Firearms and Flex-Hones -Polishing Revolver Cylinders

Roy Seifert isn’t a professional gunsmith. He’s a self-described “tinkerer” who collects firearms and enjoys target shooting. The owner of The Kitchen Table Gunsmith, Roy is also a gun blogger who shares what he’s learned about working with shotguns, rifles, and handguns. “I’ve always had the philosophy that professional gunsmiths weren’t born with their knowledge and skills,” he explains, and that “if they can learn, so can I, and so can you” – even if your workshop is just a kitchen table. Most kitchens aren’t equipped like machine shops, of course, but they don’t need to be. When used with a handheld power tool, a Flex-Hone® is what Roy Seifert calls “the correct tool” for polishing revolver chambers.

Burrs and Bullets
“When a revolver comes from the factory,” Roy writes in a recent blog entry, “the chambers in the cylinder are often just rough-cut,” with burrs and cutting marks that make it tough to extract empty cases and remove powder fouling.” These surface imperfections are caused by reaming, a metalworking process that cuts or drills sized holes. By attaching Flex-Hones to his handheld power drill, however, Roy removes the tooling marks left by the reamer and improves the overall surface finish of the metal. He’s now used flexible hones with all four of his Ruger single-action revolvers, including several hunting guns with high-pressure loads that can be hard to eject.

True Grit: Medium and then Fine
First, Roy used a medium-grit Flex-Hone® to remove the tooling marks around the circumference and down the entire length of the chamber. “I put a few drops of Flex-Hone oil in the chamber, chucked the hone into my cordless drill and ran the tool in and out of the chamber at slow speed” (less than 750 rpm), he explained. The tooling marks were gone in about 10 minutes, even with breaks in the action for adding a few more drops of honing oil and checking the chamber. Every application is different, of course, but generously lubricating the Flex-Hone and applying 30 to 60 strokes is what we recommend for best results.

Next, Roy switched to a fine-grit flexible hone. Careful to avoid polishing the chambers “mirror or bearing smooth,” the amateur gunsmith ensured that each cartridge case would have “something to grip against” as it expanded. Minutes later, each cylinder chamber in the pistol had its final polish. Now the high-pressure loads that Roy uses in his revolvers “eject easily”. Gun cleaning is easier too, as there aren’t any tooling marks in the cylinders to hold powder and residue. Hopefully, this leaves Roy with more time for target shooting – and for maintaining his excellent blog.