Any good tips for how to clean the forcing cone, and in particular the area between the forcing cone and top strap?

I use a brass toothbrush to clean around the back of the barrel and the front of the cylinder.
If there is a lot of accumulation around the barrel, it may new a solvent soak to loosen it.

Have you removed the cylinder at all? With the one screw it comes out very easily & allows a more detailed cleaning. It also would be hard to screw it up.

I have a couple of stainless models, 629, 640-1, I can hardly bring myself to using a brass brush on them, will it not hurt the finish or leave scratch marks?

it will not leave any marks on the forcing cone. Use only a bronze brush with solvent. I use Mpro 7 cleaner and have had great success. Do use stainless steel brush. Hope this helps.

CLOTH followed by solvent on a tooth brush on stainless or nickle guns. Use this only with caution on blued guns as too much rubbing can remove the blued finish.

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Big bang, much smash'em.

I just trade 'em off when they get dirty. Seriously, the toothbrush solution others suggest is what I use, along with Q-Tips or other cotton swabs, once the crud is loosened up by solvent and the brush. I use a bronze brush on tough deposits.

The trick, of course, is to never let the gun ever get really bad in the first place in this area. If you are trying to clean a stainless gun, then light scraping with the plastic dental pick, like those that MidwayUSA sells, can get most of the lead and some of the other caked/baked on stuff off. I then, (on standard finish stainless guns only), use one of the lead away cloths, and swing a piece of the treated cloth around the barrel and under the top strap above the cylinder gap, like a shoe shiner would buff someones' shoes. That even gets most of the burn marks off.

Blued and nickeled guns, I use the picks very lightly and not often, only if the lead build up is deep, and just worry about cleaning off the breach end of the barrel off and don't worry about overcleaning the surrounding area. I do use the solvent/toothbrush more often with the blued guns, but make sure you are outside or in a basement sink or something when you use the brushes, because the solvent will spritz everywhere. Have safety glasses on too, and be wearing an old shirt. I'm too scared to use the brass brushes yet, but I know a lot of people use them all the time.

I take a pair of diagonal wire cutters and cut the ends of popsicle sticks at an angle, or a point and use the pointed end to scrape and clean in tight spots such as above/around the forcing cone. Works great and wood won't damage stainless, (or any other type of metal for that matter).

S&W Revolver cleaning as taught by LAPD circa 1970

Ensure that the gun is unloaded.

Remove the stocks.

With a well fitting and hollow ground screwdriver, remove the yoke retaining screw.

Remove the cylinder and yoke.

Replace the yoke retaining screw in the frame to prevent its loss.

In a small jar (baby food or?) soak the cylinder in Hoppe’s #9 (or your favorite solvent.) overnight if possible.

Run a solvent saturated patch through the bore several times.

Dip a Q-tip or pipe cleaner in the solvent and wet the areas inside the frame around the barrel throat, top strap and bottom strap. Wet inside the forcing cone and let set overnight if possible.

Remove the cylinder and yoke from the solvent soak.

Insert the yoke into the cylinder. (To prevent broken bronze brush bristles from falling into the cylinder while cleaning the face of the cylinder.)

With your favorite bronze tooth-type brush, (A 12 awg bore brush mashed flat in a vise or with pliers works well,) and plenty of solvent, scrub the face of the cylinder to remove lead or powder residue.

With the same brush and solvent, scrub the face of the barrel throat and the frame around the forcing cone. (This will eventually remove bluing from the areas cleaned with a bronze brush. The use of stainless brushes was discouraged, as stainless brushes are much more abrasive.)

(Personal note: Many S&W revolvers have insufficient clearance between the barrel throat and top strap to permit cleaning with a brush or even a rag. I have found un-waxed dental floss to be useful in cleaning this area.)

Saturate a bronze bore brush in solvent and clean each chamber. Occasionally run a dry patch through each chamber and look for lead or powder residue. If residue is present, repeat the application of the saturated brush followed with a dry patch. (Never use a drill motor to spin a bore brush in the chambers, as any lapse in attention will permit some spinning metal to contact some part of the gun with permanent damaging results.)

Saturate a bronze bore brush in solvent and clean the barrel.

Run a clean patch through the barrel and look for lead or copper residue. If residue is present, repeat the application of the saturated brush followed with a dry patch.

Wipe the entire exterior of the gun with a solvent dampened cloth or patch.

When clean, pass a lightly oiled patch through each chamber and the barrel.

Lightly oil the entire gun.

Remove the yoke retaining screw, replace the cylinder, and yoke on the frame.

With the afore-mentioned well fitting screwdriver, replace and tighten the yoke retaining screw. (Use caution to prevent over tightening or slipping of the screwdriver.)

Replace the stocks and ensure the retaining screw is firmly seated. (Inadvertent loss of the stocks has been known to cause embarrassment.)

Hoppe's Lead Away cloth work great on stainless guns, in addition to the saturated bronze brush and plastic dental-type picks.

LEWIS LEAD REMOVER WORKS LIKE A CHAMP!

Lots of good tips here, but let's stick to the original posters question about cleaning that area between the top strap and the barrel. As another poster mentioned, it's always a good idea to not let things get too fouled up. That said, if that area of your revolver needs some work to get back to pristine condition, try this:

Go to your local Ace hardware store and get a short length of quarter inch brass tubing. Smack one end flat with a hammer. You now have a scraper to dig out that lead accumulation in that area. The brass will not harm the finish on a blued gun. Sometimes you need to soak a Q-tip in solvent and simply jam it into that barrel/frame juncture and let it soak for a while. You can always renew the edge of your brass tube scaper by cutting it off. Use a good brass cleaning brush to work this area. On stainless steel guns, I will put a dab of Flitz on a patch and simply draw it back and forth through that barrel/ top strap area to get things spotless once that lead has been removed. Resist the urge to use anything steel to scrape this area. One slip and you may have an unsightly scratch.

Brass wire wheel and a harbor freight $12 angle grinder

Good info from the LAPD, but don't use Hoppe's #9 on your nickel guns!

Except for the "no drill motor" for cleaning the chambers. If you don't trust your skill with one get brass cored (instead of steel cored) brushes from Brownells. Once you see how much better/faster you can clean the chambers with a brush spun with a drill motor you won't go back to puushing a brush thru by hand.

try Kroil overnight and will surprize you

Me, I usually just let the parts soak in some Ed's Red.

Using a brush dipped in Hoppes in a low speed drill gets those chambers shining like mirrors in about 5 seconds per chamber. No rifling in there, so why not speed it up? Cleaning revolvers takes more time than cleaning a semi auto, so if I can speed it up and get better results, why wouldn't I?

Lots of good advice

I use a well padded vice to hold the handgun.

I remove the cylinder and clean it separately

Lewis lead remover

On new used guns I open them up and clean out and off the internal parts which in some cases are gummed up from years of neglect.

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Len

I have used Comet cleanser with water and a tooth brush to clean the face of the cylinder on stainless steel. Works for me.

The flattened brass tubing tip from tdan works well. What I have used for many years to scrape leading around topstrap/forcing cone area is to flatten the neck portion of an empty bottleneck rifle case (I like .223) to scrape with. The width of the flat caseneck is just the right size and the casebody makes a nice handle. No need to even go to the hardware store. After any lead and hard fouling is removed I the use a brass toothbrush like mentioned earlier with a little powder solvent. Have used this method many times on blue and stainless revolvers with no damage to the surface; the brass is softer than gun steel.

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S&W Armorer
Lost in the 50s