Gonna "Tannerite" page two!!!!

-SleeperShooter

Imagine a quart-sized metal container filled with flash powder.  What could go wrong?

a primitive blasting cap made from a simple powder charge could be set off with a fuse, which would in turn detonate the tannerite

I think his line of thinking is along the lines of :  tannerite  needs high impact to set off such as a high velocity rifle bullet. a fuse would do nothing by its self.

I would have to differ on 2.  

Velocity of detonation is governed by the crystal structure of the explosive and to the density of the material compared to theoretically 100% dense explosive.  There are a few exceptions to the rule as many explosives actually perform better with micro-balloons than when the material is fully dense.  Explosives either deflegrate or detonate. Only a few materials transition from deflegration to detonation due to heavy confinement and that is due to the increasing pressure and heat generated by the deflegration compacting the remaining material into a state of being that supports detonation.  Once the containment is broken by pressure vessel failure the remaining material will return to a deflegration reaction.

Smaller fragments is more due to the brisance of the explosive and the interaction of reflected shock waves within the vessel walls.  Gun powder pipe bombs fail due to an over pressurized state, the more and faster you can build the pressure before the container fails the container will generate more smaller pieces due to the increased level of energy released at the failure point.  Metal cased high explosives fail due to the interaction of shockwaves that result in high tension stresses that rip the case apart before the gas from the explosion gets to the boundary of the vessel.    


Example:  You set off a gun powder pipe bomb you will find the end caps with some threaded pipe in them, several large pieces of the pipe and several small pieces.  You set off the same pipe with high explosive, one that is actually detonating and there will be little pieces every where and a few medium sized pieces.  There will be almost no recognizable threaded material found.  
Example two:  Gun powder will not turn a wine bottle into anything but a frag thrower.  Detonating explosives will turn it into a higher velocity frag thrower with a shaped charged jet coming out the end of it.

I bet that guy is feels real dumb right about now