Sort of warning and sort of question. When I built my '56 KHK project it came with a good front wheel and the drum surface was smooth and true. Also there were brand new shoes and linings, probably repop, so I used them.
Finished the bike a while back and have put on about 5000 miles, and when doing some maintenance thought I'd clean-out the drums. The front brake had felt good, so stunned when took wheel off and found drum badly scored. The linings, which are black composition with metallic (probably zinc) traces in them must be too hard for the pressed steel drum. I don't have any genuine H-D linings to compare. Any suggestions for good linings? Otherwise I'll have to experiment.
These shoes were mainly used on cast iron drums and maybe the linings would have been fine for those.
Will have to skim the drum and discover how much cut cleans it. As the steel is only about 1/8" thick there's not much to work on!