In this work copper and brass electrodes have been compared in terms of wear characteristics and material removal rate during EDM (electrical discharge machining) of aluminum and stainless steel. It was found that a higher spark gap results more wear of the electrodes. It was found that volumetric wear ratio decreases with the increase in current during EDM. However, during machining of aluminum, volumetric wear ratio was found to be higher than that during machining of steel for both copper and brass electrodes. MRR (material removal rate) was found to increase with increase in current. Brass electrodes gave a higher MRR compared to copper electrodes and aluminum was removed faster than stainless steel.