Tell me about polishing/honing chambers

[Pinecone]

Aint saying that honing a cylinder is in itself a bad thing. Just saying that there needs to be a clear cut reason to do it....and that one needs to know what he is about before proceding. DGW......................+1 on that! There are "legitimate" reasons to use the split dowel rod/emery paper method: pitted, rusty cylinder chambers as frequently found on Webley MK IV or MK VI revolvers are one that comes readily to mind having done a couple of those in the past year. However, using this method for "routine" polishing is a definite "no-no"! Rodfac's method is one I use frequently for "routine" jobs to take out minor tool marks or scratches. As noted above, my policy has always been that, if "everything" is working fine in a gun, that means the manufacturer did "their" job right and any "improvement" needs to be looked at very close and with "wisdom" before one seeks to "improve" their firearm. Remember the key word I used above, "EVERYTHING"!.............................Dick :wink:

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

The guys in our shop did a LOT of shotgun work, including chamber polishing, forcing cone lengthening, and choke work. Depending on what they were doing, they used dedicated reamers, brake cylinder hones, small bead hones, and the split rod w/ emery cloth methods, among others.

The one thing that went w/ the use of each tool was a healthy dose of "take a tiny pass, take a look." That look involved both eyeballs and measuring tools.

Point being, once it's gone, metal's not going back on, so proceed w/ all due caution.

For my "non-gunsmith" self, the mop and metal polish method's worked well enough when I've tried it. 'Tis slow, but not likely to cause many of those "Oh, cr--!" moments.

Rick C

 

[powder smoke]

Here's a thought although I Have Never Tried it except on fishing equipment.

I used to be into fishing big time Fresh and saltwater, we use to use toothpaste and a cordless drill to polish the drags on our Penn reels. Make them smooth as silk. I cain't see why you couldn't use a mop and tooth paste on a slow moving drill to polish up chambers in a cylinders on a revolver, tooth paste doesn't seem to be a very aggressive polishing compound.

I wonder if it would be worth a try if your carefull I think it would be tough to do damage. What do yo think? ps