Tornado brush and Damascus? Yes? No? Thoughts.

[Cameron Thraen]

Tornado brush. Safe to use to clean my Damascus barreled Parkers?

[Dean Romig]

Yes, IMO.

Frontier pads are made of stainless steel and the tornado brush looks very simolar to some early bore cleaning fixtures.





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[Drew Hause]

No.
The tornado brush is stainless steel and is much harder than the wrought iron - very low carbon laminate. In the unlikely event that the brush would fracture, you will get a long gouge in the bore.

I communicated with Breck Gorman about this issue 1 month ago, and at that time Amazon listed a Pro Shot brass tornado brush, which is what I have been using. It is no longer listed :(

I would stick to a phosphor bronze brush.
One of my damascus barrels is pitted and a real pain to get clean. Hoppe's Elite Bore Gel helps alot.

Frontier Big 45 pads are an alloy of stainless steel, nickel silver, monel (a corrosion resistant nickel based alloy), and zinc, and are softer than stainless steel wool - if it won't remove blueing, it won't remove bore metal.
When wrapped around a jag on a rod chucked in a drill it works very well with the Bore Gel
https://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

[Dean Romig]

Okay, my mistake. I’ve been misinformed. I was told the Frontier pads are stainless steel. Apparently they are only partially stainless steel. I’ve been using Frontier pads on the inside and the outside surfaces of about all of my Parkers. In any case, Frontier pads are fine, while the Torbado may not be.





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[Steve Huffman]

Yes we went around and around with this some time ago they were saying the stainless steel looking pads for your pots and pans are the same as a Frontier pad and I had a issue where it scratched a factory blue job but to each their own

[Drew Hause]

ebay lists brass tornado brushes in 20g
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274346717190?var=574466732904&hash=item3fe056b006:g:XxgAAOSw0bleozRu

and the bronze Pro Shot in 12g
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265192472810?epid=12012061216&hash=item3dbeb400ea:g:NjMAAOSwZkdgwykN
and 20g
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384364065478?epid=1812281765&hash=item597de232c6:g:vMQAAOSwJlVhLpjQ

[Dean Romig]

Yes we went around and around with this some time ago they were saying the stainless steel looking pads for your pots and pans are the same as a Frontier pad and I had a issue where it scratched a factory blue job but to each their own


Yes, I remember that discussion. I quickly backed out of it.





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[Stan Hillis]

I did not know bronze tornado brushes were available, Doc. Thanks for the links. It's what I will be using on my old guns from now on.

While I've never seen any sign of scoring or damage from the stainless ones in my vintage guns there's no use in pressing my luck if a bronze one is available.

[Drew Hause]

Burst barrel as received

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-fhSSrqJ/0/053f4f8a/L/BE%202-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-fhSSrqJ/A)

After the Frontier Pad, Shooter's Choice MC #7, and drill cleaning

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-kDLRLXt/0/7f60421b/L/A%20Rem%20After-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-kDLRLXt/A)

[Dean Romig]

Drew, surely you’re not saying the barrel burst was caused by the cleaning method you mention?





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[Jerry Parise]

Drew, surely you’re not saying the barrel burst was caused by the cleaning method you mention?





.No, I don't think that Drew is saying the cause of the burst was the cleaning. The caption on the barrel burst picture states "Barrel burst as received". He cleaned the burst barrel when he received it.

[Dean Romig]

I see that but I also see circumferential scoring in the bores that I don't believe was caused by his cleaning.





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[Drew Hause]

The "circumferential scoring" is part of the normal boring process. Most of us would be alarmed viewing close ups of our bores

The previous burst damascus barrel, as received, before cleaning

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-GTWwDGW/0/e7e36c07/L/A%20Hull%20In%20Chamber%20As%20Received-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-GTWwDGW/A)

Close up after cleaning

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-XR6Qn8f/0/d05c6557/L/A%20Remington%20after%20cleaning-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-XR6Qn8f/A)

Damascus Parker

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-hvc6D2C/0/c17cd7d1/L/Parker-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-hvc6D2C/A)

Syracuse Arms Co. Twist barrel, after cleaning, forcing cone to the left

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-Wsp7VMJ/0/6a25f950/L/SAC%2011-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-Wsp7VMJ/A)

A fluid steel barrel, after cleaning, with more prominent tooling marks

https://photos.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-88qf7D8/0/74ee4e60/L/Smith%20bore%20after%20cleaning-L.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Barrel-Evaluations/Barrel-Evaluation/i-88qf7D8/A)

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Drew.





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[Mike Koneski]

Drew, those were cleaned with the Frontier pads?

[Drew Hause]

Not the Parker Mike, but the others with a Frontier Pad on a rod chucked in a drill, with Shooter's Choice MC #7.