Show us your cylinder cleaning tools

[ballisticdoughnut]

Here’s a 268XP cylinder I cleaned and ball honed. The pictures make the finish look rough but I can assure you it’s very smooth. Plating is in tact around all port edges. Still need to soda blast chamber and exhaust port.

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

Couple more with light.

 

[stihltech]

Old technology or not, there still has to be deglazing and a fine crosshatch for rings to seat. Have actually repaired saws with replaced rings that did not seat (not deglazed) resulting in low compression. Deglazed the cylinders only and the compression return after a short run in period. Deglazing is a must.
Yes, do not over do it.

 

[Agrarian]

Aluminum oxide 300-350 grit is whats used to deglaze bores, silicon carbide is too hard and aggressive removing too much material while too coarse of grit creates scratches too wide and deep.

I fully agree with cookies. Brush Research (makes ball hones) recommends the aluminum oxide hones for Nikasil. And as was said before, they're designed for a narrow range of bore diameters so you must choose the correct size - don't go up a size because that's all you have. Also, they only get used for a few seconds in each direction at fairly low speed. I've never experienced any issues with plating or port edge deformation when following these steps.

For transfer removal, I've tried the Muriatic acid but quickly stopped using it. Some very usable cylinders were destroyed because under the transfer, the cylinder was very slightly scatched through the plating. The acid got under the plating before I realized it and ruined the cylinder. So now I use the Monkey's approach (thanks!) and have never looked back. I use 1" cloth backed sandpaper on a custom split arbor in my Foredom.