why willow charcoal?

[-MC]

how is willow charcoal chemically different from any other type of charcoal? and why does that make it better for BP?

[asilentbob]

Short answer: Old farts experimented making black powder over many centuries with different potassium nitrates, charcoals, and sulfurs... in different ratios... and loosely agreed that willow seems to be one of the best charcoals. Not necessarily the fastest. Something about the density and make-up of different woods leads to charcoals with varying reactivities when milled into BP.

http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/charcoal_tests.html
http://www.pyroguide.com/index.php?title=Charcoal

However... Theres always a lot of variables... and what kind of black powder you want to make would be somewhat dependent on what you want to do with it. A super fast black powder would be too hot for core-burning black powder rockets for example. I believe GOEX uses a mix of charcoals with oak being the main one. They are not going for super fast powder though, they are going for super consistent powder. Which is important too. If your lifting shells its nice to have every single batch of BP made for lift consistent so that the shells lift to the correct height and you don't have to compensate for differences between batches.