Thread: Question: Restoring ( near ) new look to brass

Something I've not attempted before so asking here for advice please.
I have brass in a couple of calibres that while mainly once fired is in cosmetically poor shape. It's all weathered from lying around outdoors for some time until I've come along and collected it.
My aim is to get it looking presentable, if possible, and put it up for sale.
The pics show the range of tarnish I'm dealing with, including bare brass and tarnished nickled brass. Also recently picked up a reasonably priced vibratory cleaner ( with corn cob media ? ) and could use this as part of the process.
Any advice form those who might have had success with similar brass would be much appreciated. Thankyou.

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Wet tumbling with stainless pins will take the tarnish off.

Sorry to dull your enthusiasm with you brand new dry tumbler but it won't remove bugger all and won't clean inside the cases. It will polish up reasonable cases to a degree and remove powder stains depending upon the powder and how long the stains have been there. Also will remove lube from sizing.

The only way to clean is to as suggested use the SS pins wet process.
I actually dislike the SS method as it peans the hell out of my nicely chamfered necks but it is the most effective for cleaning inside and out.
You could follow up in your dry tumbler with say a bit of liquid car polish added for a shiny finish.

Given your brass's appearance I would anneal once cleaned.

Have no experience with nickled brass either cleaning it or reloading it.

Not meaning to cry on your parade, I hope you have more than 6 case's to do otherwise just the fuel to drive to someone with a wet tumbler and stainless media is going to impact your profit line.

Also those dents won't polish out.
I do admire you principles though!

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Something I've not attempted before so asking here for advice please.
I have brass in a couple of calibres that while mainly once fired is in cosmetically poor shape. It's all weathered from lying around outdoors for some time until I've come along and collected it.
My aim is to get it looking presentable, if possible, and put it up for sale.
The pics show the range of tarnish I'm dealing with, including bare brass and tarnished nickled brass. Also recently picked up a reasonably priced vibratory cleaner ( with corn cob media ? ) and could use this as part of the process.
Any advice form those who might have had success with similar brass would be much appreciated. Thankyou.

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Wet tumble. Cover to the top of the brass with hot tap water, a good squirt of lemon morning fresh dishwash and half a teaspoon of citric acid and then tumble for an hour

I find you don’t need pins.

Don’t overdo the citric acid. It will make the brass look like copper.

spin brass in your cordless drill using the LEE bit you use to trim brass...a piece of choirboy cloth,pinched from under the kitchen sink works a treat...
and that looks suspiciously like milserp range pickup brass......I would be wary of using it,the badley dinged one almost looks to be holed....

Thanks guys for advice, comments. I know someone with a SS pin tumbler so will beg a favour.

johnd - agreed I have several hundred needing cleaning so the economics may be worthwhile. I may discard dented cases altogether. Majority of the brass is sound. The pics serve only to show the degree of tarnish I'm wanting to tackle.

Wet tumble with pins, you’ll be gobsmacked how clean both inside & outside they turn out.

You’ll then wanna upgrade from your media tumbler! 👍

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

spin brass in your cordless drill using the LEE bit you use to trim brass...a piece of choirboy cloth,pinched from under the kitchen sink works a treat...
and that looks suspiciously like milserp range pickup brass......I would be wary of using it,the badley dinged one almost looks to be holed....

MD, appreciate the suggestion.
Correct, all is pickup brass but I'm unsure whether milsurp...?? Mostly its .308W Nickel Plated, headstamped : PMC, Win, Speer. And headstamped either 223 or 5.56 by FC, ADI, LC, ODL, RP. Do you reckon any of that is milsurp ? I don't know enough about it to guess. Would you say it's OK to sell any of this brass for handloading use ( not calibres I shoot ). I found this discarded pack one day indicating the source of some brass and it does say "reloadable".

Originally Posted by Seventenths

Wet tumble with pins, you’ll be gobsmacked how clean both inside & outside they turn out.

You’ll then wanna upgrade from your media tumbler! ��

Armourall , citric acid, creme of tartar and tumble for 2 hours. SSM is a revelation for cleaning.

I have a bunch of greek .303 that needs the same treatment.
This is the process i am considering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gvnxs75lw&t=5s

Will be interested to see how you get on.

nah alot of what you have listed wont be milserp... the nickle stuff is good for hunting rounds as easier to find on ground LOL.
if you 100% honest about it..nothing is a problem..... eg list as of unknown round count,cleaned and here for you to use or somesuch.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

nah alot of what you have listed wont be milserp... the nickle stuff is good for hunting rounds as easier to find on ground LOL.
if you 100% honest about it..nothing is a problem..... eg list as of unknown round count,cleaned and here for you to use or somesuch.

Thanks MD. Reassuring. When I list stuff for sale my intention always is to be as honest and informative as possible. Will be the case with this brass if it cleans up OK. The only thing I can be 99% certain of is it's all once fired only.

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Thanks MD. Reassuring. When I list stuff for sale my intention always is to be as honest and informative as possible. Will be the case with this brass if it cleans up OK. The only thing I can be 99% certain of is it's all once fired only.

How can you be sure it's once fired if you have picked it up off the ground ?
selling unknown used brass won't make you rich but hey each to their own, to me it seems like a lot of labour for little to no return, any brass that is worth re selling is normally not left on the gorund (magnums and wildcats etc)
I would definitely suggest if you really feel the need to clean up and re sell scavenged used brass you 100% need to advertise it as such ie "unkown round count" "Range pick ups" personally I would be very wary loading it myself but others may be happy to.

I seem to remember someone knowledgeable once telling me nickeled brass is hard on dies. Haven't verified that.