BRASS:

Much of the jewelry we have on MostOriginal.com has findings and accents in Brass. The term used for alloys of copper and zinc in a solid solution, typically it is more than 50% copper and from 5% to 20% zinc, in comparison to bronze which is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass has a yellow color, somewhat similar to gold, because of this, and its relative resistance to tarnishing, it is often used as a decoration to jewelry.

Brass has been known to man since prehistoric times, long before Zinc itself was discovered, it was produced by melting copper together with calamine, a zinc ore, during this process, the zinc is extracted from the calamine and instantly mixes with the copper, pure zinc, on the other hand, is too reactive to be produced by ancient metalworking techniques. The malleability and acoustic properties of brass have made it the metal of choice for brass musical instruments such as the tuba, higher malleability than copper and zinc.

In some environments, brasses with higher content of zinc are prone to a "selective leaching", corrosion known as dezincification, in some territories, plumbing fitting designed to resist dezincification are embossed "cr" (corrosion resistant), a dezincified fitting has the pink appearance of pure copper and will easily crumble, being reduced to a weak sponge-like matrix-brass, is a versatile manufacturing material because of its hardness and workability.

There are many brass types, and their contents vary, from Admiralty brass (30% zinc and 1% tin) and Alpha brasses (prince's metal) (with less than 35% zinc) to White brass and Yellow brass- an american term for 33% zinc brass, calamine brass, is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using calamine, a zinc ore, rather than, metallic zinc, calamine brass was produced using proportions of 2/7 fine copper, four sevenths calamine, and one-seventh shruff (old plate brass) calamine brass was the first type of brass produced. Calamine brass was slowly phased out as zinc smelting techniques were developed in Europe, which produced metallic zinc more suitable for Brass production than calamine.

Our Handmade Jewelry and Unique Home Decor sections have a wide range of items with brass accents including: