Making Iron Oxide with Steel Wool - Experimental

Can I make Iron Oxide with steel wool for glazing? If firing steel wool in a kiln, pulverizing it, and testing it on glazes sounds exciting, then this video is for you.

One of those, "I wonder what would happen if..." type of experiments. All were fired to Cone 5.

I expected bright orange rusty metal after firing in the kiln, but as you will see, it ended up being black. I plan on doing follow up tests with other rusty metals, and perhaps even try firing copper wire to make Copper Oxide.

Leave me a comment if you have tried something like this.

[julipolito]

Omg! I love this test. I’ve always wondered about this! Thank you for posting. Juli, Tucson, AZ

[lethan]

To create a perfect iron oxide you need to first ignite the steel wool with something like a nine volt battery or Butane torch, and then wait for it to cool. Be sure to do this outside as it gets up to 900 degrees Celsius when it gets going. After it cools, spray the wool with vinegar and wait about 5 min. After the five minutes make a solution of about 8 parts Hydrogen Peroxide and 1 part kitchen salt. Submerge the steel wool into the solution and wait for the reaction to finish. You can tell when it is done when the solution stops bubbling and it will begin to cool down. Afterwords strain the liquid through a coffee strainer into a cup. The remaining red stuff in the strainer is iron oxide. Allow for it to dry and your done! Hope this helps!

[potterybyjohn]

I did an experiment to make ferric acetate to replace ferric chloride for the foil saggar raku technique. The first step was placing steel wool in hydrogen peroxide to oxidize the steel and create rust. This worked well, you might give that a try if you haven't lost interest yet 😊 I enjoy following your exploration of clay subjects. Keep trying new things, we all learn from you 👌

[nathanspevack]

Love your experiments. Very interesting stuff. If I had my studio I'd want to try things like this. We all learn when you learn and post about it. Please keep it up!

[saftaleonard]

There are other oxides of iron like FeO which is black, Fe3O4 (magnetite which is also black). You can try runing DC current trough a solution of salt using iron electrodes. This will produce a brown/black precipitate. You filter that, let it dry and heat it. I did that a few years ago and got a really nice red color. Another option would be to make some iron sulphate from and some copper sulphate. Then you can add sodium bicarbonate to the iron sulphate solution (this one should be green, but it oxidizes quickly and becomes brownish) and just dry the precipitate and heat it up. This method I haven't tried tough so I'm not sure how it would turn out.

[zzapzzin]

A buddy of mine made a wood stain by dissolving steel wool in straight vinegar = = red stained barn ( bugs don't like to eat rust ) that looks great.Could you do the same but put magnets around the bucket then drain off the vinegar when the steel wool is dissolved? ( Just a thought) .Thanks for the show dude (;>)

[bethechangeme]

The reason its not red i'm guessing is because its still iron. Iron oxide needs water & oxygen in order to form so having the oxidizing environment without the water as with the kiln is not sufficient to create the reaction and having the water without the oxygen is not sufficient neither as you saw from the almost complete lack of rust on the submerged iron wool.

The piece of steel wool that was semi submerged was in the perfect environment for rust to form with both water and oxygen present.

We can heat up iron even higher in a crucible and it still will not turn into iron oxide but instead will melt into smolten iron. I'm guessing the reason it doesn't oxidize is because of the lack of water. If you want a real quick way of making iron oxide put a little bit of water in the bottom of a jar, put in your steel wool, put on the lid nice and tight and then place it in a warm place like on a radiator or a stove. The warmth will cause the water to transpire and coat the steel wool whilst still leaving plenty of access for oxygen to also make contact with the wool. Crack it open every day or two to allow in extra oxygen and hey presto you will have a rust making machine.

Alternatively you can move to Ireland and forget to paint your tractor and when you get outside to drive it, it will fall apart from rust because that exact process is playing out on a much larger scale, transpiration creates thin layer of water on steel objects, oxygen is still able to make contact and hey presto, stuff rusts here like nobody's business.

[Bysmerian]

So if you just wanted the black iron oxide, I'm like 90% sure this is the same reaction you get when you ignite the steel wool with an open flame or a battery. But other people are making some pretty solid points about getting the red ferric oxide. I don't strictly need to worry about making my own red, since my craft guild does that, but having the powder opens up some possibilities...

[douglasbeck]

What you desire is Iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (red rust), pure Iron oxide is black. The best method is to use electrolysis in salt water, water will provide both hydrogen and oxygen. Or you could just leave the steel wool in the salt water for an extended period with heat. Drying it and rewetting it in the salt water several times, exposing it to oxygen and hydrogen in the air.

[bigtexuntex]

Salt will speed it up.

I use "red" iron pigments in my glass fusing work. It is laser toner. I mostly use it for printing "in" the glass, laser printing on decal paper. It comes out "burnt orange" (same color as the university of Texas football jerseys, convenient for making art for ut football fans). You can get toner, a super fine black powder. The black turns burnt orange while firing, no oxygen required.

[marcohairdoctor]

Hi Justin, thanks for the videos and all your tests and ideas. I have an idea of my own! How about more in front of the camera time for you? It’s nice to hear you but let’s put a face to the voice!!?

[ygftiui]

What a great experiment. I wonder if there are too many impurities in steel wool. There could be a wide range of scrap metallics that make the wool

[stephanievanorden]

Hello, my name is Justin. I am a wizard who throws darts at a periodic table and then says- I can make art from that!

[rischfabien]

Hey,
I think you could get more rust by spraying vinegar on the wool

[andysmylie]

Soak in vinegar then discard the steel particles and pant the brisk ware with the solution.

[sharonbryant]

I put the bisque iron dust in glaze. One video I saw put the iron particles in the clay

[andysmylie]

Try soaking in vinegar to enhance the rust

[lamardon]

Try hydrogen peroxide. It's water with extra oxygen attached. And maybe a dash of vinegar as an electrolyte.

[TheRandomVedioDudes]

Now he is giving water to steel wool...

Its gonna grow!

[sandgrains]

Hello very nice work 👍 well done, please activate the translation, my greetings to you 🌹