Cleaning brass brushes

Should work fine - would have to be pretty safe if used on electronic components.
I just use brake cleaner.

I just rinse with hot water

I'm supposed to clean brass brushes? When did that become a thing?

By the time i would need to clean them, they are worn out and replaced.

I buy them two or three at a time and replace them often without remorse

I rinse them off to keep copper cleaning bore solvent from eating up the brass bristles.

Electro type solvent will work and won’t hurt them. Carb or brake clean works too.

I’ll get poo-pooed for this;
Some of my brushes serve double duty in helping to clean car parts, nuts and bolts or whatever. They can get pretty nasty.

if I am cleaning car parts, it’s usually in a can of gasoline. The brushes get cleaned in that, and blown off with compressed air before they go back to the bench.

One plus for carb and break cleaner

Just be careful with that stuff; a friend lost his vision in one eye from a backsplash of brake cleaner he sprayed in his shotgun barrel.

I used to get really annoyed when I found a brass brush had deteriorated from bore solvent. My fix is to do things backwards. First thing after firing, I run a brush through, back and forth, dry. Only then do I start with the wet patch/dry patch drill. Brush lasts forever and bore gets just as clean.

I clean my black powder revolvers with GoJo hand cleaner when I am finished I rinse my brushes off with hot water. They come out looking new. Putting brushes in a tub of hand cleaner for a few minutes and rinsing them off should be the same thing.

I just use a brief mineral spirits soak & swish to clean my phosphor-bronze bore-cleaning brushes.

South Prairie Jim said:

I buy them two or three at a time and replace them often without remorse

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Yep buy them by dozen myself. When I do a copper job I just follow up with Kroil to kill the ammonia. The worn out brushes go to the shop fir other uses...

Like @GBExpat , I keep a bottle of mineral spirits, and dunk'n'swish. A $12 gallon lasts much longer than $12 in spray solvent.

The ammonia that will damage the brush is much more volatile than the spirits, so it doesn't concentrate in the rinse. I pour the solvent off the accumulated carbon ~twice a year.

edwardware said:

... I pour the solvent off the accumulated carbon ~twice a year. ...

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<chuckle> You "get it".

I keep a couple/few re-purposed 5oz tuna cans on my gun bench. Years ago I removed the lids with one of those Krupp lid removers that actually unfolded the bend and left a usable lid that retains its tiny "rubber" seal.

They always have low-odor MS in them and any crap slowly covers the bottoms. When the bottom of one gets too nasty, I carefully (no agitation) pour off the MS into another such can prior to cleaning the dirty one and storing it for later use.

As well as being handy for cleaning the brushes, they are good for wetting the brushes (and patches) for initial cleaning passes and for quickly and easily applying MS to something like a Q-Tip while cleaning components.

IIRC, I currently have three of these little covered reservoir cans stacked on the bench awaiting future use.

Water and soap.

I spray them with brake cleaner but I have used several different types of degreasers including electrical contact cleaner.

I just toss them, and buy new ones

looking to find where I can purchase some muzzle guides for my 38spl and 357-dont want to wreck my bore when cleaning -thanks