3M 50.8 x 101mm Synthetic Medium Steel Wool - (Pack of 1)

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  A fantastic improvement over standard steel wool; not only does it not leave tiny bits of steel in your sink that then rust, and does not stick a sharp piece of wire under your thumb nail, it actually works better than steel wool on all sorts of pots & pans (my Sunday afternoon job) as well as electronic strip board (see video) to make it shine before soldering.So we now use this after years of using standard steel wool on our pots and pans, which whilst the latter cleans effectively does scratch the surface, unlike this product which cleans but in a more gentle manner and does not leave steel filings in the bottom of your sink. Neither does it sit there quietly rusting in a damp ball on the side of your sink but can be easily shaken to remove water and it then dries quite normally.For me, as an avid electronics enthusiast, it cleans my circuit boards and strip board prior to soldering absolutely brilliantly and leaves not steel filings to short circuit things afterwards. It last a long, long time (see the piece in the video which I must have used for 6 months). And it is most certainly kinder to my hands with no puncture wounds to my thumbs.And the cherry on the cake is the low price of this product - it's hardly worth hesitating considering the price it's being sold for.Better than steel wool in every respect.

Useful when I make a mistake when cooking. Peter

Not as good as the real stuff. Left a blue tint on some ash I was sanding

Have used before, but not so easy to find in the shops so its great that Amazon stock it. Quickly supplied and didn't cost me any fuel to get it so great.I use instead of steel wool. A lot easier to handle and works equally well IMO

good for removing stubborn crud that normal scotchbrite doesn't and of course doesn't go rusty like the wirewool

I have to say that it's not quite as good as useing wire wool, however it dose save getting metal Splinter's so for softer hand this would be ideal

Inside the packet are two sheets of the synthetic steel wool. Each sheet is cut so that with a slight tug it can be separated into three pads measuring 5cm by 10cm by 1cm thick, making a total of 6 pads in the pack.The pads look very similar to the green scouring pads used in the kitchen and have a similar open texture to the mesh except that instead of green they are steel wool grey. The pads can be rolled and twisted whilst maintaining their rectangular shape, so this gives a large working area to rub down with. They will fold into a cylinder shape but not a ball like wire wool.The suggested uses for the medium coarse pads are for removing old paint and varnish from curved surfaces and to use with a chemical stripper; to clean light rust from metal; and to apply highlights and accents to wood after stain has been applied. They are not recommended for use on glass.I found various advantages to these pads over traditional steel wool: having an open texture means that they do not get clogged with removed material; the material is made to not shred, splinter or rust so the pad doesn’t shed itself or metal splinters in your fingers; because the pads don’t rust, they can be used repeatedly for wet rub-down and be washed out after use.Of course with use the pads flatten and get thinner but even so, there are no rusty metal bits to catch in your skin. This is the one big benefit I found with these pads. When wire wool wears, it breaks down and you can get tiny bits of swarf in your fingers, that are hard to remove and easily risk going septic. There is no such danger with these pads so the synthetic steel wool pads much more comfortable to use. You can concentrate on the job in hand and not worry about the discomfort of bits of metal jabbing you. I am very pleased to have discovered these.

These are small (10 x 6 centimetre, 4 x 2 inch) pads, 2.5 cms, 1 inch thick, designed to deal with rust removal and paint stripping.Likening them to steel wool is a bit misleading as the fibre structure is that of super heavy duty green kitchen pot-scrubbing pads, rather than the tangled loops and mesh of steel wool.I used it to clean up a slightly rusty BBQ, ready for the late spring/summer and it had no problem with that. Previously I would have used a coiled metal scrubber to do this.I've used steel wool many times in my life to clean items, scrub off paint and remove rust. You have to use rubber gloves, but it works. It is actually possible to use this pad with bare hands, although it's a little uncomfortable.Given my experience, I would say that this was a reasonable alternative to steel wool for lighter clean up jobs, but not for really heavy duty stuff. Steel wool can be unpleasant stuff to handle and it's easy to get bits of swarf embedded in the skin or fine cuts from the wire. This is much better in that respect but it's not quite the same calibre.For small, quick jobs, this is ideal and its also much easier to store - steel wool can go rusty very easily in a damp atmosphere. Four stars.