Brownells has discontinued their carbon steel, 6-48 bottomming tap!! I went to tap a barrel for sights today, and I am out of new taps, and of course, went to Brownells for new ones. The other brand is $16; the old ones were $2.50 and worked fine.
Ok, if I have to buy these, then my rates for drilling and tapping will have to go up.
What am I going to do now? I don't want to use HSS taps on a barrel. I never break them but if you do, well, that is bad. But with carbon steel, no worries.

Irwin carbon steel bottom taps $1.86 each on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Irwin...3:g:LLgAAOxypthRt5pE

The photo shows a taper but the description is for a bottom tap.

Search ebay for 6-48 bottom taps and dozens of choices will show up. I would buy the Hansons, a little more.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hanso...047675.c100005.m1851

I laid in a lifetime supply back when Brownells had the cheapies.

Ok. I see them.

I NEVER use carbon steel taps in guns. Actually, I no longer use them anywhere. If one ever sticks and breaks off they have to be drilled out with carbide. Same goes for HSS but I never have those problems with HSS. The last batch of HSS I bought were Reiff & Nestors. I think I had to buy 50, 6x48 and 50, 8x40 to get bulk pricing. They work very well ! As good or better than the Hanson HSS that I was buying. The HSS taps will last for years while the carbon taps only last 1 or 2 jobs so they are far more cost effective than carbon steel.

I prefer HSS taps but sometimes a carbon steel will do. Nice to have plenty of backups.

Keep the tap straight and use that "eggshell" touch and breakage will not occur. Biggest tap breaker is a dull tap.

Preaching to the choir, you gents already know this.

Can't remember when I broke a tap; been a long time. I use carbon steel taps; they are sharper, and if you do break one, it is very easy to crush it and remove it. A HSS tap takes a lot of drama to remove.

Oh 6x48 HSS taps come out real easy. Put what ever its busted off in, into the mill and wind a 1mm carbide straight flute drill up to LUDICROUS SPEED and slowly raise the table up with the drill as close to the center of the taps spine as you can get while blowing on the drill with the air compressor to clear chips. I've gone as deep as .200 inch to clear some taps with no problems.

Just chews them up and spits them out! NUM NUM NUM
But, I only break one every 5 years or so and it's usually when I'm in a hurry and do something stilly.

Years ago an old gunsmith told me the best brand of taps were Regal taps. He gave me several to try out and they ARE excellent taps.

About 10 years ago I bought one of each of the different taps offered by Brownells. All the taps I got from Brownells were a joke. They should be embarrassed to be selling such cheap junk for the prices they ask. I didn't even know you could get carbon steel taps anymore.

Tom, send me an email, next I order a batch of taps I can piggy back some for you. They are inexpensive, good quality. I use them for one job and pitch them in the scrap bin. Haven't broken one yet. (Now I will)

The big problem the average Joe has with gun tap sizes is that they are all specials. The only way you can buy them is through a distributor. Specials, ordered through a distributor are VERY EXPENSIVE ! Ordering good taps from Brownells is proof of that and Brownells is actually pretty cheep after you begin getting quotes from the big tooling distributors. Rest assured that Brownells margins are a lot lower than those of the big tool houses on specials. Trying to get good taps through someone like Fastenal, MSC, KMS or Victor can be even more traumatic than dealing with Brownells. Buying direct is the best way to buy, but they are very reluctant to go under the nose of their distributors and even if you can bullshit and convince them to do it, they need minimum orders. I just bought a batch of #6-48s and #8x40s and I had to buy 50 of each to meet their minimum order. Not so bad for someone like me that's hell on equipment. But for the average gun plumber that wreaks 1 tap per year, dishing out $800 USD is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

Drills&Cutters.com has various special taps and dies at decent prices.I've used a few of the oddball ones working on old revolvers and they seem to be excellent quality.

I've had good luck with Victor Tools. They are also the least expensive source for custom taps and tools that I've found. Don't know if they have carbon taps but everything I've had from them worked well.
http://www.victornet.com/