Cylinder rings: to clean, or not to clean...

On a stainless gun, I use a lead away cloth to keep the cylinder face clean. Just because I like it that way; it's easy enough- a couple minutes keep it prettier.

On a blued or other dark finished gun, I don't bother.
 
Hit em with the brush after an ample soak , but do take em off when evaluating wear annully.

Lead away cloth or Flitz will shine it rite up on stainless , but how do ya see em on a blued gun ???
 
People clean those rings off? :eek:

I'm in the no-big chunks of debris and it's good to go camp. Clean, but it doesn't have to look factory new.
 
I've taken a look at some revolvers where I did clean off the carbon rings and some where I did not. I like the looks of those that I did not.
Maybe if I had a handgun to sell, I might clean it to the Nth degree. But if it is intended for normal personal use, I wouldn't bother. I pay attention to the bore, cylinders and wipe down the frame and barrel. But removing all traces of those rings on the front of the cylinder, such as a discolor of stainless steel, is of little importance to me. Maybe if I was tinkering late in my shop with the tv on, and had nothing to do, I might clean them off just as entertainment. Perhaps after some number of years use.
 
Every once and awhile I'll roll up my sleeves and go nuts on the cylinder rings. Like others said, it's an exercise in futility as the rings will just keep coming back.
 
Like others said, it's an exercise in futility as the rings will just keep coming back.
Click to expand...

Like a cheap suit, you can't get rid of cause it keeps coming back. Lead away cloth will work on a SS revolver but a BIG no-no on blued revolvers.
 
Some Flitz will rub them right off, and I'll occasionally use it. But my revolvers have carbon rings more often than not.
Click to expand...
I had owned my 686 for 20 years when I read about the Flitz product here on TFL forums, and how well it worked to remove the carbon ring from the face of my stainless revolver cylinder, so I bought a tube of it and followed the directions.

The cylinder face cleaned up beautifully and it looked like it did back when I first bought it. It was really great looking.

First range trip out afterward and it came back looking like it always does, with the carbon rings.

The more I thought about it and the more I looked in to Flitz, the more I realized that it was an abrasive. A mild abrasive, perhaps, but still an abrasive. Using that was taking the carbon rings off my cylinder face... but was it taking off an ultra-thin bit of my cylinder face? And what was the chance that if I was doing this, was I doing it evenly? (unpossible, especially with me doing it)

The flash gap in a revolver is critical and though it may be slight or even less than slight, seems to me that taking an abrasive to the cylinder face was a bad idea.

So I never did it again, and don't see me doing it again unless I find a cylinder that is binding due to something built up on the cylinder face.
 
After y'all get done cleaning em up....then try a lead away cloth on the
rings and in the cylinders & barrel and you'll see just how much you
missed.....(stainless steal only please)....been use'n 'em for years
with absolutely no problem......

Now to answer the question about abrasive.....

This is directly from KLEEN BORE website.....

"Why Can't I Get A Clean Patch When Using Lead Away?

Lead Away chemically loosens and lifts lead build-up from the bore. While using Lead Away, you will notice silver streaks of lead on the patch that has been extracted. As a rule, when the streaks of lead no longer appear on the cloth, this part of the job is done because the bore is free of surface lead. If you continue the cleaning process, Lead Away Patch will continue to be blackened with further use. This occurs because the gunmetal composite contains microscopic particles of lead that have been added for easier machining. After using Lead Away, use a solvent and a clean patch to clean residue Lead Away chemicals out of the bore. Finish the job by lightly oiling the bore. If you plan to do a lot of lead bullet shooting, use a light coating of TW25 B High-Tech lubricant to treat the bore for easier future clean up."


So.....my conclusion would be not abrasive just chemical reaction and the
reason the patch appears black unlike flitz where it might be actual metal...?

and being straight up.....

You're over thinking this !!!!!

You're worried about using a bronze brush in a bore or a lead-away cloth on burn rings or in a bore through which you're firing hard copper alloy bullets, pushed by erosive incandescent gas at extremely high pressures and speeds.

Using a bronze brush or a lead-away cloth for the few passes needed to clean the bore is nothing compared to the effects of firing a bullet down the bore.
Several companies make or made patches out of lead-away cloth for removing leading from bores and chambers.

If this damaged the bore, the companies would have been sued silly years ago, and we'd be reading articles in The American Rifleman or Precision Shooting all about how this ruined barrels.

Unless you sit there for hours a day running a lead-away patch through a barrel, your barrel will be long shot out before the cloth damages it and you will probably be so old and feeble you can't shoot any more anyway.

IMHO
 
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