meals a day, hospital or
jail.