Brass work for Gladius in process.

[Crispvs]

It is true that the brass will tarnish as time goes by. After all, that is what brass does and it must have applied to Roman brass as well. There is plenty of evidence for the Romans tinning brass, which would largely stop it from tarnishing, but not all Roman brass was tinned. If tarnished brass bothered the Romans (and it may not have bothered too much to the common soldier - we just don't know) they presumably had a way of dealing with the issue. Those of us in the present day who like to be able to polish our brasswork from time to time use Brasso.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasso

If you don't want to get Brasso on the leather of your scabbard, just be careful how you apply it. If you can only get the liquid form of it, never pour it directly onto the item you want to polish, as it can run anywhere. Put a folded polishing cloth over the mouth of the bottle, hold it there securely and upturn the bottle for a moment. This should impregnate the cloth with enough Brasso to begin to polish. Apply it by rubbing the cloth back and forth across the brass you want to polish, taking care not to rub it over any of the leather. You will probably have to replenish the Brasso on the cloth from time to time in order to polish all of your brasswork. The Brasso will leave a dirty residue on the brass. You will want to have some tissues on hand to rub the residue off afterwards and buff it up to a good shine.

For the cross hangers, I used a slightly heavier weight of brass, as they have to be weight bearing, but the 0.016 may still be alright for this task. Brian, as an experienced armourer, might be able to give better advice on this.

Crispvs