[samuel]

Unlike steel you can't harden brass by quenching. sam.

[gandog56]

Isn't annealing almost the opposite of hardening? I thought you annealed brass because it was becoming work hardened.

[samuel]

I'm not a metalurgist but I do know that you can anneal copper but you can't temper it like you can steel.In my younger/poorer days I couldn't afford much and my father who had been a blacksmith taught me how to temper steel and I whittled many gun parts,mostly fireing pins out of mild steel and tempered or hardened them by heating and quenching them.They would get so hard a file just whistled on them and wouldnt cut them.Copper,you can bring it almost to the melting point and quench it and it will be very soft when cool.You can hammer on it just right and make it brittle/hard. sam.

[jimkim]

"Annealing is a process wherein heat is applied to a metal in order to change its internal structure in such a way that the metal will become softer."

"Annealing always means to make the metal softer."

"Brass, on the other hand, cannot be made harder by heating it--ever. Brass is always made softer by heating."

"Unlike steel, which will be made harder when it is cooled rapidly, brass is virtually unaffected when it is rapidly cooled. Annealing brass and suddenly quenching it in water will have no measurable effect on the brass."

The Art and Science of Annealing

[gandog56]

That's what I was thinking. Annealing is softening the metal.

[jimkim]

It is neat how you can rejuvenate brass just by hitting it with a little heat.

[gandog56]

Too bad it hardens just by working it so that you have to.

[wunhunglo]

I quench the brass because I've always heated & quenched the copper washers I reused when working on my cars. Usually the copper washer on the sump drain plugs. I'm Scots, so why buy new ones if you can reuse.



Heat treating steel has different effects, heating to a certain temperature and quenching will harden it, but then is usually requires further heat treatment such as tempering to stress relieve & toughen it. Steel which is hard and not tempered will usually crack/break easily if subjected to sudden loads. eg. being hit with a hammer.

[samuel]

Really,I change brass or anneal at a decent time anyway.I dont like those streaks of fire that are between 5and7000deg,s hitting a chamber directly. sam.

[gandog56]

About 99.9% of my brass that fails is from a neck split, which is way up past the chamber.

[samuel]

The best way to tell is blow across the mouth.If it won't whistle,it probably has a hole in it. sam.

[gandog56]

That's a new one. I'll have to try that.