with out a doubt sooner or later you will scratch up you reloading die! My 270 rcbs FL die was pretty bad. Some one said to use 400 grit wet sand paper? I thought that to be too rough. found some semi chrome polishing past and with a rag on a doll I ran it in and out for about 30 seconds with a drill. excellent results. Cleaned it good and gave it a shot of one shot case lube and the brass resized like butter. how to take a screenshot on a pc

It's best to pop the primer, wash the brass before putting it through a die ! Out door shooting , especially, will pick up sand this is very abrasive even to carbide dies !! You might then use some polish .Stay away from abrasives like 400 grit.

Flitz is about the same thing and works like a charm..

Call me lazy but I had a .243 Win die that somehow got scratched and was transferring the scratch to my brass so I boxed it up, sent it to RCBS and it came back in 10 days door to door perfect and no charge except the outbound shipping from me to them.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Call me lazy but I had a .243 Win die that somehow got scratched and was transferring the scratch to my brass so I boxed it up, sent it to RCBS and it came back in 10 days door to door perfect and no charge except the outbound shipping from me to them.

If a die gets scratched and I mean a real scratch that is now cutting your brass such as this then most handloaders should do what Snellstrom did and send it in for Polish.

Flitz and Semichrome are indeed a polish BUT with nearly 30 years of polishing injection molds under my belt with 220, 320, 400, 600, 900 stones 400, 600, 1200, W/D paper, Scotch Brite pads and just about every micro diamond paste Congress Stone Company sells I will say this with 100% confidence.

Flitz and Semichrome and I have to throw in JB bore paste are cleaners with a mild abrasive so mild you could use them on your cars paint with little to no ill effects.

When steel gets a scratch or you have a rough barrel that you think needs lapped......steel.....especially hardened steel is much harder to smooth and polish than most folks think.

Snellstrom you are many things but lazy sure the heck ain't one of them

You can polish the die yourself without any harm to the "HARDENED" die. Just use a snug fitting shotgun cleaning mop and chuck it in a drill.

Any type metal polish will work, J&B bore paste, Flitz, automotive rubbing compound or automotive Mag and wheel polish.

A second method is to dissemble the die and toss it in a vibratory case tumbler and let it run overnight with treated walnut media.

Again the resizing die has a very hard surface and even fine wet and dry sandpaper could be used.

Any time you have firearms that throws perfectly good brass away that lands on the ground wet tumbling with SS media will eliminate polishing your dies.