Best way to extract a leather breech seal

[45flint]

Have prewar rifles with old dry breech seals. Is there a easy or best way to get them out?

[coburn]

Have the same situation with a Burgo HW35, the leather seal has gone very hard. I use a set of steel dental picks to get the seal out, usually they break up and need the bits scraping out.

[WebleyWombler]

I usually cut them into sections using a fine drill bit in a hand held pin chuck, then use dental picks to get the bits out. Sometimes they can be extremely hard and just picking at them can be a laborious job without the drill bit.

[Phil Russell]

Needle / dental pick thingy from a card of such things from Poundland.
Cheers, Phil

[45flint]

Dental pick was tedious and extremely slow. Took a small screwdriver and with a light mallet drove it into the middle of the leather, not touching any metal. One pry up and the seal came out! Hard as a rock, screwdriver head split it.

[WebleyWombler]

Be very careful when tapping that type of screwdriver with a hammer. The heads are usually not very strong and the blades often so brittle they shatter.

Still, better out than in, as they say

[45flint]

Be very careful when tapping that type of screwdriver with a hammer. The heads are usually not very strong and the blades often so brittle they shatter.

Still, better out than in, as they say

It wasn’t a hammer: small wooden mallet, very little pressure to get into the leather.

[micky2]

I use one of the wife's strong sewing pins.

[edbear2]

I have a set of O ring / Seal picks which I usually fall back on, mine are an old Snap On set from the 1980's but you can get all sorts at quite fair prices, and they are handy for all sorts of things!

This sort of thing, many others / better or worse are available if you Google Pick Set / Oils seal Removal set etc.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/blue...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

ATB, ED