Originally Posted by
Myosmith
Just found another handy tip, a popsicle (craft) stick is the perfect width to clean crud out from between you rear sprockets for 5-7 speed rear cogsets. I just sanded the right curve into the tip and it worked great. I don't have anything with more than seven rear sprockets but I suspect it would fit even narrower sprockets as there is still some free space. The sticks are just long enough to clean the big cogs without raking your fingers.
A flap from a corrugated cardboard box works well for crud cleaning between cogs too.