Polishing Brass

[appalichian hunter]

I am with you BOB lets see 8 years in the Marines, 26 years in law enforcement polished enough brass for my life time now a clean weapon that's a different story. Guess that's why I like iron mounted muzzle loaders.

 

[Bob McBride]

You can't cut hay in the dark, but you can polish that brass by the fire after dinner.

Brass was expensive, tarnish was neglect.

JB, I realize we’re talking about two different types of people in two different worlds here. If you cut hay, you went to bed after dinner, believe me, because 4am comes early and the things you can do in the dark is milk the cows and repair tack, and on Sunday there were more pressing things to do than shineying up your metal bits. I agree with the comment above that some did and some didn’t but it wasn’t based on laziness or because the easy to work metal that was also used on the cheapest guns made for the poorest folks was expensive. Some folks polished their brass because they liked polished brass and had the time and inclination to polish their brass. I have a 10 year old farm truck that cost a fortune but hasn’t seen a car wash since it was new. Neglect? Sloth? Nope. It has its fluids changed and service done like clockwork. It’s a tool. And the cows aren’t going to deworm themselves, etc. etc. To me, today, and I can imagine my ancestors felt the same way, making things shiny was way down the list of ‘sloth-less’ things to do in an 18 hour day... That said, some of my people probably polished their brass too but more than likely they were 19, finished their chores, ran bear grease through their hair, polished daddy’s old rifle, and were going a’courting’...

I could be wrong.

 

[flashpoint]

If I had a daughter I'd name her Patina...

 

[Tanker]

I am with you BOB lets see 8 years in the Marines, 26 years in law enforcement polished enough brass for my life time now a clean weapon that's a different story. Guess that's why I like iron mounted muzzle loaders.

I'm slowly building a muzzleloader and it will be iron. No brass means I won't feel like I need to polish it.

 

[LawrenceA]

Au contraire: If I am a phalanx of infantry facing a line of enemy soldiers, I want my musket and bayonet to be GLEAMING in the sunlight, highlighted by my red and white uniform, assuring your immediate and total destruction. This was 1750-1779, not Vietnam.

ADK Bigfoot

I believe the roman legions used the same tactic fighting into the sun.
Personally i want a new gun to look new. An old gun can look old.
If you look at the photos we have of mountain men, albeit past their heyday, their guns were a little on the rough side to say the least.
Repairs, when made, were rudimentaty as often as not and not rectified.
This would suggest that patina as well as gleam were found.

 

[tnlonghunter]

I imagine this the truest answer to those question, like lots of similar questions, is "it depends." I suspect we all project some of our own values, preferences, and practices onto those who came before us. Yes, some of our own preferences are inherited - passed down culturally - and therefore generally have some similarities to how and why our forebears did them. But while there is some general precedent for general differences in practice and attitude, such as between urban and rural centers that @Bob McBride described, I really doubt we can conclusively say that the meaning of something like polishing firearm brass fittings was debated all that much.

For myself, I have never liked yellow metal anyway - brass or gold. So, I let the brass on my rifle go.

 

[Auldjin]

Admittedly this has not been fired or even outside for a vey long time, but I know it has not been polished for 50 years, it just gets a soft cloth run over it once in a while. The ironwork gets Rangoon oil from time to time.

 

[Blitz]

I bet if we could look back in time we would see some guys polishing and some not....just a guess.

Just like today, local customs local actions personal preferences. It `s your rifle,piece.

Buzz

 

[Pete G]

I find myself a few times a year polishing the brass on my muzzleloader. I also polishing anything else that I may have been made of brass when dealing with my muzzleloader. I.E. powder measure and the like. Is there any good reason to do it?

Someone has to portray the greenhorn...

 

[ord sgt]

I wasn't in the Army. Got smart joined the Air Force. No brass to polish. But I digress. I prefer the aged and used look of my flintlocks and caplock rifles. It's not that I don't care about maintinance but rather the look of used but not abused with my firearms. Several rifles have no brass. All the furniture is browned. Except for the one in the sig

 

[Bob McBride]

I was an Infantry Marine and didn’t polish brass in the Fleet but served two years in DC where it was spit and polish 24/7. We had IG inspections 1-2x per week and polished brass more than most. That said, I could be letting my bias show but it also taught me the ridiculous effort it takes to keep brass that is taken out in all weather shiny so I would guess 90% of polished guns were wall hangers.

 

[FishDFly]

Wonder what the response on polished brass versus patina is if you could poll Veterans versus thus who did not serve?

I still polish my shoes!

 

[tenngun]

I bet if we could look back in time we would see some guys polishing and some not....just a guess.

My grandfather made a living bear hunting in Montana Idaho and Utah about 1900. He died the year before I was born but my dad told lots of stories about him.
He had a model ‘86 Winchester in .33WCF.
What this have to do with muzzleloaders ? Only that like frontiersman of 1800 my grandfather depended on his gun for his living.later he married then when the depression came he bought a farm and moved on to that. While going deer hunting one year his friend tossed his gun in to the back seat with little care how it landed.
When they got home that night my grandfather told my dad to never treat a gun like that. ‘What was he trying to prove?’ My grandfather asked
Ithink you would see some dichotomy in gun treatment in the past.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

I work hard to provide for my family and take care of my obligations which are expensive, as well as THIS hobby. I still find time to wash my truck, vacuum it out and once in a while, put a wax job on it. Gotta care for your expensive stuff.

