JB paste ? Flitz?

Byron South

Byron South

New member
What is you guys take on JB paste? I've heard it's very good and very bad. Just how abrasive is it on barrels? How much use is to much? Will it damage barrels with normal use?

What about Flitz, is it any good?

Reason for asking in a good friend has a new/used rifle with a very rough bore. The rifle hasn't had many rounds through it (maybe 60-80) but it is rough. Not with rust, just rough and fouls pretty bad.

Thanks

Byron
 
Last edited:
Byron,
I've always heard JB's is made out of volcanic pumis which is softer than barrel metal but stronger than the copper fouling. It takes quite a few strokes to get the bore clean. I've used it with success on a 30/06 with no problems. If the fouling is bad then hand/lead lapping may be in order to smooth the machine tooling marks out. When lapped carefully this works wonders.
 
it is a very very fine version of an actual lapping compound. It is not as aggressive as some would say. I use flitz after some ring lapping compound for initial factory bore polishing. If your pards rig is that bad (and the excessive fouling, as you say, is NOT from fire cracking and erosion in the throat) then buy some of the non-embedding ring lapping compound from Sinclair and run about 50 strokes (remember to NOT exit the muzzle) and then the same with either JB or flitz behind that and that bore should improve greatly.
 
Byron,
JB Bore Paste is a fine paste of abrasive that can be used to polish a bore to get rid of small tool marks from machining. I do not use it to clean barrels, but you could do so. I still use the liquid cleaners, but they may not be the best for that application. "Wipe Out" gets good press for that job. I regularly use JB to "Lap" new factory barrels before shoting. I've found that doing so improves accuracy in those barrels over not doing it. I never use it on aftermarke barrels which are lapped by the maker, such as the Hart, Shilen, Lilja and Douglas barrels I have experience with. But, it will forward the action in getting the rough factory barrels broken in so you don't have to shoot a hundred rounds doing the same thing.
Flitz is a VERY fine abrasive cleaner, much finer that the JB Bore Paste. I use it for polishing my knives I make after the knife has been buffing on the wheels. It is strictly for polishing.
Don
 
To all,

I do a fair amount of polishing of gun barrels and actions. I have tried or used at one time or another all of the products that are listed above, plus others such as Mothers, Meguires and The Wax shop products.

My experience supports Don's findings. JB Bore Paste is more abrasive than Flitz et al. JB should be used following the directions.

On the other hand if you are worried about metal polishes such as Flitz, etc as being too abrasive for occasional use in a barrel than try a simple experiment. Take a piece of mild steel and with the point of a knife put the slightest scratch in the surface. Now take your product of choice and try to buff out the scratch. Once it looks as though the scratch has disappeared, take a good look at it with a magnifying glass or similar tool and a good light. You will see that all your work has produced the shiniest scratch you have ever seen.

I have no axe to grind with the barrel makers that say you will ruin your barrel. If I produced barrels for a living I wouldn't warranty my barrels for anything other than bullets. That being said I have used these and similar products to polish the bore of most of my rifles. In my opinion, used correctly they can improve the "clean-ability" of a barrel and in some cases improve accuracy.

Jim
 
Byron, if you had a bore scope and looked down that tube it would scare you. I had a new 243 barrel and it looked like you poured acid down it. Makes you appreciate a hand lapped barrel. I once Flitz'd a barrel that worked pretty good.
I used steel wool and wrapped it on a copper brush and gobbed the Flitz on. It polished up great and will shoot in the 3's.
 
If the barrel is truly that bad, and it sounds like it is, I'd go to the Sinclair website and get a set of Tubb's lapping bullets. fire a course of these bullets and you will have done all you can do to help a rough barrel.

I have a 22lr finishing off handgun that would foul something awful. I got one of those lapping kits, with different abrasives, I must admit that I did a very crude job of it, but the barrel is now a thing of true beauty with little fouling troubles. After doing the paste lapping thing, I would deffinately go with the bullets with the lapping compound already on the bullets.
 
