Berry Blue or Watermelon Kiwi?

I have had the flu for a week. Basically, this means I hacked and coughed for a few days, realize I was not going to receive sympathy from my wife, so I got better because there is no percentage in being ill. Many years ago, a flu meant I got to watch my favorite TV shows, I was served soup with those little oyster crackers and dinner was something I really liked… Mac & Cheese for example.

 

Now, a quick forty-three years of marriage later, and my wife has developed flu sympathy countermeasures. As an example, when I cough, she coughs, thereby suggesting that she too is coming down with the flu, so I can pretty much prepare myself to provide at least as much sympathy as I receive. Unfortunately, women are complicated so no simple oyster cracker solution will start her down the path to good health. Chances are it will take a complicated series of efforts, events and occasions, bound together by a meaningful theme to make my gestures of any consequence. Next time, when I sense I am on the verge of displaying flu symptoms, I will just hide in the basement and suck it up so I won’t have to hear her say, “Would you like a little cheese with that wine?” I miss those little crackers… really.

 

 

 

I hate cleaning brass. Actually, it isn’t so much that I hate cleaning brass as much as I hate exploring the issue of cleaning brass, or surveying and analyzing the general population to see what everyone thinks about brass cleaning. It’s a Groundhog Day issue, unchanging, minutia buried under several layers of tedium and mundan.. iaity. It is too much thought, for too little purpose, with virtually nothing new is to be discovered. It’s like living in California and wondering if liberal fanaticism will prevail over common sense. So I began an article on brass cleaning (remember, flu-induced delusions) wandering about like a tribe of one, until I think I thought, “Why in the world am I writing about this stuff?” Not surprisingly, no one answered.

 

 

For the handloader, other than in dimension, brass will change in two ways – it will tarnish and it will become contaminated with powder and primer residue. The first is a problem of handloader’s product vanity, the second can become a problem of function. Typically, in addressing the issue of greater consequence, the lesser is also addressed. Tarnish is a chemical reaction that, in this case, effects only the outer surface of the material and provides a boundary layer, copper oxide, that protects the material below. Tarnish removal is done for aesthetics sake and, in the absence of a sealant being applied, will reappear in short order. Chemical tarnish removal typically requires a low pH, acid, while gunk and residue require a high pH cleaner, alkaline.

 

What is pH? It means potential of hydrogen. The pH of a solution indicates the hydrogen concentration of the solution. If adding a solution to water increases hydrogen concentration, it has a low pH and is deemed an acid, the inverse is an alkaline. The range of a the pH scale is 0 – 14 with 7 being neutral or balanced. The change from one whole increment to another is exponential. An acid with a pH of 1 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 2 and one hundred time more acidic than a pH of 3. Cleaning occurs when a contaminated surface pH is made neutral though the application of a solution at the opposite end of the pH scale. In the case of cartridge brass, copper oxide is a basic oxide, the alkaline end of the pH spectrum, so it is dissolved in mineral acids. The clean brass alloy needs to be rinsed after the copper oxide is removed to neutralize the acid and prevent damage to the now clean material.

 

 

To compound the problem, cartridge brass, which is actually a technical description of an alloy that is approximately 70% copper and 30% zinc, is that zinc does not fare as well as copper when exposed to acids. When zinc is exposed to the same type of acids that quickly dissolve copper oxide, the zinc oxidizes forming hydrogen gas and begins to dissolve. Considering zinc is added to enhance strength and cold working properties of copper, it is probably best to leave as much intact in the alloy as possible. So when you hear one of your buddies say they like to leave their cartridge cases in Birchwood Casey Brass Cartridge Case Cleaner for an hour, rather than the recommended three minute maximum, or in Iosso for half an hour rather than the recommended maximum of five minutes, you might let them know they are stripping the zinc from their cases, ruining their little ballistic progenies and rapidly accelerating inevitable case failure. Birchwood Casey pH tests 1.7, Iosso 1.2, lemon juice 2.3 and a 5% acetic acid vinegar solution 2.9. I do use both Birchwood Casey and Iosso cleaners from time to time, but only within the prescribed limits.

 

 

Ah yes, we all love to create complex cleaning solutions with formulas of mystical and  arcane origins… like some guy named “Anarchist Cowboy” on the www.shootemupgood.com message boards. Some I’ve seen are just restatements of very old home grown solutions and very effective, although often more trouble and expense to mix than to buy commercial products. Some are silly with ingredients that work in opposition to one another and some are really damaging to cartridge brass.

 

Concentrated lemon juice mixed with a greater amount of vinegar results in a stronger citrus acid being diluted with a weaker acetic acid. Adding water further dilutes both. The effect of adding laundry detergent is dependent upon the type of detergent and where it falls on the pH scale. It is possible to near neutralize the effects of the acid with a high pH detergent

 

Ammonia as an additive can react to cause stress corrosion in work-hardened brass and it causes oxidation. In fact, it is used to “age” brass items and give it that red-brown patina look, pictured, that often shows up on cartridge cases when exposed to strong ammonia. Copper and zinc are dissolved by the ammonia, then the zinc is leached out of the alloy while the copper precipitates back to the case as a non-structural… copper stain.

 

 

Using a calibrated pH meter with a range of 1 – 14, I mixed a variety of Kool Aid flavors, but in a concentrate ten times greater than if mixed for human consumption; 1 packet to 6.4 oz of water, for a pH of 2.7 – between lemon juice and vinegar.

 

 

A 15 minute soak in Kool Aid yielded about the same results as the Iosso or Birchwood Casey and without spots or stains. However, the same could not be said where there was a considerable amount of primer pocket fouling.

 

 

In severe residue situations, Birchwood Casey and Iosso both worked the best when following directions for maximum soak, 3 minutes and 5 minutes respectively and thoroughly washing with clean water immediately after processing. Kool Aid removed tarnish only. Home brew vinegar and ammonia content detergent yielded the worst results, with severe discoloring, zinc leaching and brass I ended up tossing. Over extended soaking in Birchwood Casey or Iosso, against directions, yielded about the same damaging results.

 

 

My standard cleaning procedure for cleaning is dumping the brass into a vibratory cleaner with walnut media for an hour. In cases of severely fouled brass, I use an ultra sonic cleaner with Hornady Lock-N-Load One Shot brass cleaner.