Originally Posted by
juvela
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a long, long time ago this was a fairly common practice to press "stuffing" into the ends of the tubes at the bottom bracket shell
it was done to keep dirt/foreign matter out of the bearings of the bottom bracket
a major downside was that folks tended to employ cotton wool for the purpose which is distinctly hydroscopic and so provided an initiatory point for corrosion
once purpose made plastic bottom bracket sheaths became commonly available the practice became an archaic one
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I’m not surprised by your answer. I might have done the same thing if someone suggested it to me 40 years ago.
The odd thing about it is that the bottom bracket is an original Swiss Edco with cartridge bearings and so well sealed it is still silky smooth and I’m going to re-use it.
I think I better have a look at the bottom of the seat tube too. Inside it has some dusty oxidation but the inside of the BB shell looks like it might have when the frame was sold to the original owner.