quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I like a real deep finish. I plan to try rust bluing with a home made brew of HCL, steel wool & Nitric acid.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I had a lot of difficulty getting nitric acid. Finally I got some concentrated nitric & hydrochloric acid from a chemical dealer friend - about 100 ml each.

This was my first sttempt & I added the two acids together first (a mistake I understand).

Thank I took the steel wool (weighed the proportion) and washed it with dish washing soap and then acetone. After drying it, I put the steel wool into the acid in small quantities. the 350 mm bottle was not big enough and the whole thing boiled over & spilt on the wood plank I was using outdoors. I allowed the whole thing to settle for a few days and there was a lot of sludge in the botton third of the bottle. I used a glass rod to take out the solution and put it into one of the acid bottles.

THEN - it rained for a few days the the big bottle some how got rain water into it!

Now I know that it is better to just use laboratory frade iron powder / filings.

PM me with your email if you want the formula & information. I got it by Googling.

• 100-200mL is a handy batch size, as the rusting solution does not keep indefinitely. A matter of months, at most. This only requires 10-11 mL of each acid, for 200 mL of solution.
  
  
• So you need some way of dispensing small volumes of acid accurately. Either a 10 mL graduated pipette [and suction filler], or an accurate [0.1g or better resolution] metric balance, a couple of small glass sample vials, and an eyedropper, will work. I would not be keen on using a beam type powder scale, but a digital one would be fine.
  
  
• Steel wool, properly degreased, is just fine, if added slowly to the acids. Lab grade iron filings are too, but will react even more violently, unless added very slowly.
  
  
• Mixing the concentrated acids first, then adding the iron, is the usual procedure. Adding the acids to about an equal quantity of distilled water, then adding the iron, will make the reaction much less violent, though.
  There are alternative ways of making the solution, that don't involve this reaction, but they require a source of some solid chemical compounds [Ferric Chloride and Ferric Nitrate], as well as Nitric Acid.
  

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I had a lot of difficulty getting nitric acid. Finally I got some concentrated nitric & hydrochloric acid from a chemical dealer friend - about 100 ml each.

This was my first sttempt & I added the two acids together first (a mistake I understand).

Yes, it's called aqua regia, which is a 3:1 mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid, respectively.


Thank I took the steel wool (weighed the proportion) and washed it with dish washing soap and then acetone. After drying it, I put the steel wool into the acid in small quantities. the 350 mm bottle was not big enough and the whole thing boiled over & spilt on the wood plank I was using outdoors. I allowed the whole thing to settle for a few days and there was a lot of sludge in the botton third of the bottle. I used a glass rod to take out the solution and put it into one of the acid bottles.

THEN - it rained for a few days the the big bottle some how got rain water into it!

Now I know that it is better to just use laboratory frade iron powder / filings.

PM me with your email if you want the formula & information. I got it by Googling.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Lou:
Yes, it's called aqua regia, which is a 3:1 mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid, respectively.