My reason for not wanting to use Aluminium cleaning is two fold the first reason was once I stupidly decided to hold an Aluminium cleaning rod in my mouth so I would have both hands free. The resultant effect between the Aluminium and the odd Mercury Amalgam teeth filling is rather unpleasant possibly only us Brits can understand this effect. Secondly I do not like the resultant micro swarf if you rub the rod against the gun’s breach which seems to get every where.
So I personally prefer to use wooden rods of which I have a number to choose from, in the picture are some of the rods I use regularly and a couple of others that are now considered collectors items but I still use occasionally. The two sets at the bottom of the picture are the modern versions that see most use covering all the sizes up to and including .410.
The Ebony rods are pre 1900 each a two piece the top set will fit in a standard 30 to 34 inch barrel gun case in the normal fashion stowed under the barrel. But the Pear handled set will not fit a case at all though I believe that this rod was more at home in a gun room, the main reason for the short pear handled section was to take a chamber brush though I have never seen a chamber brush with a 3/8 inch 18 tpi fitting, it also came with the Turks Head brush with the longer shank in the picture seized in the end fitting. Though using them is a direct connection to the past and I always wonder about the guns they have cleaned and the people who have used them before me. In the other picture are the Boogiemen of the gun cleaning world ‘THE DREADED TURKS HEAD’ their only crime is that they are manufactured from steel rather than Bronze, but I have walked on the wild side and used them for cleaning gun bores though I must say at this point it was a 1950s Baikal shotgun that seemed to be manufactured by the same company who built our ‘Stone Henge’.
