Hi,

This is only my second topic since joining this forum but my new stainless 627 PC was also my very first revolver.

Initially I was a little shocked at how it looked after (starting from brand new) the first 150+ rounds and I had a tough time getting it all clean again (took me ages).

It seemed to be much tougher to clean than any auto, rifle or shotgun that I already own.

A local gun store employee told me about the special "lead cloths" but even using one of those there were areas that seemed almost impossible to get to.

I wondered if the folks here might tell me about their own cleaning tips or tricks? If you would care to share, how do you clean your own S&W stainless revolver?

Thank you in advance!

Bob

First of all, while all the black on the front of the cylinder and around the forcing cone may be unsightly, it is just a stain. Unless you let it build up in to a thick layer of crud, it will do no harm.

LeadAway cloth is a handy store-bought product that will remove the black. Cheaper and just as effective is some micro-abrasive polish like Flitz, Brasso, or Mother's Mag Polish. There are also automotive carbon cleaners available (brand names escape me at the moment) that will take the black off, but be careful around grips -- some of them can strip finish from wooden grips or melt rubber grips.

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Pisgah

Never Dull from Wally World does a good job too.

I use a stainless steel "toothbrush" and Hoppes #9 available at most firearms supply outlets.

A little scrubbing with the brush soaked with solvent will clean the face of the cylinder like new... and it doesn't add the bright shine like the "lead away" cloths do.

That will damage your revolver in time. You should only use cleaning tools that are made from softer material than the gun. Even the lead away cloth and Flitz type polish will remove metal and cause damage. Plenty of nice guns have been ruined by over enthusiastic cleaning. Think of the stains on the front of the cylinder like the seasoning on a fine old cast iron skillet.

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AL
Pax Per Potens

How do you get powder and/or lead off the front of Blued cylinders without damaging the finish? Thanks.

A cooper brush and a good solvent should do the trick. The cooper brush will not harm the finish.

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AL
Pax Per Potens

Bronze brush and solvent, followed by a lead away cloth should do it for the cylinder face. Otherwise clean just like any other gun. Absolutely avoid using a stainless steel brush.

Just keep your weapon reasonably clean so that it functions properly. If you wish to polish your stainless weapon to a chrome like finish, Mothers "Mag and Aluminum Polish" and an old t-shirt will take care of that in short order. DO NOT use this on laser-etched engraving. They will be removed.......

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

First thing - you can have two different finish's on that gun, shinny or the bead blast. Befor you shot it a good coat of wax would have made cleaning easier, a brass brush and good old #9 will clean it up, then put a coat of good wax on it. When you shoot take a rag and wipe down the front of the cylinder, you will be surprised how easy it will come off.

What kind of wax?

This sounds like a great idea to me! But yes what kind???

Car wax?

Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish works great and makes it easier to clean up once you have polish it up a couple times

I use Hoppees #9 and a bronze brush regularly. When my 686 starts to build up carbon at the front of the cylinder I use a little flitz. However, hearing that it removes metal maybe I will rethink the Flitz. I have used Flitz successfully to remove scratches and holster marks from my 686. It's great for that. Maybe it's a better polish than a cleaner.

Shooter's choice Aqua Clean is a fantastic carbon solvent. It disolves carbon almost instantly. Because it's water based, you do will have to blow out and relube moving parts if it gets into them.

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Andy

I have used Mothers Carnuba Wax (yes car wax) to maintain the finish on a nickel model 29, and it worked quite well. The other wax most people recommend is called Renaissance wax, although I don't remember where it can be purchased.

Let me suggest that you use only plated or jacketed bullets in your 627. Lead is dirty in any gun, and especially a pain when you have to scrub 8 chambers plus the barrel. I learned this the hard way. Now it's only plated bullets, and the dirt wipes off with just a little Hoppes on a rag.

Some good advice/tips listed above. I would like to add my perspective on this issue. I'm pretty methodical about cleaning my guns, but when it comes to carbon build up on the front of my revolver cylinders, I've got a couple of theories.

1) If it's a gun that I shoot fairly often, then I really don't bother with cleaning this cylinder face carbon. It's a pain in the butt to get it clean, and it will just look like that, again, as soon as you fire it the next time... You can always clean it, at a later time (if you want to sell it, show it off, etc.), and it will look as good as new. I believe that over cleaning the cylinder face just provides more potential to inflict more wear to the finish (especially nickel, or blued revolvers), than the unnecessary cleaning is worth... I've seen nice guns ruined this way.

2) For my 'rarely fired'/'fondler' revolvers, I will usually take the time to clean the cylinder face, as I want them to look nice when I fondle them, and I won't be gunking them back up any time soon... For these guns, I find the lead away cloth to work the easiest on stainless, but don't use it on blued revolvers. For blue revolvers, soak the face with carbon remover solvent, and let it sit for a while, and then use a toothbrush, or brass/bronze bristle brush. Or, go easy with some Flitz polish.

For most blued revolvers, I really tend to just leave the face alone, just a cursory cloth wipe with a cloth soaked with carbon solvent, to get any of the heavy stuff. Again, I don't want to cause any unnecessary wear, and the carbon does not show much on the blue anyway...

