Carbon fiber rods are the best of both: the carbon fiber can t scratch your bore like stainless steel and they won t embed like coated rods. Plus Carbon Fiber rods can be bent to an extreme degree and return to their original straightness. Ergonomically designed handle spins on two sets of ball bearings the result is a cleaning rod that smoothly follows the rifling both pushing and pulling even while under pressure. The shank-through construction also allows the user to apply reasonable hammer blows to the end of the cleaning rod to get a tight patch through a bore.