From experience, we know that iron surfaces are protected from rust by a layer of grease or oil.  We also know that rusting is mediated and enhanced by the presence of water acting on the surface of unprotected iron.  In light of this, I have come to the conclusion that water and especially soap & water should (almost) never be used to clean a B.P. firearm.  Consider this too, it is a very bad idea to clean a cast iron skillet with dishwashing detergent, thus removing all the anti-sticking properties of a "seasoned" iron skillet.  I think it is reasonable to assume that a certain amount of greasy material should remain in the microscopic pores of the iron of a firearm's barrel and this is what I call "seasoning."  This material will not harm the metal, but will protect it from both corrosion and fouling.  If it is removed by washing out with soap and water, then the metal may be exposed to rusting and as you shoot, fouling will almost certainly have a greater tendency to stick to the inside of the barrel.

Typical cleaning jags

     If you don't use enough grease (or no grease at all) behind the bullet when you shoot, there will be times when the bore will feel rough when you slide that first patch down.  Under these circumstances, liberally soak a patch in jojoba oil, olive oil or vegetable oil, run it down and then wait a bit for the hard stuff to dissolve.  After the fouling dissolves and turns into a black goo, keep running patches down the bore as described above. Next time you go out shooting, try using a little more grease behind the slug when you load.  It will not only make cleaning a lot easier and faster, but your accuracy will improve noticeably.

     When the bore starts looking pretty clean, run a patch covered with your favorite shooting grease or jojoba oil down to protect the metal from corrosion and to keep the fouling from building up at the beginning of your next shooting session.  

     Cleaning the cylinder can be a bit more work since heavy fouling may build up inside the bottom of the chambers especially if you didn't use enough grease during your last shooting session.  If you have a lot of hard fouling down inside your chambers, liberally soak a patch in oil and put the patch down each chamber and through the hole in the center of the cylinder.  Let this stuff work for several seconds then wipe out the liquefied fouling with clean tissue paper or cloth.  Keep wiping everything out with cloth or tissue paper until all residue is removed and the last cloth or paper comes out reasonably clean.  Take an old tooth brush with a little oil on it and brush out around the cones and cylinder stop holes.  Put a light coating of olive oil, jojoba oil or shooting grease in and around everything.  It might not be a bad idea to remove the cones every now and again, clean the threads and then coat them with a tiny amount of grease before you put them back in.  The cones should be lightly "snug" but avoid over-tightening them.  

     Note: before attempting to disassembling your revolver, you must have a good set of screwdrivers that fit your screw-heads exactly and you must be very careful to line it up properly with adequate downward force or you will bung up the heads.    Bunged up screw heads don't hurt anything, but they sure look awful.

     If you have a Colt, remove the back strap and grip, then loosen the mainspring screw and rotate the mainspring off the hammer.  Remove the trigger guard and expose the inner mechanism.  If you have a Remington, remove the grips and loosen the mainspring screw.  There are several ways to remove a Remington mainspring and here's my "brute force" method: with the hammer all the way down, screw out the mainspring tension screw and gently tap out the mainspring at its base with a small brass or plastic hammer.  (OK, Remington mainsprings are a pain in the butt, but you will figure it out).

     Take off the trigger guard to expose the mechanism.  With the mechanism exposed and the trigger pointing up, you will see a flat spring with two sections held in by a single screw.  This is the "cylinder stop and trigger return spring" and you will see that it is held in by a broad head screw.  Remove the screw and the spring.  Next remove the screw (or screws) that hold in the trigger and cylinder stop pieces.  Remove those pieces also, but note how they fit in the frame.

     Next, remove the large screw that holds in the hammer.  Carefully - very, very carefully - slide the hammer down into the frame.  A small piece called the "hand & spring" will be visible.  If you have a Colt, the hand & spring can now be separated from the hammer and both removed.  If you have a Remington, don't attempt to push the hammer all the way down like you would on a Colt, but push it down only enough to expose the "hand & spring" screw.  Unscrew the small pin that attaches the hammer to the "hand & spring" and then remove the hammer from the top.  When you remove the hammer and the hand & spring parts, note how they fit into the frame for future reference (hint: the spring is to the rear, the hand to the front).  When you remove or install the hand & spring, be very careful because the spring is very easily damaged and it is so easy to put the wrong kind of pressure on the little spring.  Damage to the spring will require you to fit in a new hand and spring (see next article) because the spring is integral with the hand. 

Unscrew the pin that attaches the hand & spring to the
Remington style pistol's hammer then carefully draw the
hammer up and the hand &spring down through the bottom.

     At this point, your revolver is completely disassembled.  Your next step is to soak a liberal amount of B.P. solvent (or jojoba oil) on a "Q-tip" and clean everywhere inside the revolver’s frame.  Keep changing "Q-tips" until every speck of residue is removed, especially deep inside where the hand & spring operate.  Thoroughly clean all the internal parts you removed previously.

      Reassemble all the internal parts starting with the hammer.  Slide it down and attach the "hand & spring" and just be damned careful when you slide the hammer back into place that you don't ruin the "hand & spring" when you do - be gentle.  

     Getting the mainspring back in is easy or difficult depending on which type revolver you have.  The Colts couldn't be easier because all you have to do is put the hammer all the way down, swing the mainspring over and under the rear (while pressing down) and simply tighten the screw down.  If you have a Remington, just remember: lesser men than you were able to get the spring back in.  Don't put the hammer's screw in just yet.  Allow the hammer to be as high up in the frame as possible and then put in the spring  while gently tapping it into place with a brass or plastic hammer.  Once the spring in in, take a piece of wood or plastic and jam it in near the top of the spring so that you can get the hammer lined up with the screw hole and when you have it lined up, put the screw in.  

     When all the parts are back in, tighten up all the screws "snug" but not over tight.  Don't forget to screw in the Remington’s mainspring tension screw, but only tight enough to reliably explode the caps or the hammer pull will be excessive.  Here's a tip:  if the hammer tension feels right, it probably is, but if a cap fails to explode while you are out shooting, give the tension screw a little more twist.

     Before you put the trigger guard back on you should place a small drop of lubricant on the internal friction surfaces then wipe off as much of it as you can.   Certainly, real Sperm Whale oil is what our ancestors used and is still may be the best lubricant for this application.  I haven’t seen whale oil since I was a kid and don’t know if is available for love or money, but I have recently heard that jojoba oil is almost identical to Sperm Whale oil chemically and so far using it has worked out well for me (see note @ below) but I don't use it to lubricate the gunlock mechanism because it turns real thick in cold weather.   I generally use quality petroleum based gun oil and it works OK, so maybe that's your best bet if you don't want to use jojoba for internal lubrication.  Let's face it, when shooting black powder, gunk is going to get in the mechanism no matter what lubricant you use and you will have to deep clean your pistol from time to time.  This is especially true of the Colt type pistols where you have a direct channel from the cone's blowback on firing right into the gunlock mechanism.

     Anyway, before you put in the "cylinder stop and trigger return spring" and its flat head screw, make absolutely sure the trigger is in the forward position and that half of the spring is resting on top of the trigger's flat spot.  Don't have the spring below the trigger's flat spot or you might break it when you go to cock the pistol and besides, the trigger won't return after cocking.