New Old Canteen

[Platon Karataev]

I have a French 2 litre canteen enroute to be delivered sometime in the next week or so. I bought new replacement parts from NiceCollection.fr (corks, horizon bleu cover and strap, etc) but I am a little anxious about the condition of the canteen itself.

I have not much clue about restoring these things so that they can be used in the field without poisoning myself. Has anybody any experience with restoring canteens in general, and bidons in particular?

Can I just throw it in a vat of CLR and call it good?

[1886lebel]

Do not use CLR it will eat what is left of the lining inside.
What I did on mine was just just cleaned it with soap and water till it no longer showed any rust flakes coming out of it. I rarely use my bidon anyways, I tend to forget I left water in it and invariably spill it all over the place when packing up after an event.

Patrick

[oskar2ndchev]

I'm sure that Patrick can probably address the specifics of the model of canteen but as a general rule, I first rinse out the all the obvious junk out with hot water. Next, I fill up the cantten about a quarter of the way with coarse sand and then add water to make a slush and shake vigorously for about a minute or so and then empty. I usually do this a few times until there's no more rust or otehr junk coming out.

Then I take some bleach (not a lot), mixed with a lot of hot water and fill the canteen, shake, then empty. After doing this a few times, I then end by using vinigar the same say.

I've used this method successfully on aluminum US canteens with good results. It may or may not work with the French model. Probably the worse thing is the rust factor if the canteen was made of steel- it all depends.

The basic thing is to remove as much rust as possible. After each event, I wash with vinigar and allow to air dry.

There are those who advocate using an FDA-approved food grade sealer to coat the inside but I've never tried this myself.

Good luck! :-)

[cco23i]

Also I put BB's in with the soap water to help break up any hard deposits.

Scott

[oskar2ndchev]

BBs are good too- I'd forgotten about them. :-)

[Platon Karataev]

Great gentlemen, thank you for all the suggestions. I'll try them all. I'm kind of curious about this magical "FDA-approved food grade sealer," whatever that is.

If none of these things work the canteen will at least make a nice post ornament. And there is always pinard... or cologne and toothpaste sandwiches, depending on one's tastes.

[Larry Dunn]

One last suggestion--after cleaning, you can line the canteen with beeswax, it will help seal seams and help prevent rusting. Just melt some beeswax in a double boiler (or in a can placed in a pot of water) pour the melted wax in the canteen, then roll the canteen around to coat all the interior and pour out any excess. This is a particularly good practice for cans that have been soldered with lead-based solder.

-Larry

[oskar2ndchev]

I'm kind of curious about this magical "FDA-approved food grade sealer," whatever that is.

It was suggested on "The Trench" line but after doing a little research, we're looking at epoxy coatings used to line metal containers/tanks for food applications. Problem is, this is an industrial-scale sort of thing. Probably be better to stick with the wax if you're paranoid. :-)

Of course, vodka has been known to work wonders for all sorts of applications... ;D

[1886lebel]

These bidons were soldered together with a lead-based solder.
I had one bidon that had the magical "FDA-approved food grade sealer," or whatever it was in it and the water tasted like POOP, I got rid of it ASAP and got another one.

I would use Adam techinique for cleaning it ;D

Patrick

[oskar2ndchev]

I find the vinegar is a good way to "freshen" the canteen between uses- keeps it from becomoing musty.

[Platon Karataev]

The bidon arrived yesterday. I cleaned the inside with mixtures of vinegar and borax, hot water and sandy gravel, but when I shine a light inside I can see there is still quite a bit of rust, some of it is thick and scaly. Probably nothing short of a wire brush will get rid of it. I tried again, a few fists full of pennies made a great abrasive and took out more funk than I care to think about, and even revealed a small hole on the seam that the funk had been plugging up.

Patrick, the outside was once painted crudely with olive drab paint. Where this paint has fallen away there is spotted rust, dark discolored (or maybe even painted?) tin, and flecks of bright shiny tin. It looks conspicuously old... is it advisable to repaint it? If so, what's the most correct color?

[1886lebel]

Personally I would leave the original paint alone and just clean up the spot with some soap and water with a toothbrush, it is really hard to clean off the rust without damaging the rest of the paint which will destroy its collectability.
When you get the bidon cover it will help protect it from rusting anymore.

Patrick

[Platon Karataev]

Why in the world do these things have two spouts? It seems like the little one would be good for aerating pinard, but apart from that use, I am a little confused as to why the French had such a weird canteen.

[1886lebel]

The reason they have two spouts is to allow for two different drinking options.
The smaller one is used like a Spanish Bota called in French as Outre which was a leather/goat skin water bottle. Basically what you do is hold the bidon slightly above eye level, tilt your head back and a thin stream of water will be poured into your mouth ... it is possible to drink "zurrust" basically intercepting the jet without touching the bottle.
This all goes back to ancient times

Patrick