standard wisdom versus product labeling

B

Bezoar

Moderator
traditional wisdom says dont use stainless steel or steel to clean your gun. epsecially the cylinder face and bore and chamber. It can be very damaging. Sure for rust on the outside, emergency use can be allowed.

However perusing the midway site and the cleaning section, it seems Tipton is selling and marketing stainless steel scouring pads for gun cleaning. at an amazing 7.99 per pad. ironically i can get the same stainless steel pad for a dollar locally with a different logo on it.

now if this stainless steel pad is good, as teh website says for cleaning cylinders and barrels, why does everyone have a quest to get copper cleaning pads?
 
Stainless steel is generally softer than carbon steel. Copper wool is much softer, obviously, than carbon steel, but will leave copper stains on blued metal.

I wouldn't use stainless cleaning items on stainless steel guns, though, as they, too, have a necessarily softer alloy than carbon steel. (Couldn't machine them profitably if the alloy was harder.)
 
They sell stainless because people want to buy them, whether it is smart or not.

Stiffer recoil springs can do more damage to a gun than not, but Wolff makes money selling them because people don't understand how guns work.


Excuse me while I go have a "healthy" meal of fat free food sweetened with Nutrasweet.





Stupid consumers.
 
Stainless steel, like other steel alloys, can be quite soft or very hard, depending on the alloy and the heat treatment. I don't know, but would certainly assume that the stainless steel used in those pads is soft enough that it will not scratch either hardened carbon steel or hardened stainless steel.

FWIW, I routinely use a stainless steel brush to remove carbon from the cylinder face and have seen no signs of scratching or wear in either SS or carbon steel cylinders, or even on the bluing, though I rarely use the SS brush on blued areas like the sides of the cylinder.

Jim
 
ironically i can get the same stainless steel pad for a dollar locally with a different logo on it.
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But is it really the same pad, same alloy, same heat treatment?

Stainless steel, like other steel alloys, can be quite soft or very hard, depending on the alloy and the heat treatment. I don't know, but would certainly assume that the stainless steel used in those pads is soft enough that it will not scratch either hardened carbon steel or hardened stainless steel.
Click to expand...

"Standard wisdom" would be the more expensive pad is made from more expensive alloy, and with a more labor intensive process. Probably not all of the increased price is due to those factors. The "speciality" of the product could also factor in.
JMHO
 
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