Every now and again, I take the spark arrestor out of my Stihl blower, lie it on a fire brick and heat the mesh to orange heat with a butane torch, once all the gunk is reduced to ash and it’s cooled down, I blow it out with compressed air.
I do this to burn off all the carbon deposits which would, eventually, obstruct the exhaust and can flake off at inopportune moments. I’ve had suggestions that I throw the arrestor out but that’d be recklessly irresponsible in my view.