As for wax, check out Renaisance wax, good stuff, but pricey. I would not subject my guns to any stainless steel brushes, they work great for a reason; significant abrasion.

My 2 cents, hope it helps.

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NRA Life Member

On the bead blast finish - Mothers car wax is best, for the shinny finish - Mothers mag wax is best .

try the renaissance wax...it's by far the best...not just for guns but a host of items...photographs,marble,metals,etc.the top museums use it to protect guns...its better then car wax as it's completly reversable and does not yellow over time.....just type in renaissance wax on ebay...plenty is there...or google it for suppliers...the NRA museum also carries it

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

It smells just like Kiwi shoe polish. I use it on ancient bronze coins.

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AL
Pax Per Potens

SONIC CLEANER !

>When my 686 starts to build up carbon at the front of the cylinder I use a little flitz. However, hearing that it removes metal maybe I will rethink the Flitz.

While technically such polishes do remove metal, it would take you the rest of your life and then some to remove enough metal to harm anything, assuming you are using a soft rag and polishing by hand. They ain't called "micro-abrasives" for nothing. A comparison -- toothpaste is micro-abrasive, too; but how many folks do you know who have brushed their teeth down to stumps?

My only caution would be using them on blue guns. They can wear though the bluing -- but even that takes a long, long time.

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Pisgah

I'M IN TOTAL AGREEMENT, PISGAH

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

I would agree with you on that one but I also think that it might even make the surface slightly smoother so that it cleans up a bit easier the next time.

If you are worried about metal removal try sharpening a dull knife using only metal polish - it's certainly possible but it is going to take you a very long time.

On that same point, I was a bit disappointed to find some areas on my stainless 627 where they left fine "machine cutter grooves" - they don't look at all bad but it sure makes cleaning the carbon out of those tiny grooves much much harder. I wish they'd had someone on their assembly line refine those surfaces a little bit with a polishing machine. I'm sure that would only have taken a few seconds to do on the proper equipment.

Adding one here...

A tip that I picked up recently is to get one of those hard erasers that they sell for artists (the harder rubber 'ink eraser' kind) from a craft or art supply store.

That takes stubborn carbon burn marks off your stainless nicely without any damage and it can get into tight corners.

I have tried this myself and it really works! I found that it lifted some small marks left by the lead cloth and it gets into tiny machining grooves nicely.

>A tip that I picked up recently is to get one of those hard erasers that they sell for artists

Yep. They have embedded micro-abrasive material.

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Pisgah

I use one of my small bore brushes to clean those hard to reach/stubborn areas.

I've been using a solution called Gunzilla for awhile. I spray the front of the cylinder with it, let it soak for about 10 minutes then use a bronze brush to get the gunk off. It works great.

If you want shine, plain old Pledge furniture polish is wonderful. Really!

Just cleaned my 642-1 with hoppes elite. I used Hoppes Elite and a bronze phosphor brush on the front of the cylinder and it came out clean as new. Followed up with a thorough CLP cleaning good to go.

This is one of those topics that comes up periodically on this and other forums and, as usual, opinions are all over the map. For what it's worth, here's mine:

I'm not of the belief that using lead removing cloth or brushing the cylinder face with a bronze brush will erode the steel. I've been cleaning my revolvers vigorously for years -- I'm pretty fanatical about removing carbon stains -- and I see no evidence of erosion after cleaning some of my guns literally hundreds of times.

Here's what I do: For blued, stainless, and nickel guns, I first brush out the bores and chambers with a dry bronze brush. A minute or two of vigorous brushing will loosen nearly all of the carbon that's built up inside the gun. With a stainless gun I then use a bronze brush to brush the cylinder face, the recoil shield, the inside of the top strap, and around the forcing cone. I then rub down the cylinder face with a lead removal cloth (I use Birchfield Casey) until all or nearly all traces of the carbon deposits are removed. This process may take a minute or two. I also rub down the inside of the recoil shield, the inside of the top strap, and the forcing cone area with the lead removing cloth. I then run solvent soaked cotton patches (I like Birchfield Casey Gun Scrubber)through the bore and chambers until they run through clean. This generally requires about 4 patches. Once done with that I thoroughly wipe down all exterior metal surfaces, including around and underneath the ejector star with a solvent soaked patch. I then end the session by wiping down the entire gun, excluding the grips, with a lead removal cloth. Total cleaning time for a stainless revolver = about 20 minutes and I generally can remove all visible dirt in this time.

With blued and nickel guns I follow the same routine EXCEPT that I do not use a bronze brush to brush the exterior. I also use a different gun cleaning cloth, one that Brownell's sells, that is marked as safe for blued and nickel guns. I find this to work well to remove exterior carbon stains. Again, total cleaning time is about 20 minutes.

When my bore and/or chambers are really filthy I'll swab them with J & B Bore Cleaning Compound before running solvent soaked patches through them. This is a a mildly abrasive substance that is guaranteed to be hard enough to remove carbon and not so hard as to erode metal. I've had great success with it over the years, although I tend to use it pretty sparingly these days. Not because I fear I'm eroding metal but because using it greatly extends the cleaning time necessary to pull everything out of the bore and chambers.

