Method For Cleaning/Sorted Smelted Jackets?

[Hanzy4200]

I visited my local scrap yard last night. Found 2.5 1 lb solder bars, 40/60. Owner told me just to take them. Sold off 4 buckets of junk brass for $226.

Every time I'm there, I debate the pile of smelted off bullet jackets in my garage. I probably have at least 250 lbs of jackets. My issue is the bimetal and brass jackets. Theres not many, but enough to get them rejected. Is there any kind of solution that could be used to wash the jackets to remove the grey corrosion after smelting? This would allow easy identification of any brass. Bimetal can be pulled with a magnet obviously.

With the price of copper, I'm likely sitting on $500 easily.

[pastera]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickling_(metal)
Most copper alloys are pickled in dilute sulfuric acid, but brass is pickled in concentrated sulfuric and nitric acid mixed with sodium chloride and soot.[1]

The entry mentions citric acid for copper oxides in jewelry work - try a dunk in hot lemon juice mixture (or lemishine)

[ioon44]

I have always sold my copper jackets as #2 copper and never have cleaned them.

[bakerjw]

If it were me, I'd toss them in my cement mixer and add in some sand. Tumble them for a bit and pick out the good ones.

[Hanzy4200]

I have always sold my copper jackets as #2 copper and never have cleaned them.

Do you hand sort them? The first time I tried to take them in, the yard worker picked a few out and said one was brass. So he could accept them. Theres also the issue of dross and spattered lead.

[BK7saum]

I have to flux with paraffin wax and sawdust a few times to get residual lead off the jackets. They have always sold for #2 copper after removal of bimetal jackets with magnet and hand sorting out the small rocks.

[dragon813gt]

I have always sold my copper jackets as #2 copper and never have cleaned them.

Same here, but most yards are not willing to do this. I will no longer be able to do this as the yard that accepted them has shut down. Glad I sold off everything a few months back.

[Outpost75]

The only thing I do with scrap jackets is to use a cow magnet to pull out the clad-steel military ones. At the scrap yard I use they dump the buckets out into the scale pan and hover an electromagnet over the pile and pay you for what's left. They do the same with cartridge brass. No issues.