Modern CuZn15 (DIN: CuZn15 ; UNS: C23000 ; BS: CW 502L (CZ 102) ; ISO: CuZn15) – tombak with a gold colour, very good for cold forming, suitable for pressing, hammering, or embossing
modern CuZn12 (not standardized) – same characteristics and applications as CuZn15, slightly different colour
modern CuZn10 (DIN: CuZn10; UNS: C22000; BS: CW 501L (CZ 101); ISO: CuZn10) – similar characteristics and applications as CuZn15 and CuZn12, noticeable reddish colour
modern white tombac – CuZn10 that is zinc content 10%, with trace arsenic
modern enamel tombacoremailler tombak – an alloy of 95% copper and 5% zinc, suitable for enamelling, therefore the name.
Ure notes the following forms of tombak in widespread use during the time the text was published (1856):[5]
"Gilting tombac":
Copper 82%, zinc 18%, lead 1.5%, tin 3%
Copper 82%, zinc 18%, lead 3%, tin 1%
Copper 82%, zinc 18%, lead, tin 0.2%
"French tombac for sword handles", pommels and fittings: copper 80%, zinc 17%, 3% tin
"Yellow tombac of Paris" for gilt ornaments: copper 85%, zinc 15%, trace% tin
Piggot states the brass used for machinery and locomotives in England was composed of copper 74.5%, zinc 25%, and lead 0.5%, which would make it a tombac according to Ure.[6]
Piggot's own definition of tombak is problematic at best: "red brass, or tombak, as it is called by some, has a great preponderance of copper, from 5 ounces of zinc down to 1/4 ounce of zinc to the pound [of copper]."[6]
Tombac is soft and easy to work by hand: hand tools can easily punch, cut, enamel, repousse, engrave, gild, or etch it. It has a higher sheen than most brasses or copper, and does not easily tarnish.
Historically, it was used by the Javanese as a faux gold finish for objects d'art and ornaments.
Most commonly, tombac in modern society is used in medals and awards of lesser importance, such as the German Oldenburg Long-Service Medallion for their Gendarmerie.
The German military used it for some combat medals during World War II.
The Swedish armed forces adopted a special-service round for the Carl Gustav m/45submachine gun with a tombac-plated steel jacket surrounding the lead core of the bullet loaded in the cartridge. While the lands of the barrel can cut into the tombac, the steel jacket resists deformation and thus causes the gas pressure to rise higher than the previous soft-jacketed m/39, giving the 6,8-g (106-grain) bullet a muzzle velocity of 420 m/s (1,378 ft/s).[7]
Brass alloys, including tombak, are occasionally used in architecture, such as ornaments, roofs or outside wall plating. It withstands corrosion well.[8]
^
Tibor Eric Robert Singer, German-English dictionary of metallurgy: with related material on ores, mining and minerals, crystallography, welding, metal-working, tools, metal products, and metal chemistry, McGraw-Hill: 1945: 298 pages
^Andrew Ure, A dictionary of arts, manufactures and mines: containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice Robert Hunt (ed.), D. Appleton & Co.: 1856: pp243
^ abAaron Snowden Piggot, The chemistry and metallurgy of copper, Lindsay and Blakiston: 1858: 388 pages: pp354, google book reference: [1]
^Arméstabens taktiska avdelning februari 1962 : "Erfarenheterna från striderna i Kongo under september och december 1961"
