How to distinguish bronze from brass at home?

There are a number of ways that will tell you how to distinguish bronze from brass. In the presented material I would like to consider the simplest and most affordable solutions for the implementation of this task. Let's find out how to distinguish bronze from brass at home.

What is bronze?

Before you figure out how to distinguish bronze from brass, find out what each of the alloys represents. Let's start with bronze. So, bronze is an alloy of tin and copper, with impurities of silicon, aluminum, beryllium and lead. It is the quality of the used tin that largely determines the character of the future alloy.

There is a special type of bronze, in the manufacture of which tin is replaced by nickel or zinc. Such an alloy is known as a spy. In fact, the material is a cheap version of bronze, which is not the best quality.

According to the above-mentioned manufacturing principles, bronze is divided into tin and tinless. At the beginning of the last century metallurgists produced arsenic bronze. However, due to high toxicity, the material has not been widely used.

What is brass?

Brass is practically the same alloy as bronze. But instead of the alloying composition in the form of tin, zinc is used in combination with copper. Sometimes lead, iron, nickel, manganese, and other elements are added to the alloy.

Even ancient Romans knew how to obtain brass. They were the first to learn how to combine molten copper with zinc ore. Pure zinc for the manufacture of brass began to be used only in the late 18th century in Britain. The British often used an alloy to create counterfeit gold, because brass, like noble metal, has an attractive sun shine.

Today, the material is widely used to create a so-called bimetal, an alloy where steel is combined with brass. This solution contributes to the production of metal, which is resistant to corrosion, as well as abrasion. At the same time, articles made of bimetal have good plasticity.

The defining differences between bronze and brass

How to distinguish bronze from brass? The difference between the presented alloys is as follows:

1. Brass is produced by combining zinc with copper. In turn, bronze is produced by melting copper and tin.
2. Bronze can for a long time be in contact with sea, salt water without destroying the structure of the material. Brass for this requires additional processing in the form of alloying.
3. Bronze has increased resistance to mechanical wear and is a durable material. For this reason, the alloy is widely used to create all kinds of sculptures and monuments. Brass is not suitable for these purposes, although it is used as elements of artistic products.
4. How to distinguish copper from brass and bronze? Copper has a reddish tinge. At the same time, bronze has a dark brown color, as well as a coarse-grained structure. Brass also has a yellow tint and is a fine-grained material.

Differences in bronze from brass according to weight

How to distinguish bronze from brass, based on the weight of materials? It is worth noting that bronze is a fairly heavy alloy. In equal volumes of blanks, bronze will be clearly heavier than brass. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish products from individual alloys by weighing them on the palms.

How to distinguish alloys by heating?

It is necessary to try to distinguish materials by the method of thermal impact. However, the results in this case will be more reliable. What do we have to do? It is necessary to heat both alloys with a gas burner to a temperature of more than 600 ° C. With such an effect on the surface of the product from brass, a touch of ash is formed, which is a zinc oxide. At the same time, the bronze remains in its original form.

After heating, brass will become more plastic. Bronze does not change its physical properties under the influence of high temperature. If you try to bend a brass workpiece, the structure of the latter will not be damaged. As for bronze, it will necessarily break at the point of inflection.

How to distinguish brass from bronze with a magnet?

As mentioned above, tin and lead are present in the bronze composition. These materials can be attracted by a magnet. The only thing that is required for the experiment is to find a fairly strong magnet. When using it, the bronze will slightly adhere to the surface. The magnet will not have any effect on the brass.

Finally

Apparently, there are a number of ways that distinguish bronze from brass at home. In most cases, between products of these alloys there are pronounced visual differences. Therefore, to cope with the task, sometimes it is enough just to carefully consider both materials.