Hello,
After a number of years I could never seem to get a definitive answer to whether it is better to air cool or quickly water quench brass after heating to anneal it.
This gentleman, George Vander Voort, was kind enough to answer my question.
In short it does NOT matter.
Here is my email to him:
I am a reloader. Many websites discuss neck annealing. One site by a
fellow who did much FEA states When brass is heated, new crystals nucleate at
the dislocations and the new crystals are small. If the brass is
quenched at this point, the brass retains the small crystals and is
annealed with very few dislocations and is stress free. This is the
condition you want for your case necks. If the brass is slowly cooled,
the small crystals begin to coalesce and grow into larger crystals and
the properties suffer because the large crystal boundaries are not
strong. Also stress corrosion cracking can more easily occur at the
larger crystal boundaries." So is it better to water or air cool after
annealing? Thanks very much for your response.
This is his response:
With cartridge brass you can air cool or oil quench or water quench
after annealing. No real difference.
And here is his web site:
http://www.georgevandervoort.com/
I am going to take this a definitive answer given his bona fides (sp?).
ASM, which used to be American Society for Metals, is a few miles down the road from me in Newbury, OH.