Unspellable you are corect,
In the old days charcoal was listed as follows:
Buckthorn Alder, Black Alder and White Willow were considered necessary for a sporting powder.
Rifle and musket grade powders could be produced with Alder or Willow.
Hardwoods such as Maple could be used but were considered inferior.
In addition how the charcoal is processed is extremnly important to wether a powder is "moist" burning or not. For instance, if the retort was allowed to reach a tempreture in excess of 320 degrees the creosote so important to a moist burning powder is flashed off leaving near solid carbon which will release no moisture when burned which means any moisture in the fouling is absorbed by the potassium carbonate in the fouling from the atmosphere after the shot has been fired but only if the relative humidity is above 30%.
Its all neat stuff. The Swiss folks process thier charcoal (Buck thorn Alder) in small batches where consistency is everything. Others, such as GOEX source thiers from outside vendors.
It could very well come from the same outfits that processed briqettes we use in the grill.
Cheers!
