Cleaning With Linen Tow

[Nate McKenzie]

The advantages of cleaning with linen tow have been discussed lately so I thought some of you might like to see how I do it. Please see the tutorial section. I give a copy of this to my customers hoping it will help my guns have a better life. Thanks for looking. 

[Daryl]

 
Thanks for posting with pictures, Nate.  although I've heard from other people about WD40 leaving a varnish behind or hard coating behind, I've never seen it in over 30 years of use in my gun barrels. It is a sucking lubricant for sure compared to real lubes, but here in this ambient humidity, it works fine as being the only 'oil' in the tube between shooting the gun.  Indeed, I've used just WD40 for storage (accidental) of MLs it worked just fine.

[Dancy]

Does getting water repeatedly on the wood not cause damage? Do you treat the wood with Ballistol too?

Thanks,

James

[david50]

i worry about water damage to my stock also,so once or twice a year i will remove the barrel and all the hardware and give the entire stock and the barrel and hardware a good coat of Maguires car wax. seems to work pretty good,water beads right off in the rain,then when i get it home i'll wipe it down real good and stand it upside down in the corner to let any water between the stock and barrel run out. i have never used tow to clean before but plan to try it.

[Nate McKenzie]

I seal my stock inside and out so there is no water damage. When cleaning, it gets a little wet but I don't soak it.  Ballistol doesn't hurt the finish. I use LMF sealer and finish. You might want to test it first on a real oil finish but it hasn't hurt mine.