Mr. Peebles.......odd you would mention childhood explosives use.  At the age of nine I lost eyelashes, eyebrows and the front half of my stylish burr haircut.......to a homemade carbide cannon that my older brother helped me build from a 1950's Popular Mechanics magazine.   I think it took a couple of months off his life when the orange tongue of flame wrap briefly around my head.

No harm done,

MB