mongoose33
Member
I've been looking for a way to mark my .223 brass that I've run through the RCBS X-Die, so as to tell it apart from brass that hasn't been prepped for it. The X-Die allows you to repeatedly resize brass without trimming and chamfering each time.
After a lot of great suggestions on THR, I decided to get some "Brass Black" and see if I could effectively mark my brass.
The instructions indicated that one should clean the brass to be marked w/ alcohol, then remove tarnish/whatever with steel wool to allow the Brass Black to work. I used a Scotch Bright pad (and wheel, which I have on a grinder), and it cleaned up the brass nicely. I just felt it would be better than taking steel wool to it.
I tried Brass Black before buffing w/ scotch bright but it has almost no effect. I"m sure this is due to the polish deposited on the brass from tumbling, so the cleaning w/ the Scotch Bright pad (or steel wool) is necessary.
Anyway, I decided to mark a band near the base of the cartridge, using a Q-Tip to distribute the Brass Black as I rotated the case in my fingers:
It's nice enough to work with, and as you can see, it really creates a clearly visible band around the brass:
I tossed them in the tumbler with a little polish for about 20 minutes, hoping to put a thin coat of polish on them so they'd resist wearing off.
I thought about also blacking the headstamp, but the marking is so clearly visible in the styrofoam ammo tray I decided it wasn't worth it:
So far, so good. It really stood out when I put it on, and it did what I wanted following firing, when it was mixed in with other brass that I hadn't marked:
Perfectly easy to pick out the X-Die cases from the others.
However, once I tumbled the cases, much of the black wore off. Enough that I suspect that after one or two more tumbles, it won't be as useful:
In the pic above, I show two non-fired, non-tumbled cases on the left for comparison. Clearly the marking on the fired cases is much less distinct generally.
I will do some experimenting to see if I can either buff the case a bit more prior to blacking (though it was completely black the first time), or perhaps give it a bit better polish job to preserve the black.
In the end, I'm not certain this is the answer. If it's going to wear off, it's no better than simply marking the cases with a sharpie or permanent marker. But I sure do like how it looks!
After a lot of great suggestions on THR, I decided to get some "Brass Black" and see if I could effectively mark my brass.
The instructions indicated that one should clean the brass to be marked w/ alcohol, then remove tarnish/whatever with steel wool to allow the Brass Black to work. I used a Scotch Bright pad (and wheel, which I have on a grinder), and it cleaned up the brass nicely. I just felt it would be better than taking steel wool to it.
I tried Brass Black before buffing w/ scotch bright but it has almost no effect. I"m sure this is due to the polish deposited on the brass from tumbling, so the cleaning w/ the Scotch Bright pad (or steel wool) is necessary.
Anyway, I decided to mark a band near the base of the cartridge, using a Q-Tip to distribute the Brass Black as I rotated the case in my fingers:
It's nice enough to work with, and as you can see, it really creates a clearly visible band around the brass:
I tossed them in the tumbler with a little polish for about 20 minutes, hoping to put a thin coat of polish on them so they'd resist wearing off.
I thought about also blacking the headstamp, but the marking is so clearly visible in the styrofoam ammo tray I decided it wasn't worth it:
So far, so good. It really stood out when I put it on, and it did what I wanted following firing, when it was mixed in with other brass that I hadn't marked:
Perfectly easy to pick out the X-Die cases from the others.
However, once I tumbled the cases, much of the black wore off. Enough that I suspect that after one or two more tumbles, it won't be as useful:
In the pic above, I show two non-fired, non-tumbled cases on the left for comparison. Clearly the marking on the fired cases is much less distinct generally.
I will do some experimenting to see if I can either buff the case a bit more prior to blacking (though it was completely black the first time), or perhaps give it a bit better polish job to preserve the black.
In the end, I'm not certain this is the answer. If it's going to wear off, it's no better than simply marking the cases with a sharpie or permanent marker. But I sure do like how it looks!
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