Cape Cod Polishing Cloth or Toothpaste to Polish Brass

thirty-eight said:
0000 steel wool is my long-time favorite, but until now I never dared discuss polishing cases by hand with anyone. With CBQ's help, I feel much better now.:thumbup::):D
Enough better to add that the expensive bronze wool from Brownell's does little, as one might expect.
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Well it’s my own therapy, brings back memories of my childhood when my siblings and cousins and I would polish Nana’s silverware before Easter supper. Greatest times ever.
 
BTW. The Cape Cod cloth is just too sloppy wet for my preference. Maybe if it dried out a little…

Flitz liquid is re-emerging as my favorite. Has just a touch of abrasive.

At this point my standard is how easily/fully the Sharpie shadow is removed.
 
I don’t hand polish cases (that’s what I bought a tumbler for), but something else I tried, and now keep in the shop because it works well is dvd polish.
Not as abrasive as toothpaste, does well on brass, aluminum, and plastic.
 
teerex.otw said:
I don’t hand polish cases (that’s what I bought a tumbler for), but something else I tried, and now keep in the shop because it works well is dvd polish.
Not as abrasive as toothpaste, does well on brass, aluminum, and plastic.
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What do think I am, some kind of Neanderthal? Hand polish dirty cases? I wet tumble THEN hand polish.

I’ll give dvd polish a look:)
 
CQB45ACP said:
Beats me what it’s for and beats me why I still have it. Papa died in 1990.
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Oh boy did I scramble brain that! Permatex Prussian Blue. It’s for marking machine parts (shafts) to check for fit. I used to prefer Dykem blue and Dykem red but Prussian blue has its place.
Not to be confused with laundry bluing. :confused:
 
So it’s like using a Sharpie on a brass case to see where it fits in a die? (Seen guys here mention it)

Found this in my grandfather’s stuff I “inherited”

He had an amazing life story like so many others of his era. Dropped out of middle school to sweep floors in a Pittsburgh mill, became a machinist, moved to Washington Navy Yard as we were ramping up for WW2, became an instrument maker after war with Bureau of Standards, made a gauge thing for a new submarine named Nautilus at request of a skinny Adm named Rickover. Spent last decade of his life in Latrobe taking care of my invalid grandmother carrying her upstairs to bed each night and down each morning.

He would’ve loved reloading.
 
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lightman said:
I once polished the lockwork on a S&W revolver with Crest. I removed the side plate and filled it up with Crest. I laid it on the counter and gave it a dozen squeezes everytime I walked by or thought about it. Don't laugh, it worked!
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A very old trick. So old you either thought of it your self or read about it in a shooting magazine. No internet back then.

Prussian blue made me think of the liquid bluing used to make your white things brighter when they came out of the wash. My mother always had a bottle of it to use when doing laundry. It also killed the hurt from red ant stings.

The only brass I hand polish is that for a 50 caliber BP rifle. I scrub it out right after a shooting session using hot water and a small bottle brush. After it dries I use 0000 steel wool because it is really smudged. Smokeless stuff get a lemon juice and and water session and a hot water rinse until it gets dark and then a trip through the tumbler with crushed walnut hulls and and a mild abrasive polish. I just don't see the need for super shiny brass that will not be super shiny as soon as it is fired. Clean does it for me.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Oh boy did I scramble brain that! Permatex Prussian Blue. It’s for marking machine parts (shafts) to check for fit. I used to prefer Dykem blue and Dykem red but Prussian blue has its place.
Not to be confused with laundry bluing. :confused:
Click to expand...

I was talking about this stuff just the other day.

Long story short, you didn't want to piss off a machinist back in the day.
I'll just leave it at that. :rofl:
 
doubleh said:
A very old trick. So old you either thought of it your self or read about it in a shooting magazine. No internet back then.

Prussian blue made me think of the liquid bluing used to make your white things brighter when they came out of the wash. My mother always had a bottle of it to use when doing laundry. It also killed the hurt from red ant stings.

The only brass I hand polish is that for a 50 caliber BP rifle. I scrub it out right after a shooting session using hot water and a small bottle brush. After it dries I use 0000 steel wool because it is really smudged. Smokeless stuff get a lemon juice and and water session and a hot water rinse until it gets dark and then a trip through the tumbler with crushed walnut hulls and and a mild abrasive polish. I just don't see the need for super shiny brass that will not be super shiny as soon as it is fired. Clean does it for me.
Click to expand...

I wish I could claim that I thought of it, but I read it in a gun magazine.
 
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