How do You Determine Red Brass from Copper ?

Looking for direct ways and pointers in determining the best ways to distinguish and separate red brass from copper. Have searched both here and Google and made no real progress or found any definitive answers to this question. Is it simply the reddish tint? Is red brass found mostly in ornamental items? (actually I recall one search result advertising red brass pipe) Sometimes there's just nothing better than good ol experience, hoping some of you fine folks will help explain this a little better.

The easiest way is to use a file. Copper is significantly softer than red brass and the file will "bite" into it more easily.

I'm no expert either, but what I have found is that if it appears to have been cast (like a pipe fitting, etc.) then it is brass as pure copper is very difficult to cast.

Red brass is about twice as hard as copper. This means a piece of red brass will scratch a bit of copper, but a bit of copper won't scratch a piece of red brass. The only time this will not work is if the red brass is annealed and left at less than 50% hardness.

It's the same for stainless steel and aluminum. Stainless scratches aluminum, but aluminum doesn't scratch stainless steel.

There is an old saying in the business that holds mostly true today.."red brass is always a casting".You can also take a sharp knife and cut a sliver off any piece of copper.You can not cut any type of brass with a knife.The easiest way for most people is simply color and hardness.I often buy red breass and copper solids mixed.I can tap them with my pliers and tell by the sound as well as the hardness of the metal.

Brass is a hard metal and copper is a ductile metal. the color of brass is a dark reddish brown and copper is a light reddish brown metallic color. brass is used to make many household items, such as pipes,musical instruments,radiators. copper is mostly used to make electrical wires.

Red Brass is still generally reusable. The use of red brass scrap purchased at a meaningfully cheaper price than the metal mixture price means that the cost of the fabricated brass is meaningfully less than it might otherwise be. The existence in brass of some other components such as copper is often required to enhance accountability so such scrap is regularly appropriate.


Alpcorecycling.com
Macedon, NYC, USA

Red brass is usually cast like someone said. It also has a porous texture to it, due to the silicon content used in the casting process.