I should point out that while free-machining brass does indeed turn quite nicely, the “chips” (really dust) are a pain on a manual lathe. While the normal grades of aluminum produce comparatively tidy spiral chips, the aftermath of turning my bronze flywheel segments (and brass flywheels in 2017 as well) looked like Liberace had a party on top of the lathe.
TL;DR Brass/bronze machine quite nicely, but the cleanup will make you regret it.