Steel inside brass will nearly always downgrade it considerably. You have two methods to ‘finish’ the job noted above. Here’s a 3rd: I use a blowtorch myself in a carbon steel vice to heat the brass. Stick the non-Brass section in the vice and torque it tight. Heat the threaded area for a minute or two, depending on your gas choice, and then wack hard vertically! Upward. Brass is much softer and heats faster than steels. The soft and now hot brass pops off easily enough. Just use correct safety equipment.
#1 is any single material with zero adulterants. No paint. No oil. No plastic including coatings. No other metals or minerals.
#2 tends to be a catch all not junk and not pure category for most companies. Thin, non-metallic paint. Plastic coatings on copper. Oils or strip paper on metals. Organics. Some companies that don’t sort roofing copper will take fairly tarred up copper as #2. Solder puts stuff here as well.
#3 and #4 are different ways of sorting shred. #3 is basically garbage that contains enough of the target material to be worth sorting after shredding. #4 is a category that you won’t find at a “local” yard. It’s a top level sorting. A penny stamped in a rail tie is #4 steel. Dental brackets (after silver removal) will be #4 silver. Such material is still shredded but is sorted and sold as material + material. Clean car engines for a poor example are aluminium plus iron.
The most common source of 4 in metals is burnt wire. The cost of separation is too costly at any level so it’s shredded and used as feed for low end decorative bronze.
The best example of classes I can give is construction wood. #1 is any board with no metals no paint, no chemicals and no knots. Easily reused or shaved. Can be used for mulch or chips. Makes clean fuel. Etc. Grade A from a lumber yard.
2 is slightly problematic wood. It can have staples, but not nails. Could have surface damage. Dirt and organic staining. May have knots. No chemicals. No paint. Staples are easily removed. Knots can be cut out. As can organic stains. Easily chipped with staples removed. It’s Grade B at a lumber yard when resold.
#3 is generally wood that was actually used, Or discarded, in construction. It takes extensive manual work to recover. Paint and stain must be removed. Nails must be pulled or cut out. No chemicals. No rot. Wood is cleaned and chipped.
#4 is junk. Still no chemicals. Something so time consuming to recover it’s not worth trying. This material is often shredded and burned for fuel and metal recovery. The waste is often collected and sold for carbon stock to steel companies.
I held off till now on your question on corrosion to fit in with chemicals in my wood example. There are different chemical treatments for wood. Some eliminate the recycling aspects. Like water resistant treatments. Which until recently had asphestos in the chemicals used. Some treatments are safe to burn. And are presorted for that use. The carbon waste then sold to iron and steel companies.
It’s important to sort oxidation from corrosion. The former a type of the latter. Rust rarely has much of an impact. Rusty cars, rusty nails, rebar. All recycled in great quantities. On the other side of the spectrum is induced (or introduced) corrosion. Be it gases, like floronated steels. Or mineral breakage. Potassium corrosion is common in fireworks, ammunition, and explosives sourced scrap. There’s a whole sub industry in the scrap world that recycles such damaged, and often dangerous, material.
No steel buyer will turn down a car door for rust spots or holes. If there’s more corrosion than not it will downgrade a level (or two) but it’s still of value.
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