Well said! Maybe an initial cleaning with flitz to pretty it up or if your going to sell; but ultimately, the cast iron skillet analogy is spot on. FWIW my two cents.

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Rather be outdoors

I tried magic eraser once on the bought to shoot stainless GP100 on the recoil shield, cylinder face top strap. Worked ok.

I use M-Pro7 cleaner with a bronze brush followed by Mother's Mag wax. Look as good as new and no damage to the cylinder face.

I have discovered the Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner for removing lead from bores, light rust (freckling) from blued guns and, just recently, for removing that black stuff from the cylinder fronts on my 624. These things are amazing and cheap too. The thing looks like a stainless steel scrubber you'd use to clean cast iron frying pans and as such, I was reluctant to use for fear it would scratch up my 624. It didn't, in fact, it removed all the black stuff off I could reach, quickly and easily. Quotes from the packaging "Will not harm the finest blued surfaces", "De-leads bores in seconds". I can attest that this works equally well on stainless without scratching. To clean leaded bores, cut a few coils off the scrubber and wrap it around a bronze bore brush. A couple of swipes through and the lead is gone. Amazing! Be sure to read the directions in the package as there are some things it may not work on.

to clean the face of the cylinder on SS or nickel , I just use a pencil eraser , a plain pencil eraser . To clean out a leaded barrel , I cut a patch of " Chore Boy " a pure copper scouring pad wrapped around a bore brush cleans out the lead in a barrel in a matter of a couple of minutes . Don't buy after market copper pads as most are actually steel that are copper plated .

I used to have an issue with crud. But Carbon buildup is a part of the joy of shooting. I stopped trying to remove the rings on the cylinder face. I like them
I try to Just smile and Enjoy the rainbow patina at the campfire later that night.
I'll scrub down with Hoppes or CLP. But just to make sure the gun still functions but for the deep clean and shine, Not any longer.
Or Maybe im making excuses for being lazy

SS guns are easy to clean EXCEPT for the black 'tar' that gets baked onto the front of the cylinder and forcing cone. I tried everything. My wife suggested a really old Shaklee product that was made to clean burned crud off of kitchen metals. It worked great. It's a tiny bit gritty, but you don't have to rub it enough to hurt anything. It used to be call something like 'Cadet', but now it goes by 'Scour Off'. Don't let the name put you off. It's really mild stuff.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I use Blue Magic metal polish (it's non abrasive)..soft cotton rags and a plastic bristle tooth brush.The only problem when using it on SS is it will look like chrome when you are done. Seriously.

I agree that if you are shooting the gun a lot, just wiping it down and brushing out the carbon build up with a CLP is sufficient to keep the gun working. It is true that more ware comes from cleaning than from shooting. It is surprising how little maintenance a revolver really needs to keep working. When I want to bring a filthy gun back to factory new condition, I use M Pro 7 gun cleaner and oil. I have a 32 oz. spray bottle and I just take the cylinder and crane apart, remove the grips and hose everything down. Use a bronze tooth brush on the face of the cylinder and a little scrub will remove the stain right down to the metal. The bronze bore brush will really clean the chambers and bore. I've tried wipe away cloths, JB bore shine, and about everything else but the M Pro seems to require the least amount of elbow grease. When I'm done with the gun cleaner, I wipe everything down with a SMALL amount of the LPX oil. I have also found that once I use the M Pro, it seems to make clean up a little easier. I've also spoke to a couple of Afghanistan vets who used this stuff over there and they said that it had become the go to cleaner for a lot of fighters.

Check out their web site
MPro7 - M-Pro7 Home Page

Those kind of things work great but if it works its way into the workings of the gun, it is going to accelerate ware.

Simichrome or much cheaper and just as effective Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish does a very quick job of removing stains on stainless steel. Both take it right off while wiping with #9 or carb cleaner barely touches it.

Probably a dumb question, but does Mothers Mag affect the finish of a bead blasted finish?

Not sure as mine revolvers are polished finish. I would guess that aggressive use may give it a bit more shine. However as easily as it takes off the staining aggressive use is not required.

Yes. It is an abrasive and will smooth it out just as if you used steel wool or emery cloth.

Here's a before and after of my 629 cylinder face. This was cleaned using the M Pro 7 gun cleaner and a bronze tooth brush. This gun had about 500 rounds of 240 grain lead pushed by 5 grains of Bullseye. It took about 5 minuets of light scrubbing to get it to this condition.

Before:


After:

I use Flitz and a tooth brush.

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Two Handguns every day

For firearms I use hoppes 9 or elite, depending on the finish, for the cleaning solution. I'll let them soak while I pop primers and throw the shells in the tumbler. As others mentioned, the cylinder face doesn't have to be spotless though I will do mine every couple years or so. To do them I just use Mothers mag or billet polish and a soft cotton rag. Takes about ten minutes or so to get it all. Here are some of the stainless ones:



I also use Mothers polish on exteriors that have a high gloss finish like my Vaqueros. I puts a really deep luster on them.