Scour

[AZbpBurner]

She used it on dishes? Brillo will scratch the heck out of ceramic glazes, glass and enamel. Around here, we use steel wool "scouring pads" on cast iron, steel and aluminum pans. but not enamel or non-stick pans.

BTW, Brillo & SOS etc are great for removing light rust from firearms, just don't scrub real hard. OOOO steel wool is better, but in a pinch steel wool soap pads work.

Today, 'steel wool' soap pads are more likely made of a nylon scrubbing material. Non rusting, with a variety to use for heavy duty scrubbing, and a gentler version for pyrex and teflon. The gentler nylon pad would be a viable choice to remove rust from a firearm without damaging finish, but I don't think I have the finesse to use actual steel wool for the task.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Many words are used in multiple ways....Especially tools...
Saw is an example.

You saw wood with a saw..( both noun and verb..Or it can have a different meaning, or at least that's what I saw, or should I say "have seen".

Scour is no different.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Nope. Steel wool soap pads. Just bought a package last week. Yes they do rust. Brillo brand. I did have steel wool soap pads from Dollar General. Strange that the box had the following warning: "Not for Internal Use"

 

[Gene L]

Although it sounds counter-intuitive, those stainless steel "chore boy" pads do a great job for removing rust. Oil and a SS chore boy will get rid of rust very quickly. Just don't over-do it. OOOO steel wool will polish the rust and certainly remove some, but my LGS turned me on to the SS pads.

 

[Rifleman1776]

shrift

Careful there. You start making too much sense we will have to shrift you.
Logic not accepted here. :wink: :rotf:

 

[Scota4570]

Although it sounds counter-intuitive, those stainless steel "chore boy" pads do a great job for removing rust. Oil and a SS chore boy will get rid of rust very quickly. Just don't over-do it. OOOO steel wool will polish the rust and certainly remove some, but my LGS turned me on to the SS pads.

"chore boy"... I got flamed for suggesting this a while back. Glad someone else is confirming it.

I used to use lots of it to rusty clean guns in a shop. Instead of using oil, we used:
http://stores.ebay.com/Eliminator-Sales?rmvSB=true

Water based loosens the rust better. A bowl of the soap with some water keeps the stainless pads clean of rust particles. The rust that is pulled off will scratch the blue if you work it hard in one spot. The clean pad with soapy water will not. Going easy will pull the rust off just fine no need to bear down.

 

[Rifleman1776]

There is a product on the market called 'Scrub Daddy'. It is guaranteed not to scratch. Hard and stiff when cold but softens with hot water. We have one in the kitchen but I haven't used on guns...yet. May buy one just to cut up and try.

 

[Zonie]

Another thing that works nicely to remove rust is a piece of wadded up aluminum foil along with a bit of oil.

Aluminum foil is soft so it won't damage steel parts but it is harder than the soft red rust that can appear on a gun (if it wasn't properly cleaned or oiled).

 

[miqueleter]

Ivor Noel Hume addresses the scour in an article about artifacts found at Wolstenholme town with a neat picture of the ramrod scour.

NGS Magazine Vol 155No 6 June 1979.

I have lost my copy or else would he poste an image or two. Several venders sell the mags online.

 

[spudnut]

The question is what is a scower? Not what works to scour. A gentleman over at frontier folk said he had a blacksmith make him a " scower" for his smoothbore, he tried to send me a picture but it wouldnt come through and they have a hard time gettingpictures on their site,just want to know what a scower looks like,,, a jag perhaps?

 

[George]

Ivor Noel Hume addresses the scour in an article about artifacts found at Wolstenholme town with a neat picture of the ramrod scour.

I have that issue of NGS and have just gone over all the pictures in the article, but can't find any mention of the ramrod scour. Can you remember any more about it which might put me on the right path?

Spence

 

[George]

A gentleman over at frontier folk said he had a blacksmith make him a " scower" for his smoothbore, he tried to send me a picture but it wouldnt come through...

Maybe something like this? It's blacksmith made, screws on the ramrod, works very well in my smoothbores with tow or cloth. I call it a worm and puller, but I can see where it might be called a scower/scour.





Spence

 

[azmntman]

Very cool! :thumbsup:

 

[miqueleter]

Maybe. Sure wish I had not lost that article from a NGS magazine. I was sure the magazine I quoted was the correct one. Back to the drawing board.I was in my Jamestown/Roanoke era of study. At any rate, the gist of the article was that Hume had to go to Graz arsenal to get an idea of what he found (the scour) at Martin's Hundred. Of course there were hundreds of them there. Query answered. The scour was button tipped,the shaft length split down the middle to the threads to provide tension. I will continue to look.

 

[George]

I have a very early reference to 'scowrer', 'scourer', 'scouring', but it's a bit difficult to figure out what is meant by the terms.

_Military Antiquities: Respecting a History of the English Army, from the conquest to the present time_, Volume 2, Francis Grose, 1619

“it is moreover requisite, that a souldier keepe his cocke with oyle free in falling, and his peece bright without rusting; neither must he want his necessarie tooles, as a scowrer, tirebale and worme, having every one a vice to turne into the end of the scouring sticke, so that if through wet weather, or any other accident, his peece will not be discharged, the skilful souldier may with his tireball pull out his bullet with the worme, the paper, and wet powder, and with his scourer make his peece clean within. His scourer must be trimmed on the end with a linen cloth of sufficient substance, therewith to make cleane the cannon of his peece within. The one end of his scouring stick ought to have a round end of bone of just bigness with the mouth of his peece, therewithall at his pleasure, to ramme in powder and paper, or instead of paper, such softe haire as they stuff saddles withall, the danger whereof is not like; but this the souldier must use when time permits.”

It's obvious that for him the scowerer and the worme are two different items, since both are mentioned in the list of required tools. I've been unable to find any definition of 'tirebale', but it's obvious from his usage that it screws into the end of the ramrod/scouring stick. It may be a gun screw/puller/drawer.

Spence

 

[spudnut]

Go to frontier folk ,it is described there under trekking scower and worms ,sort of a bore scraper

 

[miqueleter]

The image is on page 66 of the Jan 1982 edition. I finally got into the right stowage box to find the article by Hume. I would post the image that I scanned and downloaded. However, rookie that I am, I cannot figure out how to load it to this post (need to produce an url which scanning does not produce, for me anyway).
I was mistaken on the article source, as was pointed out and was mistaken on the term "scour" which is actually "scourer," although I did run across the use of the noun "scour" somewhere along the line.

Any ideas.

 

[George]

Thanks, miqueleter, I found the article and scanned the photo. My image hosting site is down at the moment. If they aren’t doing a Photobucket bait-and-switch on me, and if they come back online, I’ll post it later.

Good reference, I’m very glad to have it for my file.

Spence

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

FWIW ... call it a scour or a worm, but there are great photos of original ones here dating from the ~16th century ...
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/306836/

 

[George]

Here is the scourer from National Geographic. The old one was excavated from the oldest British village in the new world, Wolstenholme Towne in Virginia, ca 1620. The newer one, apparently identical, is from a collection of 16th-17th century armor and equipment in Landeszeughaus arsenal in Graz, Austria.



In my post above, Grose says, "His scourer must be trimmed on the end with a linen cloth of sufficient substance, therewith to make cleane the cannon of his peece within." Those two slots in the scourer look as though they might be for holding cloth.

Spence