doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rust bluing with filtered water?

I do a lot of rust blue and in my current set up I have been buying distilled H2O which has been working out great, butI am getting to the point where I buy a considerable amount of water. I was wondering if any of you may have tried one of the multi-step filters that are now on the market. Carbon filters, R/O etc. I'm moving into a larger shop on June 1st and will have the room for the filter and storage tank. It sure would not take long to pay off the investment....if it works. Anybody have any experience? Thanks,
Steve

I have used RO water. It works very well. I used distilled last week for two barrels and it worked very well too. I have used tap water and that has worked okay - but, I think the minerals in the water occasionally would dry to the barrel before I could wipe it down with alcohol. The water spotting would incorporate into the next rust cycle no matter what. So, whatever I use, it will be mineral free to the degree I can make that possible. I don't think filters can do that. So it is either RO or distilled for me.

Brent

What about a filter system used by salt water aquarium hobbyists? We had one years ago (sold with the tank). It wasn't expensive and created ultra-pure water.
I am moving into a new home soon. I will finally have space to learn how to brown barrels. I'll need pure water too. I have thought about tracking down a used system on Craigslist.

I have collected rain water in a 50 gallon plastic food service barrel and used it quite successfully. I have also used tap water, the water in our system seems particularly good, and have never had the expected spotting from it. It comes from a river and is hyper filtered then purified, and really does seem to work just fine, but I have been using the collected rain water just 'cause folk said I ought to.

Steve:

I have not used it, but I have been told that RO water will work. I gather it approaches distilled water for purity.

Glenn

Hi, Quick question? What is R/O water?

I have used rainwater caught and stored in a large, plastic trash can. I have stored it for a few months or more in the trash can and seems to work fine. I have never tried our tap water but am considering trying it as an experiment.

RO is reverse osmosis. It is a way of purifying water of particulate AND dissolved impurities. A fish tank filter or the like will get mostly particulate matter and relatively little of the rest except what the carbon can latch on to.

If you use tap water, be prepared to wipe down immediately after you pull the barrel from the tank. Even so, drips or runs or beads of water have to be eliminated quickly before they dry. A paper towel with denatured alcohol will do it.

Brent

All depends on the level of dissolved minerals in the water Steve. Western waters are often more heavily mineralized than eastern waters.
If I had already put the effort into the preparation, I would use only distilled water. Even if that meant building a crude still from a stainless milk can (which could be used for home distilling as well). A good run doesn't take all that long.

Why not make your own distilled water? For less than $200.00 you can get 4 gal. a day. For less than $800.00 you can get all the distilled water you want in any quantity. Easy to pay for a nice system with just a few rust bluing jobs.

ky jon,
I don't know how you do your math. I did two barrels last week with 8 gallons. At $0.79/gallon, that is like $3 a barrel. I'd have to do a lot of barrels. A whole lot of barrels. To make that pay.

Brent