Cleaning brass with ammonia?

Do not use ammonia or any cleaner that contains ammonia for cleaning brass. Ammonia will react with the brass and harden it. This can lead to split cases. Contrary to what one answerer speculated, household ammonia is not flammable. The best way to clean brass is to buy a cheap rock tumbler and put some brass cleaning medium in it. The various kinds of media are available from such places as www.cabelas.com or www.midwayusa.com. Put the medium in the tumbler put your brass in with it and turn it on. Depending on how dirty the brass is, you should tumble it anywhere from an hour to five hours. Just check it from time to time to see when it is ready to come out. You can make your brass look like jewelry with this set-up.

I wouldn't use it for cleaning brass, it will deteriorate it. Use 0000 steel wool or a tumbler with walnut media for the brass. Some bore cleaners are made with ammonia, but it is usually thinned to the point that it will remove copper and lead fouling without hurting the barrel steel.

Doc and others are right, you don't want to use anything ammonia based as it will brake down the brass and weaken it. ground corn cob or walnut works the best and there are many additives you can use with them that will speed up the cleaning process that are not ammonia based if you are so inclined.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Ammonia is a good copper solvent, forming water-soluble complexes, so it's good for your barrel if you have some buildup of gilding material in it, but not a great choice for your brass.

Nope, it will cause your brass to become brittle.

Doc

i think its flammable, but i cant say for sure. i wouldnt use anything flammable if it is.