[meteorite-list] Water cutting question

From: Carl Agee <agee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:35:16 -0700
Message-ID: <CADYrzho7-siM_dkK2tYBJ8pMh+=nGp4r2mx6fDDMhcTLQhQsLQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

I have been following the thread on cutting irons in water. My
question is, why distilled or purified water rather than tap water? I
was under the impression that purified water, i.e. ultrapure water, is
much more corrosive than mineralized water like spring water or tap
water. In fact, ultrapure water is so corrosive it is often used in
clean labs as a cleaning medium for surfaces. Also, the pharmaceutical
industry no longer uses stainless steel tubing for ultrapure water
because of corrosion -- they use Teflon or polyethylene instead I
believe. Wouldn't pure water be worse on iron oxidation than
"mineral" water? I can understand using pure water to cut down on
trace element contamination for geochemical srtudies, especially on
stones, but I don't see how this helps for keeping irons from rusting.
Also, while we are at it, what is the best blade for cutting irons?

Thanks,

Carl Agee

--
Carl B. Agee
Director and Curator, Institute of Meteoritics
Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences
MSC03 2050
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131-1126
Tel: (505) 750-7172
Fax: (505) 277-3577
Email: agee at unm.edu
http://meteorite.unm.edu/people/carl_agee/

Received on Tue 20 Nov 2012 12:35:16 PM PST