Orkan said:
Here's a crazy thought: Instead of all this speculation... why not try something yourselves, and post the results for the rest of us to benefit from?
I actually have (and Biochemistry major drop out after 1 year when I switched majors but my empirical lab testing skills with Calculus/physics lab experiments should be good enough for brass tumbling).
Several years back when I was running low on walnut media, I tried some long grain and shorter grain from Costco to see how they worked.
Results using Berry's and Frankford Arsenal tumblers:
- Dry rice DOES work to CLEAN dirty brass fouling but will not POLISH brass.
- If rice collects moisture, it will lose effectiveness so results in dryer climate may be better.
- Unlike crushed walnut/corn cob media, rice loses cleaning effectiveness on subsequent batches (Walnut/corn cob tend to go a long time before cleaning/polishing performance starts to degrade).
- If you are using lubed lead bullets, rice is not a good media choice as grains got coated with lube residue and left brass gummed up.
- I would say rice with harder surface (not polished rice) will do a better job of cleaning brass as long grain rice with less polishing did a better job than shorter grain rice that was polished more.
- You cannot add polish (like NuFinish) to rice - you will have a gummy mess.
- When I bought fine grit walnut media from Harbor Freight, just dry media did a remarkably faster and better job of cleaning AND polishing the brass. When NuFinish was added, it was Model T vs Corvette Z06/ZR1. Sure rice worked, but walnut/NuFinish worked waaaaaay better.
Since my testing with rice, I don't ever plan on using rice again unless there's a worldwide shortage of walnut/corn cob media. But if rice is all you got, it will work to clean your brass. Heck, even Model T will get you from point A to point B but don't expect speed, A/C, power brakes, 1 G lateral turns, etc.