Best Brass Polish Out There

[bamboomaster]

A few weeks ago, an old friend gave me a medium-sized potato chip can full of old .30-06 brass that as best as he could figure, was from WWII to the Korean War time frame.

He estimated there were around 700 cases.

I took one look at it and said "Hey thanks!" Which at the time really meant "Yuck!".

I needed another reclamation project like I needed a hole in the head. The brass was highly tarnished, not deprimed, and looked like much of the unloved brass we've all seen that has sat untouched in the container in "Uncle Fred's" garage for 40 or more years.

When Uncle Fred passes on, his boxes of reloading paraphernalia sometimes gets passed to you!

Most of the headstamps were:

DEN 42: Denver Ordance Plant, Denver CO
DM 42: Des Moines Ordnance Plant, Des Moines, IA
U 42 : Utah Ordnance Plant, Salt Lake City, UT
SL 43: St. Louis Ordnance Plant, St. Louis, MO
RA 52: Remington Arms, Bridgeport, CT
TW 52: Twin Cities Ordnance Plant, Minneapolis, MN

So yesterday, after an early visit to the Allentown, PA fair, I decided to examine the cases. Might as well start with cleaning.

I divided the cases in two lots of roughly 350 each. Each lot was tumbled for two hours in my large Dillon CV2001 Vibratory Case Cleaner, filled with 1/2 corn cob media, 1/2 crushed walnut shells.

Lot #1 was tumbled in the media with "Dillon Rapid Polish 290"

Lot #2 was tumbled in the media with "Iosso"

In each instance, I let the polish tumble in the media for an hour before adding the cases just so I didn't have globs of undistributed polish.

I've been used to what I thought were clean cases with the same Dillon polish I had used for years: a nice satin looking finish that was clean, somewhat polished, and ready for inspection and reloading.

I was totally unprepared for the IOSSO results: 99% of these 60-70 year old cases in Lot #2 looked as if they had just come off the production line!

While the IOSSO is a more expensive polish ($40 per 32 oz), it's probably enough to last my lifetime - or at least a few decades anyways. And hey, who could argue with the results? It's a keeper, fer sure....

The bad thing about this great polish is that I'm now cycling through all my previously tumbled and polished rounds with IOSSO, just because they look so dang good after tumbling in IOSSO.

And hey, I know that shiny brass isn't any more accurate than dull brass, but it's nice to know there's a product out there that really works.

Here are a few pics:

[DucatiRon]

I've used Iosso in the past. Works great.

Now for me it's only Nu-Finish car polish. Works just as good and 7.99 a 16oz bottle from the local parts store.

Oh and if you want to cut down dust cut up a drier sheet into pieces and add it to your media while tumbling. All the dust will stick to it.

[39flathead]

Since I've gone to stainless pins, I'm glad to never have to play with dirty dusty media and to buy polish again.


But I do know many that still use the old dirt and dust method, I'll for sure pass them along the info on the Iosso, looks like it does a fine job.

[bamboomaster]

I've used Iosso in the past. Works great.

Now for me it's only Nu-Finish car polish. Works just as good and 7.99 a 16oz bottle from the local parts store.

Oh and if you want to cut down dust cut up a drier sheet into pieces and add it to your media while tumbling. All the dust will stick to it.

Great suggestion about the drier sheets. Thanks.

A really long time ago, I started with Nu-Finish car polish (the big orange squeeze bottle from Kmart where you get "10% MORE, FREE!" and it did a great job. I could never determine if it had ammonia in it. I just couldn't tell by the "sniff" test and could never find a list of ingredients.

Probably proprietary formula, right?

[DucatiRon]

Great suggestion about the drier sheets. Thanks.

A really long time ago, I started with Nu-Finish car polish (the big orange squeeze bottle from Kmart where you get "10% MORE, FREE!" and it did a great job. I could never determine if it had ammonia in it. I just couldn't tell by the "sniff" test and could never find a list of ingredients.

Probably proprietary formula, right?

There is no ammonia in Nu-Finish. I'll have to dig up the link but there was a multi page tread over on the cast bullet forums that discussed ammonia and various brass cleaners/polish. Nu-Finish was basically the winner for ingredients, price and quality of polish.


I uses wet stainless methods until I opened up my business. Now having to process 10-20k casings at a time its lizard bedding, Nu Finish, and a cement mixer from Lowes. 40%off and free shipping from Petsmart.com makes buying 300lbs of lizard bedding a breeze.

[39flathead]

Depending on how small you are cutting up the dryer sheets, be sure to check inside the cases for wads of the sheets.

[DucatiRon]

Depending on how small you are cutting up the dryer sheets, be sure to check inside the cases for wads of the sheets.

I only cut mine into 5th's. No reason to go smaller. Leaves a nice long strip to fish out of the media when it gets dirty. Using my old RCBS tumbler I'd usually get 3-4 batches out of one sheet.

[wanneroo]

That's cool to take something old and sitting on the shelf for eons and to make it new and useful again.

[Pukindog]

Be careful with that brass. Being fired with corrosive primers has deteriated the brass. Not to mention the age; the brass could be very brittle.

Jeff

[Frenchy]

Be careful with that brass. Being fired with corrosive primers has deteriated the brass. Not to mention the age; the brass could be very brittle.

Jeff

French language police here, I am sorry to say your Sig line is not conform to the French Language laws, please correct this as soon as possible
"sans peur et sans reproche"

If you do not comply, I will be forced to inform Inspector Clouseau!