p.h. is easy, i believe we discussed that on another thread.
any ways some of the recent powders that have been going through changes and becoming cleaner burning through the addition of nitroglycerin etc is just now getting the cheaper saw dust base.
at one time right as smokeless was coming out, there was an invention called brown powder which was made from oatgrass charcoal [airc] which was finely ground before being made into charcoal.
this new powder was much better than black, it burned cleaner and smoked less.
but not quite as good as smokeless.
rush ahead 100 years and we now [recently] have about 6 different "better" black powder formulas.
when a better one has been there the whole time.
i am sure what we want is available it's just finding it,or the closest thing for our purposes.