Rusted Brass?????

[Janster]

I was given permission to pick up old steel shell cases at the local range. I gathered up only rusty crusty nasty dirty cases. When I got home I was prepping them for shell casing pens and when I drilled into them out comes Brass curls? Weird? I reckon that these are old cases that were coated w/some sort of lubricant for easy cycling through the old military weapons? What ever was on them caused them to appear rusted? They looked rusty, and those are what I wanted. I did nothing but wash the cases in water only, then dried them. The finish is really smooth and they appear as tho I applied a finish, but I did not do anything. It was difficult to photo this pen but the colors are pretty realistic and not too distorted. I put together 20 of these pens this morning. I have enough material to construct another 40 plus pens! Guess what will be on sale at the next craft fair! Be well........Jan

 

[wyone]

Those look AWESOME.. I am trying to figure out how you assembled them

 

[wob50]

They look great, nice finish on them.

 

[magpens]

Really COOL ! ... what caliber are they ?

 

[Band Saw Box]

That's cool

 

[79spitfire]

It's the amount of copper in the brass. Some formulas have more. They may have also picked up some mineralization from the ground. Which range did they come from? Washoe County?

 

[Janster]

It's the amount of copper in the brass. Some formulas have more. They may have also picked up some mineralization from the ground. Which range did they come from? Washoe County? Where in Nv. are you located?

Washoe County Shooting Facility. They looked the same as rusted steel cases. Had I know they were brass I would have left them there, yeah right! The are were manufactured by Winchester. Where in Nv. are you located?

Mal...they are .308s

 

[79spitfire]

South of Fernley, but I work in Reno. A nice hike through the desert out here should turn up plenty of material...LOL