20 bore lifter

[Dean Romig]

I can certainly vouch for Big 45 Frontier pads as completely harmless to Damascus patterns, color case hardened frames, and blued barrels. It also works nicely wrapped around the copper/brass/bronze cleaning brush on a rod and chucked up in an electric drill.
It always works best when used with a solvent or oil. In other words, don’t use it dry.





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[John Cleveland]

BTW, I got to look through a borescope at my barrels. Of course there are pits, patches of what I assume to be old black powder deposits, and tiny bits of the yellow RST plastic (this was right after a hunt before any cleaning). With any forethought I shouldn’t have been, however, I was surprised at how the Damascus patterning stood out on the clear areas of the barrel. Instead of the smooth surface of the pattern on the outside, it appears that the pattern has a slight 3D texture like a fingerprint, with ridges and hollows following the swirls of the Damascus pattern. I guess this is the result of years of exposure to the corrosive effects of black powder starting in 1879, shooting maybe into the 1940’s and then years sitting, probably not properly cleaned. Of course, this is through a scope that magnifies everything, so I don’t know how much the texture would be obvious to the naked eye if exposed. It will be interesting to see how much of the deposits come off with the Big 45.