Preventing tarnished brass long term?

[MacFan]

I S.S. pin tumble my brass with the recommended dosage of Lemishine and ArmorAll carwash or Dawn detergent followed by soft water rinses. The brass, of course, comes out brilliant yellow and stays that way for a couple of weeks. After weeks or months it begins to tarnish and nothing I do will stop it.
In a separate vibratory tumbler I've tried Nu-Finish and various waxes to stop the long term storage tarnish. The shells are stored air tight and dry with desiccant packs. Manufacturers must have a simple process or coating to protect their finish. Any ideas? I'm tempted to try vacuum packing if nothing else works.

[geargnasher]

I use Nu-Finish liquid cut with mineral spirits in a spray bottle to dampen a towel, tumble the brass hammock-style in the towel, let it dry, and give a quick tumble/polish in a clean towel. Works for me.

The patina or "tarnish" you describe that shows up after the brass surface has been passivated with citric acid is fairly stable, so in a lot of instances I don't worry about it.

Gear

[w5pv]

I use liquid wrench silicone spray using the same method as Gear,works for me.

[Baja_Traveler]

If you are going to polish your brass for long term storage, just polish it normally (I use the armorall car wash) dry it completely - then toss it all in an ammo can with a couple of oxygen packs (normally used for long term dry food storage).
The ammo can is designed for a hermetic seal, and the O2 pack pulls out all oxygen in the box - no O2, no corrosion or discoloring...

[WallyM3]

Citric acid bath. It will "passivate" the brass. That is, it will make it more tarnish resistant.

[KYCaster]

If you are going to polish your brass for long term storage, just polish it normally (I use the armorall car wash) dry it completely - then toss it all in an ammo can with a couple of oxygen packs (normally used for long term dry food storage).
The ammo can is designed for a hermetic seal, and the O2 pack pulls out all oxygen in the box - no O2, no corrosion or discoloring...

Where do you get the O2 packs? Have a link?

Nu-finish in the corn cob media works for me. Brass still looks pretty good after a couple of years in open containers.

Jerry

[dondiego]

Shiny brass? I thought it was supposed to be tarnished unless it is factory new.

[fecmech]

Where do you get the O2 packs? Have a link?

Jerry--I don't know if this is what he means but the dry hand and toe warmers combine with oxygen to create the heat. If you put one in a storage container it would use up the oxygen in the container. They don't get hot enough to be a problem for the ammo and are only warm until the oxygen is used up and then go inert.

[leadman]

Winco here in Phoenix had them awhile back. Could check with a prepper store.

[Moonie]

I've started using car wash and wax instead of dish soap, seems to keep shiny MUCH longer and is just as bright. I do still use citric acid with the car wash and wax.

[old cobra]

Amazon has oxygen packets

[MacFan]

Reading about oxygen absorbing packets I see they contain iron powder, salt and clay. Moisture activates the salt and iron to produce iron oxide, effectively absorbing oxygen from the air. I'm just not too excited about packing salt in any quantity with my ammo. Soooo...this is the path I'm going down for long term storage-


I'm vacuum bagging and adding a 3M Anti Tarnish Tab to the bag. The pic shows 100 45acp rounds vac-packed, 150 would fit in the quart bag easily.
3M Anti Tarnish Tabs are available on Amazon, eBay and dozens of other online sources.
Gotta tell my wife she's out of vacuum bags.

[MattOrgan]

If you use Lee case lube to resize with (after whatever type of case cleaning prior to sizing) your brass will stay un tarnished for years. Just wipe (buff) the cases free of the lube at some point ( I always do it after the case is loaded as enough lube (wax) is transferred to the boolit or bullet to keep the entire cartridge oxidation free. If you are just prepping cases it works just as well and you can use the old Geo. Nonte ( hammock) method with a towel to remove the lube from the cases.

[destrux]

I tumble my brass in corn cob with cabelas tumbler additive, it's got wax, silicone, polish, mold (?) and some other stuff in it. I never had brass I tumbled with it tarnish. I have had brass that I left RCBS case lube residue on become tarnished though. Now I tumble all my brass a second time after I resize so that the lube comes off in the tumbler.

[MT Gianni]

For a 3 gallon bucket full of 223 cases, I add 1/4 cup vegetable oil and mix well. Store in a sealed plastic bag and a lid on the bucket. Tumble or wipe down before loading.

[Love Life]

After SS cleaning just tumble it n Corn Corb treated with mineral spirits and NU-Finish. I have some brass that has been sitting in the open air in my garage since April that is still super shiny.

[felix]

The general rule about ageing anything is to keep the ambient consistent in temperature and humidity with no light. Lower the temperature and humidity together, the better. I read years ago where a wine enthusiast kept brass, or brass like, utensils stored at 59 degrees, 35 percent humidity, no light for 50 years (an underground calcite cave around KCMO) and everything came out as expected. ... felix

[Darth Jäger]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread (new member here) but if it's ok, I'd like to throw in an idea (that's what we're here for, right?) that's been working for me for the past few years that I haven't seen mentioned. It's a simple process, but I have quite a lot to say about it. Would anybody be interested in hearing me ramble on about it?

[slim1836]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread (new member here) but if it's ok, I'd like to throw in an idea (that's what we're here for, right?) that's been working for me for the past few years that I haven't seen mentioned. It's a simple process, but I have quite a lot to say about it. Would anybody be interested in hearing me ramble on about it?

Ramble away, inquiring minds want to know.

Slim

[Darth Jäger]

Awesome, thanks.

Sorry to keep ya hangin' but I'm closing down shop, gonna lose internet in a minute. Have to log back on when I get home.