You can buy unregulated Explosives!

[Jonnin]

ammonium nitrate is a lot like saltpeter which is the basic ingredient for explosive black powder, and both compounds are found in nature in usable formats for the truly desperate.   And again, they are not really all that exotic, you can buy or make better.  

 

I wonder if AN is usable with charcoal dust?  

[Caster]

ammonium nitrate is a lot like saltpeter which is the basic ingredient for explosive black powder, and both compounds are found in nature in usable formats for the truly desperate.   And again, they are not really all that exotic, you can buy or make better.  
 
I wonder if AN is usable with charcoal dust?

I've always wondered about sugar. Salt Peter and sugar will make one SERIOUS fire. Lots of smoke too.

[Guest Keal G Seo]

ammonium nitrate is a lot like saltpeter which is the basic ingredient for explosive black powder, and both compounds are found in nature in usable formats for the truly desperate.   And again, they are not really all that exotic, you can buy or make better.  

 

I wonder if AN is usable with charcoal dust?  

I use charcoal dust in my aluminum powder process as a lube. Not sure if you could use it alone.

Saltpeter does make for some awesome smoke bombs though.

[Jonnin]

I've always wondered about sugar. Salt Peter and sugar will make one SERIOUS fire. Lots of smoke too.

 

Pour some sulfuric acid on sugar if you want an awful smoke bomb.  My less than bright wrestling coach turned science teacher did that and cleared out the entire school building for 45 min.  Was not a lot, either,  maybe a quart jar 1/3 full of sugar and enough acid to react it.  (I loved the guy, he was funny and earthy,  but his chemistry was downright dangerous, he blew up a chunk of sodium that got burning, reacting sodium dust on us, amongst other things). 

Edited November 13, 2013 by Jonnin

[TMF]

ammonium nitrate is a lot like saltpeter which is the basic ingredient for explosive black powder, and both compounds are found in nature in usable formats for the truly desperate.   And again, they are not really all that exotic, you can buy or make better.  
 
I wonder if AN is usable with charcoal dust?

Dunno, but you can buy aluminum powder off the shelf at a paint store. Maybe even at Lowes, I'm not sure. It sensitizes the AN and makes it detonate when struck. I wouldn't necessarily call it a desperate explosive though. AQ used it a lot in their car/truck bombs in lieu of conventional munitions or plastic explosive. It works well for collapsing buildings or knocking over armored vehicles. I remember one in Mosul in a dump truck that caused a few buildings to collapse and took out everyone in an MRAP.

In fact, we often used ammonium nitrate to collapse enemy structures as C4 wasn't very effective in taking the building down unless you used a buttload. A 10 gallon jug of anfo would push the walls right out and collapse an average sized building, whereas C4 had to be strategically placed in order to take it down.