Cleaning nickel plated brass

[Bmi48219]

Just out of curiosity, how does nickel plated brass hold up tumbled w/ SS pins? Does it get scratched up?

[Carrier]

Never noticed any. I put them in with brass and have had no issues.

[Greg S]

I know walnut shell with rouge will clean it too well and polish off the nickel.

[djgoings]

Cleaned many nickel 357 cases in my SS tumbler and never had any issues.

[runfiverun]

nickel okay, steel not so much.
I usually just dry tumble the nickel cases.

[sparky45]

I've never separated mine and not experienced any problem with the SS washing.

[kayala]

I've never noticed any difference. I don't separate for cleaning nickel plated from brass.

[HeadLead]

While tumbling brass .223 cases I had missed a single steel case in the batch and when it was done, all the cases looked like copper (bronze colored sort of). Nickel never have a problem. Bright and shiny finish.

[edp2k]

I have SS tumbled a lot and it depends on how long you tumble and what brand, lot, etc. of nickeled brass.

I sometimes SS tumble for several hours to get really cruddy/crusty/tarnished/carbonized brass
squeaky clean or to get rifle brass (e.g. 308) primer pockets sparkling.

On some nickeled brass the plating appears to be quite thick, and I can put it through several tumble runs
of several hours each (of course firing in between) and the nickel will look unfazed.

Some other pieces of nickeled brass, if I run it through one 3 hour session, some of the nickle will be worn off
and portions of the cartridge will appear brass colored and a bit mottled between nickel and brass colored.

You can't tell until you have worn through which has thick and which has thin plating.
I have seen the exact same caliber and headstamp brass behave differently, probably a different batch/lot/year.

Not a big deal, it all shoots the same

[Bayou52]

I've SS wet tumbled a lot of nickel plated brass - it does not get separated out. The finish comes out extremely bright - like a mirror, actually.

Bayou52