I'm not very fond of gunmetal, or bronze either for that matter, but particularly gunmetal because of it's tendency to snatch drills and cutters. I hate when that happens. Regards, Harry Wade Nashville Tennessee Harry et al, I keep two separate sets of all sizes of drills. One set is normal and the other one which has yellow paint on it's drills has had all its cutting lips blunted to avoid the "snatching" you mentioned. Also work well for re-drilling cast iron. Oh, The pinkish colour bronze is probably SAE 40 or something similar as is used on water faucets etc. I have some really BAD brass(? )that was used as wear parts on punch presses. This stuff has a slight grayish brown tinge to it and is almost impossible to machine or drill. Got it in with some scrap I got in Jackson. Jesse in Tennessee MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.