Originally Posted by aruzinsky

When I was a kid, I made my own charcoal to use in making gunpowder because the charcoal briquettes sold for barbequing are useless for that purpose. The more porous the charcoal, the faster the gunpowder burns. The less dense the wood, the more porous the charcoal. I found balsa wood to be best, although it is too expensive for commercial production of gunpowder.

My procedure for making charcoal was to take a coffee can with a tight fitting metal lid and punch about 10 nail holes in the bottom of the can. After putting wood into the can, I put it on a stove burner so that the gas escaped from the bottom of the can into the flame of the stove burner. That increased the fuel efficiency while reducing the stink, but, it was still necessary to open a window to ventilate the room.