I havent been smoking that long, and im by no means an old timer with this stuff, but the people i learned from are, and i have not heard of anyone using brillo. Before i ever smoked i always used to think it was brillo that was used, but brillo pad has soap in it, and if you feel one, it doesnt even really feel like metal. This is not something you wanna burn and inhale. Any kind of steel wool or metal that you can mush up into a ball is basically what you need. Some kinds are better than others because they pack tighter, therefore holding more of the oil when it burns and not letting it run down the pipe, and also some burn out faster than others needing to be replaced. Chore boy brand is pretty much the standard, and i know alot of ppl use the copper one over the steel one. I have 2 personal favs for screens, one being the silver pipe screens you get in most stores that sell cigarettes. For a 1$ you get 5, and you just have to take those and mush em into one ball and put em in your stem. They are durable, they dont release any smoke themselves, meaning your not smoking metal or fumes, and they are a good mix between letting enough air / smoke though, yet still holding in the oil for it to burn. My other favorite and what i use most frequently is actually the metal from inside of a coaxial cable; these are the cables you use to connect a vcr or standard def cable to a tv. If you cut a section of this, and strip off the rubber around the outside, you will find like a metal mesh surrounding an inner core. If you pull this metal mesh off, its great screen. As long as your not using really cheap cable, the mesh is durable, doesnt let off smoke when you put a light to it, and packs nicely into a stem. Also, if you get a decent size piece of cable, you'll have screens for a while.