get down to brass tacks

The origin is uncertain. It is probably a variant of the earlier term down to the brass (see, for example, the 1854 quotation), and the following etymologies have been suggested: * The term refers to the brass tacks used in upholstery which have to be removed when a piece of furniture is reupholstered, or brass tacks stuck into the counter of a draper’s shop or hardware store to measure items precisely in yards. * Another possibility is that the brass tacks are nails used to seal coffin lids, or tacks used to decorate or indicate a deceased person’s initials on such lids, and thus the term refers to dealing with matters as serious as death.

• "He did not wish to delay action, but was ready to vote instanter.—A reference now would amount to a defeat of the memorial. It was better to come right down to the brass and vote."
• "When you come down to brass tacks—if we may be allowed the expression—everybody is governed by selfishness."
• "It would have been just as well for you to have gotten down to "brass tacks," in some of the statements you have been making about the bill instead of getting "down to brass tacks" now, if you leave it to me."
• "But I called here with a purpose. I expect you are a busy man and I know that I am, so I'll get down to the brass tacks."
• "[W]hen the conversation gets down to brass tacks it generally stays there, for there is no more to be said. In the region of brass tacks there are no irrelevancies or charming side-issues, and without these, of course, there is no conversation, everyone feels uncomfortable, and the guests who have come from Hampstead begin to murmur that it is time they were going home."
• "That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks: Birth, and copulation, and death."
• "In every phase of life we have been getting down to brass tacks these days; even Christmas is at last reduced to statistics. The cry for facts and realism has brought the electricity-minded to the point of computing Christmas in terms of lamps as used for indoor and outdoor trees, wreaths, candles and other Yuletide decorations over the entire United States."
• "joe: I'd get another job if I could. There's no work—you know it. / […] / edna: Who's the man in the family, you or me? / joe: That's no answer. Get down to brass tacks. Christ, gimme a break, too! A coffee cake and java all day. I'm hungry, too, Babe. I'd work my fingers to the bone if— […]"
• "We're gonna have all the gas and oil we need! We're gonna stop playing games with these Arabs and get down to brass tacks! Ain't gonna be no old people in New Hampsire turned into Popsicles this coming winter like there was last winter!"
• "You must be Jules, which would make you Vincent. Let's get down to brass tacks, gentlemen. If I was informed correctly, the clock is ticking. Is that right, Jimmie?"
• "And if the government got a grip, got down to brass tacks and started doing their actual job, all these things could be avoided."

• come down to brass nails
• get down to brass nails
• cut to the chase
• drill down
• get down to bedrock
• get down to business
• get down to cases
• get right down to cases
• get down to nuts and bolts
• get down to the nitty-gritty
• roll up one's sleeves