Shinning/Finishing Brass

[srnm]

I Was Wondering If Someone Here Can Help Me Out Huge. I Have Some Brass From When When I First Went Shooting, Which I Want To Put On Display, I Wanted To Shine It Out And Someone Told Me To Put It In Vinigar But It Turned The Brass Dull And Sorta Redish Colour In Spots, Can Anyone Help Me On How To Shine It Up And Sorta Restore It From The Mess I Made, Thanks It Will Mean Alot, Is There Anyway To Do It By Hand And With Any House Hold Chemicals, Thanks

 

[carbonrod]

I Was Wondering If Someone Here Can Help Me Out Huge. I Have Some Brass From When When I First Went Shooting, Which I Want To Put On Display, I Wanted To Shine It Out And Someone Told Me To Put It In Vinigar But It Turned The Brass Dull And Sorta Redish Colour In Spots, Can Anyone Help Me On How To Shine It Up And Sorta Restore It From The Mess I Made, Thanks It Will Mean Alot, Is There Anyway To Do It By Hand And With Any House Hold Chemicals, Thanks

don't know how to get rid of the effects of vinegar, but if I were you I'd find someone local who reloads, and ask them to toss them in the tumbler for a couple of hours. Where are you?

 

[BattleRife]

I have some cases that suffered the inconsistent effects of soaking in vinegar. They load and shoot fine, but several hours in a tumbler has not removed the colour variation caused by the vinegar.

You might want to pick up some scrap cases that do not have sentimental value and experiment on those before commiting your "trophy" cases to any method. Things you could try are polishing with Brasso or car wax, or soaking in Coca-Cola or lemon juice.

TIP: when soaking cases in a liquid, make sure there is enough liquid to submerge the cases by at least a couple of centimeters. Acids tend to be more agressive if they can get access to oxygen, which is what happened to your brass + vinegar experiment. The areas of the cases that were close to the surface corroded more aggressively due to increased oxygen and took on a different colour.

 

[srnm]

Thanks For The Info Battle Rifle, I'm Just Going To Give Them Up, Its Sorta Stupid Trying To Shine Them Up And Everything, They Arent Really That Important, Its Not Like Its My Last Time Ever Shooting Again. Thanks For Your Help Tho

Thanks,

 

[Musketfire]

I would imagine if the internals are already clean, you could just use brasso on the outside to polish them up?

Works on brass fixtures on furniture and muskets...

 

[Syracuse Steve]

...professional brass refinishing...

...is best done (inexpensively) with the Lee Precision Inc.'s case spinning cartridge rim stud and shellholder. You will also need a variable-speed electric hand drill. Most people use steelwool abrasives but I have found a much cleaner (less messy) alternative--Norton 3x sanding sponge in 320 grit (180 grit to start for really bad casings)...this product is only available at Home Depot (paint dept.)...all the best benchrest rifle shooters I know use this technique, as do I......

 

[vtrguy]

use steel wool, i clean my cases with them all the time.

 

[CyaN1de]

I have used the Lee Stud and Shellholder with Mag Polish (Brasso would work too) on a rag. Does a great job on the cases.

If you know someone with a tumbler, you can have them throw the cases in with a 1/4oz of Brasso or Mag Polish for an hour.