 

[Bob McBride]

I work hard to provide for my family and take care of my obligations which are expensive, as well as THIS hobby. I still find time to wash my truck, vacuum it out and once in a while, put a wax job on it. Gotta care for your expensive stuff.

I have enjoyed this thread immensely. A perspective like yours Yankee and many others would certainly have lent itself to brass polishing and I'm sure there were folks in the towns of the period with a similar take on the possessions they took pride in. There's little doubt, I think. I live and work full time on a farm similarly to how my rural ancestors have for hundreds of years, and so I think I have some insight to the way rural people of the period saw where their efforts were most productive. Out here the barn doesn't get a coat of paint so it looks nice from the road, it gets a coat to protect the wood. The unwashed truck (the most expensive thing we own besides the farm and the big Kubota) I mentioned in an above thread can go weeks without ever leaving the farm and still gets an average of 20 miles a day put on it. It's bed is always full of bags of feed and tools and it is driven through muddy pastures, to and around the hog pens, and half its life it has had a livestock trailer hooked to it hauling Horses, Cows, Goats, Donkeys, and Mules always two hours late. Sure, I power wash the mud off when it gets 3" thick on the fenders but if I took the time to take it to town and run it through a proper car wash it would look exactly like it did before within an hour. And yep, momma's 2021 Rubicon "Reba" gets lots and lots of trips to the carwash for vacuuming and wax. Our 'polished rifle' as it were. So, in my world, 'taking care of expensive stuff' means regular service and expensive 10 ply Michelins because the dollars spent on it are balanced against what it can do, just like the tractors, side by sides, 4 wheelers, guns, and other equipment with our pride reserved for how we can make this mess of a place support our family or when giving your buddy a wink at a freehand bullseye from 50 yards after he laid one in 4" right....

So, the point of my posts in this thread is that I believe most people of the period had my view as most people of the period lived more like me than a shopkeeper of the period who perhaps closed up shop at 5 to be at home for supper and got irritated if he got mud on his good shoes. He owned a nice rifle with lots of inlays because daddy's gun was simple and he'd look more like the successful shopkeeper at the after church fencepost shoots with more polished brass on his gun that the banker who owned his store had on his gun. So did some folks ignore the first Deadly Sin and have great pride in a fine gun polished regularly? Certainly. Likely most often where a gun was more a matter of status than necessity. Did most other folks do that? I don't think so, but like I said I know it's only one point of view and there were, even in the period, certainly more than one type of person....

 

[Tanker]

This thread I started has gotten more responses then I expected. I really enjoy reading everyone's view. I want to thank everyone for there input.

 

[Pete G]

This thread I started has gotten more responses then I expected. I really enjoy reading everyone's view. I want to thank everyone for there input.

If you liked that, try asking about cleaning or patch lube

 

[Tanker]

If you liked that, try asking about cleaning or patch lube

I believe I will pass on that, been around long enough to have seen how those questions go. They are fun to watch though.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

I have enjoyed this thread immensely. A perspective like yours Yankee and many others would certainly have lent itself to brass polishing and I'm sure there were folks in the towns of the period with a similar take on the possessions they took pride in. There's little doubt, I think. I live and work full time on a farm similarly to how my rural ancestors have for hundreds of years, and so I think I have some insight to the way rural people of the period saw where their efforts were most productive. Out here the barn doesn't get a coat of paint so it looks nice from the road, it gets a coat to protect the wood. The unwashed truck (the most expensive thing we own besides the farm and the big Kubota) I mentioned in an above thread can go weeks without ever leaving the farm and still gets an average of 20 miles a day put on it. It's bed is always full of bags of feed and tools and it is driven through muddy pastures, to and around the hog pens, and half its life it has had a livestock trailer hooked to it hauling Horses, Cows, Goats, Donkeys, and Mules always two hours late. Sure, I power wash the mud off when it gets 3" thick on the fenders but if I took the time to take it to town and run it through a proper car wash it would look exactly like it did before within an hour. And yep, momma's 2021 Rubicon "Reba" gets lots and lots of trips to the carwash for vacuuming and wax. Our 'polished rifle' as it were. So, in my world, 'taking care of expensive stuff' means regular service and expensive 10 ply Michelins because the dollars spent on it are balanced against what it can do, just like the tractors, side by sides, 4 wheelers, guns, and other equipment with our pride reserved for how we can make this mess of a place support our family or when giving your buddy a wink at a freehand bullseye from 50 yards after he laid one in 4" right....

So, the point of my posts in this thread is that I believe most people of the period had my view as most people of the period lived more like me than a shopkeeper of the period who perhaps closed up shop at 5 to be at home for supper and got irritated if he got mud on his good shoes. He owned a nice rifle with lots of inlays because daddy's gun was simple and he'd look more like the successful shopkeeper at the after church fencepost shoots with more polished brass on his gun that the banker who owned his store had on his gun. So did some folks ignore the first Deadly Sin and have great pride in a fine gun polished regularly? Certainly. Likely most often where a gun was more a matter of status than necessity. Did most other folks do that? I don't think so, but like I said I know it's only one point of view and there were, even in the period, certainly more than one type of person....

Sooo, do you polish your brass or not?

 

[Bob McBride]

Sooo, do you polish your brass or not?

Nope. Not my shoes or my truck either. I also shave my head so I don’t have to comb it. I am, by choice, more Coyote than Bird of Paradise.