Psychedelic Brass

[BD]

I've been washing my brass in hot water and Simple Green before I tumble it for years to help control my lead exposure. I've often filled the bucket after work and let the brass soak overnight before shaking it up and rinsing it off. Sunday evening I did a load of .38 special and nickle plated .357 together and when I rinsed it on Monday morning before work all of the .38 special looked like this. I've never seen this before. The brass is all iridescent greens and purples. Any ideas? It tumbled back to brass, but took 4 hours to get there.
BD

[frankenfab]

Lil' Gun powder?

[cajun shooter]

Try using Dawn w/ Oxy. It works great on my BP brass that is stained. I have also went to ceramic with Dawn and OXY when tumbling and my brass looks new inside and out.

[uncle joe]

try using a little vinegar in some water with dawn, you will have to rinse them very good after cleaning but they will need very little tumbling. I just put mine in a zip loc bag with the solution in it and shake them around then let them sit a couple of hours and shake them some more.

[376Steyr]

You had a case of galvanic corrosion going on, with the brass cases "eating" the nickel plating off the 357 cases, slowly plating the brass 38 cases. You basically built a battery, with the Simple Green/water mixture as your electrolyte solution. If you soak your brass and nickel cases separately you should be fine.

[Dframe]

What 376Steyr said !!

[Down South]

Yup, chemical reaction between the brass nickel and cleaning solution.

[AZ-Stew]

I've been washing my brass in hot water and Simple Green before I tumble it for years to help control my lead exposure.BD

No, THERE'S your problem. :kidding:

Seriously, I agree with the other guys. You ate the nickel off with the Simple Green.

Regards,

Stew

[sagacious]

As noted above, soak brass cases and nickle-plated cases separately. Also, an overnight soak in an alkaline solution is a very long soak. Even though you've done this for some time, consider that there may be a much better solution for cleaning brass. Have you tried citric acid? It works very quickly.

Nickel compounds are commonly blue or green. That's almost undoubtedly what you're seeing, caused by a reaction with the alkaline cleaning solution. Good luck.

[357maximum]

I think they is purdeee and would make a nice added touch if you were shooting a case hardened recievered gun.

If you shoot at a public range you could also freak people out with rounds that look like that.

You could also sell your used brass as VINTAGE brass on FeePay looking like that. :kidding:

[BD]

Thanks guys, I hadn't thought about the nickle/brass galvanic reaction as I generally think of that in terms of acidic solutions. The simple green actually works pretty well. I'm not as concerned about bright shiny brass as I am about putting the lead styphanate into solution so I can rinse it away.
BD

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Is there any detriment to the brass when doing this ?

this seams like a great way to mark cases that have been converted and make it easy to keep them separate.

Soon I will be trimming some 9mm Luger cases to 9x18
I thought I might use military brass so it wasn't labeled 9mm luger on headstamp.
but this color would add to the ease of separation...plus I don't have that much military brass.
the other reason is that this ammo would be for my son-in-law, I'm not sure if any of his friends shoot a 9mm Luger, But they surely would be able to sort them out easy.
Jon

[sagacious]

JonB,
Coloring the caseheads with a jumbo red magic marker is about the best way to color brass for easy ID. The caseheads can be marked quickly while the ammo is stacked in a box. Offers excellent ID, and can be quickly reapplied after tumbling & reloading if desired. This technique does not necessitate any change in your cleaning/loading procedure. Good luck.