Brittle brass is anneal always the answer?

[magnumwheelman]

Was cleaning out the corner of the basement where FIL had his work bench... loading, stained glass work, & etc.

Found a can of Brasso ( thinking this was the stuff that had ammonia or some such, that couldn’t be used on cartridge brass as it would make them brittle ) I’ve not run into any of his older brass that I found to be brittle... but got me thinking

Also have some different alloy machined brass coming from RCC in a few months... still thinking

I have gotten some 460 S&W cases from Hornady in the b past, that I had to anneal, as the case mouths were cracking when I was doing a generous enough bell to load cast bullets...

Now the question... would annealing soften brass that had gotten brittle from chemical exposure, or soften a less playable brass alloy, or could it have the opposite effect on some alloys of brass ( like heat treatment on steel )

[foxtrapper]

Give us the results! Cook a couple!😁

[bula]

Good question. I used to use the Brasso stuff too. My question is about the newfangled collet crimp gadgets. They seem to put a mini double venturi (Weatherby shoulder) kinda bend in the brass. Looks to be extra working of brass ? Time will tell. 

[dougader]

I've had some success annealing brass made brittle from Brasso use... 308, 30-06 and 223