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c/farriersriley43riley4324d ago

Old timer told me to never use city water for forging - he was right

Guy named Jim down at the supply shop in Lexington kept telling me to collect rain water instead of using tap water for my forge. I shrugged it off for like 2 years until I started getting weird scaling on my shoes. Switched to rain water buckets and the difference was night and day after about a month. Has anyone else dealt with hard water messing up their steel?
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3 Comments
uma_taylor47
Couple years back I switched to rain water for my quenching and it was like night and day. The scale fell off way easier and I stopped getting those weird pitted spots on my damascus billets. City water around here has so much chlorine it practically boils off and leaves crud on your steel mid quench. My buddy Dave still uses tap water and his blades come out looking rough compared to mine.
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stellanelson
Had the exact same problem about 3 years back. Moved to a new house and started getting this weird orange film on my blades after quenching. Drove me nuts until an old timer at a hammer-in told me to try rain water. Cleared up in like two weeks. City water has all kinds of junk in it the treatment plant doesn't tell you about.
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susan649
susan64923d ago
Does it really make that much of a difference though?
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