Flex-Hone® for Rifles Success Stories

Flex-Hone® for Firearms tools impart the optimum surface finish to any type or size cylinder, chamber, slide, magazine tube, or smoothbore barrel. These gunsmith tools from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) refine the raised areas or “peaks” that can interfere with proper firearms functioning. They also produce oil-retaining “valleys” that improve a metal surface’s ability to retain oil. The plateau finish that flexible honing imparts doesn’t remove significant amounts of material, however. In this way, flexible hones improve surface finish while keeping the bores of your firearms at their precise dimensions. 

Flex-Hone® tools for Firearms are available for pistols, revolvers, rifle chambers, smoothbore shotguns, and even paintball guns. At SHOT Show 2015 in Las Vegas last week, the BRM technical team talked to shooters, hunters, gunsmiths, and firearms manufacturers who wanted to learn more about our Made in the USA gunsmithing tools. As a full-line supplier of surface finishing solutions, BRM enjoys describing the benefits of Flex-Hone® technology. At the same time, there’s no substitute for what Flex-Hone® for Firearms users say about our products. Here are two success stories about BRM’s rifle chamber hones.    

Polishing AR-15 Chambers

On the Guns Magazine website, an article entitled AR-15 Building Tools – Part II described what a shooter called “handy” items for firearms maintenance. The list included rear-sight spring tools, a bolt disassembly fixture, and a front takedown pin detent installer. The gunsmith also emphasized the importance of polishing AR-15 chambers to ensure that spent cartridge cases eject properly. The gun tool he mentioned by name was the Flex-Hone® for Firearms.

Self-centering, self-aligning to the bore, and self-compensating for wear, flexible honing tools feature abrasive globules or balls that are permanently bonded to flexible nylon filaments. In the case of AR-15 chambers, the Flex-Hone® for Rifles safely removes residues, machining marks, corrosion, oxidation, and surface imperfections. BRM’s rifle chamber hones have a 1-5/8” silicon carbide (SC) abrasive part and come in overall lengths (OALs) of 6, 8, 12, and 14 inches.

Maintaining U.S. Model of 1917 Firearms

According to the U.S. War Department’s Basic Field Manual of 1942, the chamber of the M1917 Enfield rifle “must be cleaned as thoroughly as the bore” because “a rough chamber may cause shells to stick.” The Flex-Hone® for Firearms wasn’t invented back then, but that didn’t stop a gun blogger from using a modern-day rifle tool with a U.S. Model of 1917 Enfield Rifle. Unable to remove rust and residue with a chamber brush, the gunsmith tried flexible honing. 

Later, while updating readers about this firearms restoration project, the gun blogger reported that that the M1917 rifle’s rounds now “ejected like butter”. Firearms manufacturers often use Flex-Hone® tools with production equipment, but the gunsmith chucked the mandrel of this flexible hone into a handheld electric drill. With the receiver and the chamber clamped in a vice between two wooden blocks, honing the rifle chamber for about a minute did the trick. “This works!!!”, the gun specialist explained.

Share Your Story

Have you used Flex-Hone® for Rifles tools to remove tool marks, residues, build-ups, or corrosion from rifle chambers? What was your experience like, and which types of long guns did you maintain? Even if you didn’t get a chance to visit us at SHOT Show 2015, we’d like to hear your story. BRM’s technical team can also provide you with information and advice to supplement blog entries like this. Watch our Flex-Hone® for Firearms Instructional Video, too.