*Speed Rusting Steel Wool*

What to do & what not to do

By Jaden

27 May 2003

I bought some steel wool for my bug out bag. For fire starting "the rustier the better" is the saying. The wool I bought was cheap so I got 2 bags. One was coarse and the other fine and I didn’t figure it made any difference.

To speed up the rusting process I squirted some hydrogen peroxide on a couple different pieces and then put them out on the porch to dry. After a few days of being outside and exposed to rain and sunlight----

The coarse wool rusted up good and still has good integrity however the fine wool didn’t fair so well.

The fine stuff rusted, but it also falls apart easy. It is also still wet and soggy in the middle whereas the coarse stuff is dry. The small piece in the pic is from it. It fell right off and it will crumble in your fingers. This would be about impossible to stretch out across 2 batteries without it falling apart.

When it comes to the fine stuff, I might have used too much peroxide and let it rust too long. Maybe I shouldn’t have let water touch it. I dunno.

So, if you’re thinking about rusting up some steel wool, I recommend using the coarse stuff.

Jaden