I understand the brass will add some extra weight, but is it all good, or, does the brass come with some negative durability impacts?
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Brass is definitely softer than SS. Also, depending on how you feel about patina, there’s that.
I didn’t even consider the brass will form it’s own natural patina eventually.
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I prefer the brass Hummingbird, the brass rims provide just that bit extra weight / power I prefer.
I can’t speak too much to the durability of the Hummingbird specifically, but I have the Offset Moebius, too, which has brass rims. I have banged that thing hard on tile and you can kinda notice it if you’re looking for it, but I don’t notice any differences in play.
So, yea, overall brass will be softer than steel, but unless you’re constantly playing over concrete, I doubt that will be an issue.
It does patina, but I think it adds character to it. And it doesn’t patina as much or as quickly as copper does (or such has been my experience).
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Ah thank you for this reply, helps a lot. I’m assuming the patina, even though it’s minor, does take away the high gloss polish look?
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Yea, it takes away the high polish look, it starts looking a little more matte than polished.
A little bit of Brasso or some other metal polish can bring it back to a shiny polish pretty quickly. I usually like the way it looks, though, and I’ll leave it.
Here’s a picture of two Brass Banshee SS throws next to each other. The blue has been thrown a lot, the red maybe once and has spent most of its time in the box. Other than that I’ve had them for pretty much the same amount of time.
It’s not the best picture, but hopefully you can see the difference in the polish / matte look. It’s also interesting that the red still looks pretty well polished and hasn’t developed much patina at all just sitting in the box. I think handling is what helps brass develop more of a patina, whereas copper will develop some even just sitting around (I think).
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I believe brass is slightly harder that aluminum, but not as hard as stainless steel. So basically I’d treat it as an aluminum mono-metal. I wouldn’t be concerned about durability and just avoid playing with near walls, hardwood floors and concrete as normal.
Off topic comment on performance, Dylan Kowalski has a review of the brass peregrine up:
Basically he loves it–increased stability without sacrificing much speed or perceived heft on the string. The brass version comes in at 65.8g (vs the 63.5grams of the standard stainless steel version) which is a ton of weight. For me 65.8g is really heavy and I don’t really believe it when he says the brass version doesn’t feel much heavier, especially with extra weight on the rims. But Dylan is an MMA guy and I’m a weakling so your mileage may vary.
Did Yoyofriends make a brass Hummingbird variant? The yoyofriends website and every online retailer I’ve checked has no mention a hummingbird with brass rings. I can only find references to the standard 62gram hummingbird.
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I actually meant to say Peregrine above, that was a mistake on my part.
But they did also make limited edition versions of the Hummingbird:
Brass rims in a blackish-green colourway at 65g.
Copper rims in a purple colourway at 66.7g.
There weren’t a lot of each made, with copper having fewer than the brass made.
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Wow this is incredibly helpful in making my decision. Personally, I like the high shine gloss look so I’m not the biggest fan of the dull patina. I’m also not at a high enough skill level to notice the added benefit of having the extra grams on the rim.
Another question, that may be a bit silly but maybe you can answer, is I’ve noticed on a lot of sites they’ll have listed out the model available color and rim material. However, where they all say color and then either SS or bronze, the champagne color has silver rims listed. Obviously they aren’t rims made of silver. Am I correct in assuming they are just chrome polished SS?
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I don’t think it’s silly, it can get kinda confusing!
As far as I know the material is still stainless steel even if it’s listed with a color like that.
I agree with @djinni_cake here. I’d assume all peregrine have stainless steel rims regardless of colorway unless it specifically says “brass rings”
If you can do a simple bind, I’m pretty sure you’d be able to notice the extra stability and power with the brass rings. If that’s something you want and don’t mind a heavier yoyo, then the brass peregrine would probably be a really great choice.
But if the brass patina is something you really don’t care for, then yeah I’d be inclined to steer you towards the standard stainless steel peregrine. The steel rimmed peregrine is very very very good and still plenty powerful. The majority of the yoyofriends pro team switched from the hummingbird to the peregrine because it is more stable and has a wider catch zone. It’s still one of the best competition yoyos out there.
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Yoyofriends makes good stuff…. Or they don’t bother to sell it, lol.
I don’t have a Peregrine but I have a Vulture, a Hummingbird and a Torched Tiss Hummingbird.
I would have zero doubt any Peregrine would play less than amazing.
I would also have zero doubt that the Brass ringed Peregrine is more powerful and more stable(technically).
But personally, I don’t care for(raw) brass rings because when brass combines with the moisture, oils and acid sweating out of your hands, the chemical reaction makes your hands stink like old doorknobs. I don’t care for the changing patina. Just like I don’t care at all for nickel yo-yos getting ugly as they age with the help of human chemistry.
Now…. That being said, the workaround is simple enough. You just lightly polish the rims with a Jewelers cloth and then put a little coat of Monkey Buff or any good automotive polish to minimize the oxidation of the brass.
Obviously I have been out of school for half a century but I still remember the ‘old days’ when just about every single door knob or lever or push handle was made or coated with brass. And with hundreds of hands touching them every single day, you could smell that brass stink even as you walked up to a door, lol. Kinda like the metal version of rotten eggs.
….So, if you get one, there are 2 easy solutions to my caveat: either you don’t care if brass stinks or you keep the rims clean and polished and try to burn the place down like Dylan.
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This is pretty much the best case scenario for brass patina, usually the brass will tarnish a lot more and it will look much uglier than that.
Here’s a video showing that:
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Would this technique hurt the anno? I suppose you could pour a shallow amount of coke and do one rim at a time, but I’d hate to mess up a $110+ yoyo.