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For rods and pins, you can quench them or let them air cool, either way will give you satisfactory results for the intended purpose. The water bath is just one more thing to set up.

I believe that is the recommended method for annealing/normalizing brass for that purpose. All the guys that I know that are reloaders do it that way.

The difference between a quick quench and a slow cool is the size and pattern of the micro-grain structure. A very slow, long duration cool (equivalent to leaving in a furnace and lowering...