Annealing temperature formula

[Darth-Vaj]

So what’s the right amount of time to anneal brass at a given temperature? Let’s say 450 degrees Fahrenheit etc...

[Hossfly]

I do 950’ for 5-6 seconds in salt bath in old Lyman 10# pot. Then drop in water to quench and get salt off.

[sniper]

When I annealed, I used a method that John Barsness and a friend that worked in the metals field came up with. They used Tempilaq to determine the temperature ranges, and found a household or Plumber's candle worked. Simplicity itself...Hold the brass near the center, heat it in the candle flame till it became too hot to hold. Barsness said that brass didn't need quenching, and they used a wet towel to drop the annealed brass on.
It seemed to work well when I used it. YMMV. Article in HANDLOADER Magazine some years ago.

[ReloaderFred]

When I annealed, I used a method that John Barsness and a friend that worked in the metals field came up with. They used Tempilaq to determine the temperature ranges, and found a household or Plumber's candle worked. Simplicity itself...Hold the brass near the center, heat it in the candle flame till it became too hot to hold. Barsness said that brass didn't need quenching, and they used a wet towel to drop the annealed brass on.
It seemed to work well when I used it. YMMV. Article in HANDLOADER Magazine some years ago.

Annealing brass for reloading is different than annealing brass for swaging into bullets. For bullet jackets, the entire case needs to be annealed all the way through, especially the base when using center fire brass. It takes longer to properly anneal center fire brass for converting into bullet jackets, due to the thickness of the base of the case. That's because the brass is also being swaged in the die, so it needs to be dead soft all the way through.

I do mine in a ceramics kiln, but I don't make .224" bullets, only the larger handgun caliber bullets in .357", .400", .410", .429" and .452". The brass I anneal is anything from .32 acp up to .40 S&W.

Hope this helps.

Fred