I used to be almost fanatical about cleaning my guns, but I finally decided it was too much work and a waste of time to be worrying about getting them spotless only to get dirty again as soon as I fired a shot. When I had my S&W 66, the front of the cylinder was pretty rough, and a magnet for carbon, so I polished it with some kind of polish I had sitting in my garage and a dremel with a cloth bonnet on it and after that, it was easy to basically wipe off. Eventually, because I carried it for work, it had shiny spots all over it from holstering, so I polished the whole thing. I sold it at a nice profit after a couple of years. The shiny look mesmerized the guy who bought it.