i had old barrel i wanted to blue,so i thought i would make test to see what would remove the old blueing.i tried, wd-40,remington oil, sheath,hoppes bore cleaner,and lastly,BRAKE CLEANER.i left all soak on barrel.guess what, none of them took the blueing off the barrel. i said, wait a minute,2 friends at range said that they used BRAKE CLEANER inside their bore to clean it. i sent in 1 barrel to thompson to have it blued because of damage the brake cleaner did to muzzle. i called carl and asked him. i just used brake cleaner on barrel and it did not take blueing off. he said, sproul, i dont know,thats what i used. i said, did you use any other thing, anything inside barrel other than bore butter. he then said, well, yes i did! i said ,what did you use. he said BAR KEEPERS FRIEND.its powder cleaner you use to clean brass and other metals and sink at home etc. so, i went up and bought a can of it at family dollar. i took it and mixed it with the brake cleaner and put it on the blueing of the barrel. oh my, 15 minutes later all blueing was gone.down to bar metal.so, i took this BAR KEEPERS FRIEND and put it on brass of my thompson while i had it off gun and it shined brass like mirror. so, in past i put on info that said that brake cleaner removes blueing.it may but i had hard time getting it to remove blueing of my test barrel UNLESS it was mixed with BAR KEEPERS FRIEND. that stuff is a real cleaner and why they were using it inside their barrels, beats me. i told them i use BON-AMI inside my bore but it does not have ACID that is in BAR KEEPERS FRIEND.maybe they thought it was same. anyhow, i thought being i put on WRONG info on that brake cleaner being the culprit ,it was bar keepers friend. if you use this stuff on your brass, make sure you take it off gun as i would say it will take your clear coat off your wood. sorry for bad info,but i was wondering to as i have used brake cleaner for years inside my bore and never had blueing coming off.but mixed with bar keepers or plain bar keepers on barrel will take blueing off.

Thanks for the correction I have used brake cleaner fo a long time to get the barrel clean of oil and I was wondering if I was just blind luck that I had not lost any blueing. Lee

sproulman.. thanks for the update. I was kind of worried and even stopped using my brake cleaner because I was afraid of causing damage to the bluing. Then without thinking yesterday after shooting my flintlock, I pulled the lock as I usually do, and scrubbed the back side of it in dishsoap and water, then sprayed the back side with brake cleaner. After I did that I thought.. what the heck is wrong with you.. So I washed it down again and dried it with alcohol instead. Glad to know the difference.

I never tried that stuff called Bar Keeper's Friend. Sounds like it might be a good brass cleaner. I will have to stop at Family Dollar and see if they have some next time I make the trip to the big city.

cayugad, i just tried it on my pots and pans .unreal, it took the dull stuff right off bottom of pans. copper is back bright. i then used bon-ami on next pot, nothing. bar keepers friend does shine brass.i had broilers that i could never get clean .i put that bar keepers friend on it, left it sit for 5 minutes and all crud came off. the stuff is unreal. but never get it near bluing or painted surface.i think it has acid in it.