doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Tornado Brush - Question

Hey all, I've heard a lot about these brushes, never had one. I see that there is a steel and a brass type.


So.....which one is better?
 

Stay well my friends 
 

Greg

Greg,
I have used the Tornado brushes in the past in the bronze/brass and found them satisfactory. I avoided the stainless steel ones for fear that they may do damage, not sure. I found the usual bronze brushes more available so I returned to them. I did find that the bronze Tornado brushes wore flat pretty quickly though.
Hope this helps,
Karl

I used a stainless tornado brush extensively in Cordoba, where my chambers would build up with plastic residue badly due to the high volume and rapidity of shooting, which built up heat in the barrels. The 687 SPII Sporting would get sluggish ejecting, then stop if I didn't stop soon enough. A few quick strokes with the tornado brush in the chambers would totally restore ejection. It did cause me some brief grief at the airport in Santiago. I had inadvertently left it, with a brass handle screwed onto it, in my shell bag which was stowed in my luggage, not in my guncase where it probably should have been. A tense Chilean airline security guy thought it might be a weapon when he saw it on the x-ray screen. He called me back to look at the screen and asked in his most stern Spanish what it was. I, in my best Southern drawl, tried to allay his concerns. With a big frown he motioned me on my way.

I can't see how one could hurt a bore. You're not going to be scrubbing it for hours at the time and there's no sharp ends.

Stainless steel is softer than carbon steel. Should not be any issue.
I use Frontier pads as well as Scotch Brite pads ( cheaper) on the exterior of old guns I want to clean rust from without any damage.
I many times wrap some of the coils from a pad onto by brass brushes to clean out dirty barrels.

the "big 45" cleaning pads are handy - i keep scraps to use exactly as described - wrap a bit of one around an old brass brush, and in every few passes it will remove any signs of plastic build-up in the cones.

To clean chambers I have wrapped 0000 steel wool around a bronze/brass chamber brush. Has worked pretty well for me scrubbing chambers and cone by hand especially since the softer bronze seems to wear out pretty quick if used alone.

This statement may or may not be true. It all depends upon the alloy used, and the heat treating used. Stainless steel can be hard and brittle or soft and ductile, and the same can be said for carbon steel.

I've used a few Tornado brushes and they did a good job without scratching or damaging any barrel I scrubbed with them. The Tornado brushes are made in both stainless steel and bronze versions, but the ones I used were stainless. And the vast majority of shotgun barrels I clean are old vintage fluid steel or Damascus barrels. They have been in use for many years, and if they were damaging barrels, we would have heard it by now. One claimed advantage was that the looped construction left no sharp exposed ends as is found on conventional bristle brushes. But that also means they may bridge across any minor pitting found in old barrels, so a conventional bronze brush could be better for getting into recesses like that. And wrapping a bronze bristle brush with some steel wool does help them clean more aggressively. It also extends the useful life of old worn out brushes.

Brownell's 'Double-Tuff' bore brushes are unbeatable.

Expensive, and you have to deal with the owners of Crow Wholesale who are the monopolists that destroyed Gamaliel Shooting Supply, but they are the only source.

I buy a dozen 12 gauge Double-Tuff brushes every few years and use them for smaller gauges as they wear.

It's the only way to go. Gets me to that after the shoot martini faster...

From Google
As a general rule, carbon steel is tougher and harder than most stainless steel. This is primarily due to the higher carbon content in carbon steel.
However, it's important to consider:
Varieties of Steel: Both stainless steel and carbon steel have different grades with varying properties. For example, some martensitic stainless steels can be heat treated to become very hard.
Ductility vs. Hardness: While carbon steel is generally harder, stainless steel often exhibits greater ductility, meaning it can deform without fracturing.
Applications: The choice between carbon and stainless steel depends on the specific application. Carbon steel is often preferred for applications requiring high strength and hardness, like cutting tools. Stainless steel, with its corrosion resistance, is suitable for applications where preventing rust is crucial.
In summary, while there are exceptions, carbon steel typically exhibits greater hardness compared to most stainless steel grades.

I think it is safe to say in the context of carbon barrels and stainless steel products designed for the cleaning of barrels or other carbon steel products the alloy used would be softer than the carbon steel it is designed for.
I am aware having spent over 45 years in the aerospace industry that in special applications fasteners etc. were manufactured in stainless to be extremely hard.
In those cases the price for these items were crazy expensive.