Re: Annealing Brass
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: suasponte</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A ammo Engineer from Frankford Arsenal told me not to drop into water.
A metallurgist told me not to drop into water.
If you watch the History Channel special with Winchester. They show the brass going down the line thru the flames to anneal and dropping out into a box not water.
A friend of mine that worked at the Small Cal Lab at Aberdeen told me not to drop into water after annealing!
There is a old article I have in regards to annealing that says to drop onto a towel and not into water.
Below is the summary of that article Written by: Fred Barker in the 1996 Precision Shooting magazine!
I have other references that state not to quench in water but allow it to cool in a wet towel.
If you have access to the 1996 Precision Shooting magazine that article goes into it in depth including the metallurgy of the annealing process
it starts on page 90.
Terry </div></div>
I still don't see why not, you have lots of circumstantial "don't do it" but no hard reason. I'm not trying to sass you on it, but without a good reason and my experience with metals processing I don't see why you shouldn't drop it in water except for high cooling rates that might make it crack from quick contraction.
I can see a reason not to roll it in a wet towel, and that is differential cooling that could cause it to runout.
Also, I don't have access to the article, if you have it, can you put up a couple of bulleted reasons why they say this is a bad idea?