How to tell brass, bronze and copper apart

Brass, bronze or copper? We explain how to tell these metals apart by colour, weight and typical application, what the magnet test actually proves and why chrome-plated tapware is still brass.

Brass, bronze and copper are related metals, but they have different value — and in scrap buying they are settled separately. Telling them apart needs no equipment: in most cases colour and knowing where each metal is used will do. Below is the same approach a grader uses at the branch.

Colour — the first and most reliable signal

Three metals, three shades:

Copper — reddish, salmon-toned. A fresh fracture is bright and shiny, darkens with time and can develop a greenish patina in the open air.
Brass (an alloy of copper and zinc) — distinctly yellow, tending towards gold. The most recognisable of the three.
Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) — darker, brownish-red, more often matt than shiny.

If an item is soiled or oxidised, it is worth filing or sanding a small patch — the colour of fresh metal is far more readable than the colour of a surface film.

The magnet test — what it actually proves

The magnet is the most repeated piece of advice and the most often misunderstood. None of these three metals is magnetic, so a magnet will not tell them apart.

What is it good for? Detecting steel where it is not visible: a steel core in apparently brass tapware, an insert in a fitting, a screw inside a body. That genuinely changes the grading, because foreign metal lowers the value of a batch — as we describe in the piece on sorting scrap before selling.

Where you will meet each metal

Application is often a better clue than appearance:

Copper — water and heating installations (pipes), conductors and cables, roofing sheet, busbars and electrical components.
Brass — bathroom and kitchen tapware, fittings, valves, water meters, lock cylinders, furniture and builders' hardware, instrument parts.
Bronze — bearing shells and sleeve bushings, pump and industrial valve components, ship propellers, art castings and bells.

Yellow and red brass

In the trade, brass is divided further — primarily into yellow (a higher zinc content, lighter) and red (a higher copper content, darker and closer to bronze in colour). They differ in value, so they are settled separately. The same applies to brass turnings from machining, which form a separate item.

You do not have to make this split yourself — it is enough not to throw brass into the same bag as copper.

Chrome, nickel and other coatings

A shiny, silvery bathroom tap is almost always brass under a thin layer of chrome or nickel. The coating does not change the base material, but it does affect grading: coated brass settles separately from clean brass. Removing the coating makes no sense — it is work without a return.

The same goes for tin: tinned copper wire is no longer Millberry but a separate, lower-priced grade.

When you are not sure

Do not guess — it is not your job. We assess the grade at the branch visually and by the characteristics of the material, and where the alloy is not obvious we confirm the composition with a handheld spectrometer. The whole course of a visit is described in the piece on receiving scrap at a branch.

The fastest route to a valuation runs through photos. Send pictures of your material — we will assess whether it is brass or bronze or copper, and give you a current valuation.

Frequently asked questions

How do you tell brass from bronze?

Colour is the most reliable signal: brass is distinctly yellow, tending towards gold, while bronze is darker, brownish-red, often with a matt film. Application helps too — tapware, fittings, lock cylinders and hardware are usually brass, whereas bearing shells, sleeve bushings, pump parts and ship propellers are more often bronze.

Is brass magnetic?

No. Neither brass, nor bronze, nor copper is attracted by a magnet. The magnet test will therefore not tell these three metals apart — it will only tell you whether an item is steel or has a steel core inside. That is useful information, but it is not grading.

Is chrome-plated tapware still brass?

Usually yes. A shiny, silvery bathroom tap or fitting is most often brass under a thin layer of chrome or nickel. The coating does not change the base material, but it does affect grading — we settle such items as coated brass, separately from clean brass.