Vinegaroon And Metal Purity

[epiphanist1248]

When we bought our house, the previous owners left a bucket of rusty nails in the shed. I don't know what their intentions were, but now I'm wondering if I ought to toss them in vinegar with some steel wool to make vinegaroon. My only concern is that I don't know what other metals, like chromium or vanadium, might be in the nails and what those might do to either the dye job or the structural integrity of the leather itself. Should I go ahead and use what I've got or stick with steel wool pads and count on their relative purity and therefore predictibility?

[TwinOaks]

I think you'll have better results with the steel wool...(burnt off to remove any anti-corrosion coatings and oils)

1 You know what's in it. The nails are most likely just mild steel, but you don't know the FULL cause of the rust...there could be caustic chemical corrosion as well as plain ol' moisture rust.

2 You will know how much you're adding of both steel and vinegar

3 The steel wool has a MUCH larger surface area to mass ratio, which means the 'roon will brew faster.

[ChuckBurrows]

Well for the last 50 years I've used everything from 200 year old wrought and cast iron as well as cans of old rusty nails and steel wool, both de-oiled and not, and FWIW I've never found a spits worth of difference no matter the material, except the rusty iron might give a reddish cast (especially on maple wood, but on leather always black).

Sure you don't want to use stainless or some such, but IMO any iron/steel that will rust works just fine.

[TwinOaks]

Here's the reason for my suggestion to be certain of which metal(s) are in the mix: I was using a dauber to apply one of my batches, and left the dauber in the jar. The next time I used it, the brew produced a green-ish black. I checked the dauber and the galvanized wire was showing signs of corrosion. Prior to the dauber being in the mix, it only produced black. The results were the same on additional pieces from the same double shoulder, as well as completely different pieces of leather.