Does boiling water alone purify it completely?
I was thinking to myself that boiling water with afterwards running it through a filter would be more of an advantage.
Boiling water kills off any microbes in it. A filter gets the big chunks out. So really, I’d think you’d want to filter and then boil.
Makes sense to me. 
Thanks.
Depending where you get your water, you may also need to worry about chemical contamination–specifically chemicals with a higher boiling point than water (if you’re just boiling) or chemicals with a lower boiling point than water (if you’re distilling).
Personally, I’m curious about filtering with charcoal as a means of removing chemical pollutants. Does anybody have any experience or info on this? Can you just use the charred sticks left over form your campfire?
Lye would be made with ash, but activated charcoal is what most modern filtration systems use – and what they pump into your stomach when you OD, what filters the air you breath in a gas mask, etc.
I don’t really know what differentiates “activated” charcoal from the char left in a campfire. What constitutes “activation”?
Wow. Thanks for the research, Plains!
I know that bushmen of the kalahari would build a straw filter spear of sorts. When the wanted to drink, they would simply jam it into the ground and suck up. I have used charcoal to purify water, but only in a lab setting. I belive that all we did was take charcoal and put it between two coffee filters…
On the land I used to live on we had a charcoal / ceramic filter. The charcoal was in ceramic tubs, it worked well, fast enouph for 5 people. They will keep up with drinking demands.
Grimkin, How big were these ceramic tubs? were these home built filters or did you buy them?
One of my land mates bought them, ther small, the actual tube filters are about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide, two of them in a filter system that holds about three gallons and percilates down through the filters into a resivior you tap. The are expensive though.
MSR’s modern filter, the Miniworks, is just a ceramic chamber with a plastic pump to push water through the ceramic. You can let water gravity-feed through ceramic, it would just take longer.
http://www.msrcorp.com/filters/miniworks_ex.asp
note that ceramic filters out everything except viruses… so if your water was absolutely filthy you would still need another measure of purification like boiling/distilling/or a drop of bleach or iodine.
I wonder if a primitive ceramic pump filter could be made with wood/bamboo for the pump and housing…
Please… don’t eat my brain!
I live in a moderately populated area surround by farmland and ranches, and am experimenting with drinking water from a local creek. The water doesn’t flow most of the year, but collects in low spots, forming fairly large pools. The water tends to stagnate, but I am trying out a new method–using a sharp stick to punch a narrow hole in the mud/sand several feet away from the open water. Water seeps in and I suck it out with a slender rivercane straw and drink it. Although I use no kind of filter, the water tastes wonderful. There are some dirt particles in it, but I don’t mind it. Several weeks have gone by and I have felt no ill effects.
Anyone heard of this method being used before?
i’ve heard of similar, but the distance recommended was, i think, 20 ft away…?
If any farmland drains into that creek I would not want to drink it unless you purify it somehow like filtering or boiling. Much more likely to have coliform bacteria, giardia, pesticides etc. Also stagnant water in general gets more likely to have harmful contaminants compared to running water.
Then again, a semi-famous Appalachian trail hiker, Lone Wolf, says he has drank unfiltered, unpurified water for over 20 years along the trail without getting sick, he just chooses his water sources wisely. So I guess you can figure out what works for you.
As far as “transition technology” goes, a couple drops of bleach into a quart of water can kill any biological contaminants like bacteria, protozoans and viruses. The water will need to sit for at least 30 minutes before you drink it though. So maybe we should all stockpile a few gallons of bleach in our cob cottage collapse communes 
I think the water tends to stagnate, but I am trying out a new method–using a sharp stick to punch a narrow hole in the mud/sand several feet away from the open water.