Flex-Hone® Tools for Gun Cleaning and Maintenance

Flex-Hone® tools for firearms are used by gun makers, gun dealers, shooters, hobbyists, and gunsmiths to clean and maintain shotguns, rifles, pistols and revolvers, and paintball guns. Available in a range of sizes, this flexible honing tool from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) produces an optimum surface finish in any chamber, cylinder, slide, magazine tube, or smooth bore barrel. Built with a stiff metal stem, flexible nylon strands, and abrasive globules that come in a selection of grits and abrasive types, the Flex-Hone® for firearms is a gun brush and barrel hone that’s easy-to-use and very precise.

Gun Cleaning and Maintenance for Pistols and Revolvers
Recently, the Flex-Hone® was featured in Gun Trade World, an on-line magazine that covers firearms news, companies, and products. In Polishing up on Gun Maintenance (April 2012), Gun Trade World examined how shooters such as BRM’s own Robert (Bob) Fowlie use the Flex-Hone® tool to polish the chambers of single-action revolvers. Slick chambers are a must in competitions such as cowboy-action shooting, where every second counts. By causing brass cases to eject more easily, slick chambers also improve reliability in semi-automatic weapons.

Gun Polishing Tools for Shotguns and Rifles
Flex-Hone® tools for shotguns can have long or short stems. Longer-stemmed Flex-Hone® tools can be used to polish the entire length of a shotgun barrel so that fired cases eject more easily, reducing the strain on the gun’s extractors and ejectors. Shorter-stemmed Flex-Hone® tools are used to polish both the chamber and the forcing cone, where the shot and wadding are subjected to forces that create build-up. Forcing cones can also be polished with BRM industrial brushes that have tapered profiles.  

Although the Flex-Hone® for firearms is not designed to rifle bores, some barrel makers use this versatile tool to polish their blanks prior to cutting for a smoother bore finish. Gun owners also use the Flex-Hone® for rifles.  By safely and properly removing residues from the rifle chamber, this Flex-Hone® produces a wear-resistant finish while removing surface imperfections.      

Barrel Hones: Types and Grits
As the article in Gun Trade World explains, BRM’s shotgun barrel hones are 34 inches long and available in 10, 12, 16, and 20 gauge. When selecting a Flex-Hone® for firearms, the choice of grit is a key consideration.

·        Use 800-grit to achieve a final finish. If your firearm has a decent finish already, this grit will be the only one you’ll need to use.

·        Use 400-grit if your gun has coarse tool marks or scratches. After blending them out, use an 800-grit Flex-Hone® to achieve the final finish. 

·        Use 180-grit only if there are very deep scratches or severe pitting. Then use the 400-grit, and finally the 800-grit.

Although most firearms with good finishes only need an  800-grit Flex-Hone®, users may need to start with the 400-grit tool if there are coarse tool marks or scratches. Remember, too, that Brush Research Manufacturing also provides other gun cleaning supplies.