Hi, thanks for looking.

I'm in the middle of an extremely thorough first cleaning on an M24/47 I picked up from Classic Arms last fall. It was sold in excellent condition, but was absolutely drowned in Cosmoline. I've got almost all of the metal clean, and am working on the barrel now. The barrel is perfect: bright w/sharp rifling. Awesome.

The one concern I have is that when I run a patch down the barrel, speared by an 8mm jag, I find small metal shavings on the patch. I've made sure that the rod and jag are flush with each other, and that there are no other ways for the rod or jag to cause damage. Same can be said for the brush I'm using.

So, I ask you: what's causing these metal shavings?

blow it out with brake cleaner or something to remove possible debris from before you laid hands on it.

then try your cleaning rod and patches.  could it be the ferrule on the cleaning rod?  I know that the first rod that I used was a cheap Outers one from Walmart and the ferrule was checkered/knurled to make screwing in jags and brushes easier.  It also scratched up my 223 bore as it was right on the edge of being to big and I wasn't using a guide.

Assuming that your rod and jag are of course not steel, it could be anything from machining chips from a fresh barrel during refurb, to steel jacket fouling from previous firing.  I would keep cleaning it out until you get no more.  Older rifles like yours can have years worth of fouling and grime stuck in them.

Thanks both of you for your responses and good ideas.

Whatever was causing the metal flaking is no longer causing anything - it just stopped happening. Weird, but perfectly fine w/me.