Found Dreaming

I was given a bucket full of mixed brass that's worth saving, I need a home recipe that will brighten up shell casing, I know one of you statue guys has to have something that will make it all nice and shiny without a lot of hassle.

I used to buy some stuff a long time ago that you could soak the stuff in and it would come out shining like new from the factory stuff. but that was a long time ago and anything you can buy today, well I'd have to mortage the shop monster to buy some and I really don't want to do that. Or do I

Go to a gun shop and get you some crushed walnut shell fines and put a mess of that into a tumbler along with your brass shell casings. They'll sparkle like new in about an hour, both inside and out. "Fitz" paste polishing compound is another product... primarily used to buff out mild scratches in automotive paint but it serves quite well polishing tarnished brass with little effort. Then, of course, there's the typical brass/silver polishing compounds in paste or near paste consistency. That's about all I got to offer for suggestion.

if someone offers to give you a bucket full of really nasty range brass for free, RUN LIKE HELL the hassle of getting it sorted and cleaned isn't worth the effort that it will take you to get it to a usable condition.

Good plan Dave. Save a lot of PITA. I have tried the cheapskate route. It ain't worth it. I now only buy clean bare copper wire and alloy my own bronze so I know what I have.

Richard

I wasn't melting them down, I was trying to make them look like new shiny brass