Quote:
If the barrel is truly that bad, and it sounds like it is, I'd go to the Sinclair website and get a set of Tubb's lapping bullets. fire a course of these bullets and you will have done all you can do to help a rough barrel.

I have a 22lr finishing off handgun that would foul something awful. I got one of those lapping kits, with different abrasives, I must admit that I did a very crude job of it, but the barrel is now a thing of true beauty with little fouling troubles. After doing the paste lapping thing, I would deffinately go with the bullets with the lapping compound already on the bullets.



Paste lapping does work.
I've tested 6 Ruger 10-22 factory barrels before and after doing 100 strokes with a JB loaded patch. In each case, the barrel shot better afterwards.
I've also done several centerfire as well as other 22RF barrels and every one shoots well after doing the paste job.
Don
 
I've used JB once in my .17 Remington. I had a very bad fowling/copper problem. It was what I considered a last resort before replacing the barrel. It didn't totally fix the problem but it did make it tolerable. The gun also is shooting much better. I wouldn't use it in a custom barrel like a Lilja etc they are already suppose to be lapped.
 
Thanks guys, I'll pass it on. Well I'll probably end up doing it for him this weekend. I pretty much told him the same thing but could tell he didn't like the idea. I'll copy this thread and show him.

Byron
 
Iosso Bore Paste works very well for cleaning. It's the least abrasive borepaste I've ever used that still does a great job on removing copper and baked on carbon fouling.

Mike
 
I may be wrong and don't have a bottle of Flitz right now but I thought that Flitz was not an abrasive but works as a chemical reaction? I believe it says it contains no ammonia or abrasives. I'm not trying to be a smart aleck I'm just curious. I have used both and have had good results. I'm surprised that others have had problems with it. I have checked my bores with a scope and have not found any problems. I may have to rethink the use of JB. Now if only I could find PUMA again for polishing my knives.

Good Luck and Good Shooting!
 
Now if only I could find PUMA again for polishing my knives.


You might want to try Happich Simichrome Polish on your knives. It's finer than the JB, and has some abrasive to it. That's what I use on my knives and it polishes well.
Don
 
You betcha, couldn't find specs on flitz, but I did find some PUMA!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I've read somewhere that Flitz has a mild abrasive and a chemical tarnish remover, but I didn't find it.

FWIW, I've used JB non-embedding bore compound, JB Bore Brite, USP paste, Flitz, MAAS and Simichrome for bore polishing, or lapping as some call it, on new bores of factory rifles, it seems to reduce the fouling build up and makes cleaning easier, reduces break-in time. For me, it has become SOP, doesn't seem to hurt anything. I've read numerous threads about using JB non-embedding bore compound and it not causing bore damage or unwanted wear, so I continue to use one of the above, they all seem to work for my purposes. I use Varmint Al's method, sans the moly bullets.

Tim
 
JB's will not hurt your bore. Yes Yes I know .... but it's abrasive .... You will burn ... heat erode the throat out of your barrel long long before any harm can be done to your barrel by using JB's and I mean using JB's a lot. some of the most accurate rifles in the world are cleaned with JB's all the time. It flat amazes me how people will worry and worry about using a brush and very mild cleaning compounds ... I'd never do that to my rifle barrel or my favorite, "You can use it on button rifled barrels , but not on my cut barrel." But frequently these very same people ignore the effects of high pressure burning powder on the life of their barrels.

JB's and Flits are fine to use to maintain your barrel, I don't give a darn how it was made.

But then when you start talking about some of the other true lapping compounds, it's and entirely different story, you need to know what your doing with some of that stuff.

Byron - good question and I'm not being agrerssive towards you or your question. It just seems like much of this discussion is little more than old wives tails with little fact to back it up. I use both Flitz and JB's on my accuracy rifles. Not necessarily all the time, every third cleaning or so. Chemicals will clean most copper fouling, but some fouling simply needs something more agressive especially in the throat area where a layer of copper then carbon (from firing each round) then a layer of copper, then carbon, then copper .... etc. seems to build up to an almost ceramic like layer! You need more than chemicals to get the job done.
 
Back
Top