Toothpaste as sand paper?

[Roland of Gilead]

Greetings,

  Have any of you pards heard of this? The salesman at the Gun shop told me to take off the side plate of my Early Model Open Top (yeah!! just got it) and squeeze toothpaste (the gritty kind) into the mechanism, close it up and work the hammer back and forth a bunch of times. He says it will smooth it out.

  Can this work?



Roland   

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Pard


       Some have been doing this for a while now with good results, Lead Dispenser for one smoothed out his Ruger Vaquero's this way. just goes to show you there are more than one use for tooth past, I'd think the kind that was known to remore PLACK, would be the best. Just remember to clean it all off and reoil when finished.


                                                           tEN wOLVES 

[Angel_Eyes]

Sounds like a good idea, but make sure you clean it out before it dries, because it can also be used as an adhesive and sets solid!
UKshooter

[Hoof Hearted]

Greetings,

  Have any of you pards heard of this? The salesman at the Gun shop told me to take off the side plate of my Early Model Open Top (yeah!! just got it) and squeeze toothpaste (the gritty kind) into the mechanism, close it up and work the hammer back and forth a bunch of times. He says it will smooth it out.

  Can this work?



Roland   

Roland

"Boosting" the hammer pressure (don't push too hard) by holding your thumb against it while pulling the trigger will also "break" it in sooner (some call broken in worn out).

As with all things mechanical go slow and be careful.

None of my Open Tops have sideplates..........
I think the salesman must be a Smith ans Wesson owner

[Flint]

Toothpaste is like a very fine water based valve grinding compound.  But make sure you use the old fashioned "gritty" toothpaste, not the newer now common gel.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

I have used Colgate on a bore mop that was chucked into a drill to polish the chambers of my SxS.  Worked great!

Amen to toothpaste setting up like cement. I've used Colgate like spackling compound to fill nail holes in dry wall (a.k.a. sheet rock)!

[Roland of Gilead]

  Well, once again you pards have proved very helpful. I will admit I thought it sounded kind of hokey, but live and learn. I am fairly new to these guns and have not really experienced any problems with them.  I did feel like the action was not as smooth as the other pistols I own. 

I do however, think the open tops and conversions are beautiful guns. I already had a conversion and this is my first open top. Not really a whole lot of difference that I can see, but I do like the looks of the brass trigger guard and back strap on the early model.

Thanks for all the input and responses: Flint, Hoof Hearted,Daniel Nighteyes, UKshooter & Ten Wolves

I hope today finds you well and leaves you the same


Roland 

[River City John]

Vademacum(sp?) was a brand that had a lot of pumice, the grit-ingredient, in toothpaste.
Modern use of lapping compound used in lapping barrels will do the same thing.
In effect what you are doing is stoning the wear area of all the moving parts to reduce friction caused by tooling marks, etc.