I used these to clean up rust/corrosion on car from winter. Was using wire brushes, but they were both too aggressive, and more difficult to clean a large area. Additionally, little scraps of sharp wire kept flying off at high speed.These brushes are better for a couple reasons. First, there are varying grit levels: more or less bite depending on your needs; the wire just takes EVERYTHING off (including zinc coating that you want to keep). Second, the entire surface of the nylon wire has abrasive properties. This means you can angle the bristles so a larger section of the nylon wire is contacting the surface; if you look at pic 3 you can see some corrasion on the sides of the bristles from doing this. It allows you to cover a larger surface area, with more control, than just using the tip of the wire brush.Overall the 'grit' level/ability to remove rust is less than a wire brush, but it is still very quick. The upside is that it is much more controllable. I feel more comfortable cleaning something like bolt threads with this than metal wire - which could damage them.These make wire brushes obsolete for most tasks. Love them.