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 most simple and 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 is. 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 tin used that largely determines the nature of the future alloy.
There is a special kind of bronze, in the manufacture of which tin is replaced by nickel or zinc. Such an alloy is known as a spider. In fact, the material is a cheap version of bronze, which is not the best quality.
According to the above manufacturing principles, bronze is divided into tin and tinless. At the beginning of the last century, metallurgists produced arsenic bronze. However, due to its high toxicity, the material was not widely used.
What is brass?
Brass is almost the same alloy as bronze. But instead of an alloying composition in the form of tin, zinc is used here in combination with copper. Sometimes lead, iron, nickel, manganese, and other elements are added to the alloy.
Ancient Romans knew how to get 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 at the end of the 18th century in Britain. The British often used an alloy to create fake gold, because brass, like a noble metal, has an attractive sunny sheen.
Today, the material is widely used to create the so-called bimetal - an alloy where steel is combined with brass. This solution contributes to the production of metal, which is resistant to corrosion and abrasion. However, bimetal products have good ductility.
Defining differences between bronze and brass
How to distinguish bronze from brass? The difference between the presented alloys is as follows:
- Brass is obtained by combining zinc with copper. In turn, bronze is produced by fusing copper with tin.
- Bronze can be in contact with sea, salt water for a long time without destroying the structure of the material. For this, brass requires additional processing in the form of alloying.
- Bronze has a high 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 art products.
- How to distinguish copper from brass and bronze? Copper has a reddish tint. At the same time, bronze has a dark brown color, as well as a coarse-grained structure. Brass has a yellow tint and is a fine-grained material.
Differences of bronze from brass according to weight
How to distinguish bronze from brass based on the weight of the materials? It is worth noting that bronze is a rather 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?
You need to try to distinguish between materials by thermal exposure. 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 this effect on the surface of a brass product , an ashy shade forms, which is zinc oxide. At the same time, bronze will remain in its original form.
After heating, brass will become more ductile. Bronze does not change its physical properties under the influence of high temperature. If you try to bend the brass blank, the structure of the latter will not be damaged. As for bronze, it will definitely break at the place of the inflection.
How to distinguish brass from bronze with a magnet?
As noted above, tin and lead are present in the bronze. These materials can be magnetically attracted. The only thing required to conduct an experiment is to find a fairly strong magnet. When using it, bronze will stick slightly to the surface. The brass magnet will not have any effect.
Finally
As you can see, there are a number of ways that can distinguish bronze from brass at home. In most cases, there are pronounced visual differences between products from these alloys. Therefore, to cope with the task, sometimes it is enough just to carefully consider both materials.