bronze or brass?

[RARanney]

Does anyone know if bronze and red brass look the same, and if so is there a way of telling them apart? I thought I was working a piece of bronze, but after reading about all the various alloys I'm not so sure. Thanks.

 

[Will52100]

There are a lot of alloys out there, but generaly speaking, brass is light gold and lusterous, red brass is lighter in color, bronze is a darker gold.

To give you a better idea, brass is the softest, red brass is a good bit harder than 360brass, and bronze is the hardest. 360(also known as yellow brass), and red brass are easily soldered. I have given up on trying to solder bronze and have went to a solderless fit.

Hope this helps,

William

 

[Bruce Evans]

One other thing to add to Will's reply here.Red Brass will have a pinkish color when polished and a darker reddish color when it starts turning dull.
Bruce

 

[Phillip Jones]

Take a small piece of the material and dip it in a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part nitric acid. If a white substance shows up on the metal this will indicate that you have tin present in the alloy. Therefore, you have bronze.

Be careful with the acid.