What is Lemishine ?

[lead chucker]

What is Lemishine not to be confused with lemon shine right. Is this something you can get at the local grocery store in the cleaning section. I scrounged a bunch of 22 lr brass from the range this morning. I'm going to try to clean them up. Another question. I hear guys put there bullets in there tumblers with copper plated BB's to make them look copper colored. Wouldn't that increase your chances of copper fouling the barrel?

[fredj338]

It's a citric acid mix found in groccery store for cleaning dishwashers. Easiest way for most to get citric acid in a powder form.

[monmouth]

The powder to make it pretty again:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQQnLb7nXJc9J5Q0UL0SmGNBcPtN2tDa tKL3buuwxUi2QBsc0X3j2ScRBBV

A little goes a long way and I purchase mine at Walmart.

[monmouth]

I never heard of the copper blated BB's thing.

[Theditchman]

I heard that Jet powder was the same as Lemishine

[fredj338]

The copper BBs works great, nice patina to the brass, BUT, do NOT leave the steel BBs in the tumbler after, toss them, they will rust & cause a mess, ask me how I know. I am thinking of trying little bits of solid copper wire cut to about the same length as the ss pins.

[TXBW]

If you search google, there is a blog post where a teacher if chemistry attempts several tests to reverse engineer the lemishine formula. The post got lemishines attention but [of course] they never admitted whether or not the guy was correct in his analysis. It's primarily citric acid but there is one other ingredient in it also. One of these days I'm planning to try citric acid only and compare results.

[blltsmth]

For citric acid and lanolin to lube those bullets, go here:https://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Lanolin.html Don

[w0fms]

I've tried canning Citric Acid and Lemishine both with ss pins. The Lemishine works consistently better. I think there is a little lemon oil in it in addition to the Citric Acid. Some sources claim sodium chloride for the second ingredient. In the case of Vinegar (acetic acid) the salt is a catalyst, but best I can tell with other mild acids like citric and phosphoric it does not have that catalyst effect. I don't think it's the second ingredient.

The ss pins are to get the insides of the cases, including the primer pockets clean.

The combination works great, and at the local Wally World Lemishine per ounce is cheaper than the Ball Canning Citric Acid. 12 Oz of Lemishine at Wally is like $3.37 and that amount would probably last a lifetime if you didn't do crazy things like me and try it in the dishwasher too! ;)

[hardcase54]

fredj338, I tried small bits of copper wire. It didn't work.

[Lizard333]

You can get shinny coppery colored bullets by adding to much Lemishine to your SS media. It bleaches out the zinc.I usally add about 2 tsp to a 1/3 of a gallon of water and let it tumble for a couple of hours. No BB's needed.
79102

[lead chucker]

thanks for the pic monmouth that makes it easy.

[Taylor3006]

Started using the Lemishine on my brass, works really well for brightening brass. I have a question though, have only used it with deprimed brass. If I soak brass with spent primers, will it make them rust?

[Lizard333]

The primers are made of brass. No rusting.

[Taylor3006]

The primers are made of brass. No rusting.

You know, I knew that.... Been up all night cleaning brass, think I had some brain flatulence, thanks Lizard. I better go take a nap....