Brass Shine

[Artificer]

FishDFly said:
If folks want to ponder on things which make no real sense or brings value, why not ponder why is the brush used to clean your teeth called a "tooth" brush when you have teeth? Surely there is documentation from the 1800's on why is there not?

Invented in Portland Maine.

The way I heard it, it was invented in West Virginia, otherwise it would be called a Teeth Brush.....

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Even today, if you polish metal, you remove metal. Williamsburg polished their original Brown Bess's on a regular basis, until they discovered that.

The British Army in the 18th century found that daily polishing the barrels and locks with brick dust AFTER earlier engraving was filed off the barrels, also led to Brown Bess Musket Barrels' catastrophic failures. That's part of the reason they considered the service life of the Bess to only be from 10-12 years.

Gus

 

[SandWatcher]

OK, maybe this is an insane idea… But if you wanted to keep your brass shiny, wouldn’t it be simple to just gold plate the brass so that it would no longer tarnish? Has anyone ever done this?

 

[dave951]

I'll venture a guess here that folks back then were pretty much like folks now in regards to shiny things. Some want that gun to "glisten in the sun" while others, not so much. If you look at guns used by Native Americans, they often have ornamentation as well. My guess is the same with them as well. Some tried to keep them polished and new looking.

Me personally, I like patina on a gun that shoots very, very well. A shiny gun is suspect in that department till proven otherwise.

 

[sturmkatze]

Bebopping through old threads, I saw this. HEILIGE SCHEISSE some guys like shiny, some do not. The amount of puffy chested pontificating in this thread is cwazy. This is not frontier times and it ain't likely that an injun will scalp and kill you. Deer are like insects with fur.

5 pages of reading to glean about 4 posts worth of usefulness. It's a free country, but by Jiminy, some forget it. Anyway, I'll shine mine. My Bess, when I get, was all nasty brown. The guy at the ml store said "that's patina." "Eff that" says I, sizing da on the faces of the grey(er) beards standing there. I took it all off -- military guns should look military. I think I will shine a bunch of brass later.

 

[smoothshooter]

I believe the notion of shiny brass giving away a hunter is a myth. The angle of the sun would have to be just right and the brass dead flat and mirror-bright.

Also, tarnish is a result of neglect and the first step in corrosion and decay. Brass was expensive, it would not be allowed to tarnish for long, if at all.

Brass corrodes and decays at such a slow rate that it is not an issue. Tarnish rarely progresses beyond tarnish. Tarnish ( patina ) is actually a naturally protective surface condition.

 

[crgator]

I'm just not a fan of bright, shiny brass. I'm not saying it's wrong (or right), I just like some sort of patina to it. I used some Birchwood Casey Brass Black on my brass and like the way it looks.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

I use a combination of time, rain, snow, sun and high winds full of sand and grit....seems to age the brass quite nicely. Very scientific.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Sandwatcher, never gold plated rifle brass, but when in the Marine Corps the brass for my dress blues I had gold plated sure cut down on polishing time, just a wipe down with a well washed cotton diaper to remove the finger prints and you were good to go.

 

[oldwood]

A high polish is ok , but using the gun will make it look authentic soon enough.

 

[DuncNZ]

Hands dirty with black powder residue will give it a patina it in a nice used way before too long , My trigger guards, in fact all my brass gets an nice patina in some places and remains bright in others , depending on where it is and what it is , nothing dulls evenly , an all over even patina is from oxidization from being unused and is not natural on any part on a firearm . The parts you touch will or at least should get a nice buttery yellow finish , a darker patina develops where you don't touch it .

 

[Zutt-man]

I prefer a patina look and to blend in the best I can, however, I do admire ornamentation and shiny guns.

That being said, Fred Bear harvested a lot of animals in a plaid shirt, not camo.