having trouble with heavily tarnished brass

brynkel

Picked up about a 1000 pieces of 30-06 fired brass at a local auction the other day. Headstamps are Lake City and Frankford Arsenal (and a few others) from the 50's and 60's. Brass appears to be once fired, as the crimp is still in place, looks to be in good shape with only a few small dings here and there, but is very heavily tarnished and 2 hours in the tumbler did little. Only thing that seemed to work is a couple of minutes with a piece of scotchbrite. Has anyone had luck with another product to remove very heavy tarnish, and secondly, being unfamiliar with using brass this old, is it worth the effort? Thank you for any suggestions.

Tailgunner1954

Have you tried a brief (5 minutes or so) soak in 25% vineagr 75% hot water, followed by a hot water rinse (air dry afterwards)?

brynkel

no, but I'll give it a shot on a small batch. Thanks for the suggestion.

armilite

I had the same problem 2 hours in the tumbler is not enough and I would not expect it to. Try about 2 weeks. That is how long to get mine clean it was also 40 years old or so. A quicker way would be as Tailgunner suggests. You could also use a commercial brass clean like what Arrow Products makes. I have used it with excellent results.

haroldchrismeyer

Polish it until it is clean and smooth, and load it. Chemicals are not good for your brass.

cbyerly

I have found that the best way to clean tarnished brass is to wash it it very hot water, drain and then spray the brass with the household spray cleaner BAM. It appears to have a mild phosphoric acid component that will instantly remove tarnish. Don't let the brass soak in it. In the "old days", Lime-away had the same chemical, but they revised the formula just like the Coke company and destroyed a very good product.

B17-P51

ISSO Brass cleaner works real good on bad brass. Just follow the directions. 1 Quart Kit is about $15.00 and lasts a long time unless you are doing a large lot of very bad brass (2500 rounds.)

bpost

Please don't use any product that contains ammonia, it makes brass brittle.

gregoryhart1

I've had pretty good luck with denture cleaner on lightly tarnished brass.
GH1[:)]

JustC

soak in IOSSO then back to the tumbler/vibrator with walnut shell, then corn cob for that really bright final finish.

dtknowles

If it is tarnish and not corrosion, I would not worry about getting it back to bright and shiney. I have a lot of brass that is aged to a dark brown. I clean it, sometimes in a tumbler, sometimes just wash it and then load it. I think of the dark color as tactical camo. Bright brass is very reflective, not good for concealment [:D]

I also have nickel plated brass that I think is real cool too. Best of all would be to have more of that black nickel Hornady TAP brass, coolest[;)]

If you have tumbled it for two hours and it is clean and not corroded just go ahead and load it up.

Tim

Gunman760

On my older heavily tarnished brass, I use Brasso cleaner. Works very well with a minimum of effort. I had the same problem you had, 6 or 8 hours in the tumbler did very little in the way of cleaning. I love the Brasso for that reason.

Duke14

I found using 50/50 vinegar and water in an ultrasonic cleaner($80 bucks on eBay) works great but you do have to follow up with a baking soda rinse to neutralize the vinegar so it doesn't etch. After that I get excellent results with only 2-3 hours in the tumbler.

codenamepaul

I add a tablespoon of a car-wax and brasso mix (2/3-1/3??? or so) to every new batch of media. Even the most tarnished come out like new.

Highball

Paul ;
That car wax might not be a good idea.

Part of the pressure control in a chamber is the brass case expanding and gripping the chamber walls..slowing and lessening the back-thrust on the recoil lugs.

Fact is, a method of testing a new chambering job is to make a 'blue pill' load...merely use a moderate load and wax the case. This has been calculated to produce the equivelent of 70-80- thousand pounds back thrust on the bolt.

11b6r

Local rock shop carries various grit polishing media for tumbling gemstones. Add about an aspirin sized amount of the VERY FINE powder to tumbler full of walnut shell media. Not sure, may be tin oxide.

Mobuck

I agree on the clean it and use it response. The darkening will be less of a problem than over use of the chemical cleaners. Shiney gold color looks good but doesn't shoot any better. If the cases have a lot of dirt in them you can wash them in hot water and air dry. If they are hot enough they will dry out quickly if stood open end down with some airflow.