Paintball Guns and Flexible Hones – BRM and the Bob Fowlie Story

During the 1980s, Bob “Flex-Hone” Fowlie was part of a tight-knit community that popularized the sport of paintball. On weekdays, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) for Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) set goals, monitored costs, and made key decisions about the California company’s full line of industrial brushes. On weekends, Fowlie made time to play – not on the golf course, but on the paintball field.

Paintball Videos and Honing Tools 

In a video produced by Bacci Paintball with assistance from BRM, Fowlie explains how his company’s Flex-Hone® tool has been part of paintball from the beginning. Like semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns, paintball markers have metal barrels that require cleaning. Proper gun maintenance is important, too. Stock paintball barrels may have machine lines, or lack a smooth interior surface.

As Fowlie explains in the video, the BRM Flex-Hone® is ideal for interior barrel polishing. Built with a stiff metal stem and flexible nylon abrasive filaments, this flexible honing tool mounts in a handheld electric drill and is easy to use. Shooters can find Flex-Hone® tools for Firearms on the BRM website and add Flex-Hone® oil to their orders, too. For paintball guns, choose either a barrel hone or a rear bore hone.

Paintball Manufacturers Choose Flexible Hones 

In the early days of the sport, Bob Fowlie would barter with paintball gun manufacturers for the latest equipment. In exchange for Flex-Hone® tools, paintball gun makers like Tom Kaye of Airgun Designs, Bud Orr of Worr Game Products, and Rob “Termite Smith” would send Fowlie their latest semi-automatics. Through the years, many more paintball pioneers chose the Flex-Hone® for superior surface finishing.

Today, Bob Fowlie still works for Brush Research but is retired from paintball. As he remembers when paintball gun manufacturing was a “cottage industry”, BRM’s COO shares pictures from places like Sat Cong Village and the original Malibu Conquest field. As part of the Who Are Those Guys? Mercenary Service, Bob “Flex-Hone” Fowlie even gave BRM arm patches to paintball promoters like Jessica Sparks. 

Paintball Gun Maintenance 

Are you a paintball player? If so, how do you maintain your gun’s barrel and rear bore? Have you tried the Flex-Hone® for paintball guns yet? Since the sport’s early days, Bob “Flex-Hone” Fowlie and Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) have played an important role. Watch the video with Bob, visit the BRM website for more information, and comment on this blog entry if you have questions.