AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: Jerry on September 17, 2023, 09:16:17 PM
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Looking for .015 thick patch material. Anyone have a fabric store or outlet where I may purchase yards of material for patches? I want to cut my own patches. Many thanks. Jerry
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Have you tried micing Muslin at a fabric store? The Jo Anne store here carries it is .015 unwashed.
Tim
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Many thanks, Tim!
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When you go to JoAnn ask to see a 100% cotton cloth they call “ 40 Drill”, or maybe it’s “ Drill 40”. It consistently measures.015-.015 ( compressed) for me. I buy it 3 yds a time and cut my own patches with left handed scissors. Best present I ever got.. :)
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The red and white striped pillow ticking at JoAnn's after washing twice to remove all sizing measures .015 with a dial caliper. These patches are good enough that I have picked them up at the range after being shot, put a little more lube on them and reused them with no burn holes. I only use them in my .40 as I shoot a .395 ball, all the rest of my rifles I use the blue and white ticking .018 as those have a .010 smaller ball than bore.
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I have nothing but good things to say about JoAnn's #40 cotton drill. It shoots very well in all my pistols, from.54 to .32. Just as good in both my .54 rifles.
It is marginal in my .58 using .570 balls, it doesn't hold up with heavy loads. Same with my .61, it doesn't hold up to 85 grain loads of 2f, and that is the lower load.
By the way if you go to JoAnn's tell them you are looking for utility cloth, that's where they keep it.
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Joanne's also sells denims by weight. 8 ounce through 14 ounce will meet all requirements for patches. 10 ounce ( currently .021") meets most of my needs with balls .005 to .010" under bore size. One thickness for all guns simplifies patching. This patching is all reusable for me in rifles and smoothbore, from .36 to 69 cal.
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Be aware that stockpiling a mile of this stuff may not be the best idea you ever had. Cotton over time loses much of its strength. All of a sudden that perfect patch ball combination doesn’t work. Check the fired patches and you’ll usually find the patches absolutely destroyed.
I ran into an old buckskinner who told me this secret. I of course didn’t believe him, but bought some new ticking just in case. I was totally shocked when the rifle returned to its previous ability to shoot tight groups. The sizing in the material seems to slow the deterioration quite a bit, but once you wash this out of cotton material it begins to weaken. If you use a particularly tight patch ball combination it doesn’t have to weaken much to cause problems.
Linen on the other hand is virtually rot proof. I have bought old linen napkins from the thrift store that are very old and are still strong as iron.
Hungry Horse
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For years I made do with blue stripe pillow ticking; that is until I discovered "mattress ticking" which is heavier material and compressed, for me, at around .017" to .018". My rifle velocities increased in at least one of them some 300 fps! Later I discovered cotton duck and started using that and liked it better. but not long after I discovered heavy canvas, the kind used for drop cloth, which compressed to .023" to.024". I used calipers and squeezed the jaws with both hands. Uncompressed it measured .030". Denim was similar but the weave seemed tighter. The canvas seated much easier than the thinner cotton duck and the denim just a bit harder. My rifles all have the crowns well polished and it makes loading so much easier and doesn't get cut entering the muzzle. The loads are rather tight but I can still seat the prb with the wooden underbarrel rod.
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Hungry Horse:
It's not that I disagree with your well thought out comments on using old material, but here is a counterpoint.
It all depends on how the material is stored. When I find the material I want I will buy a bolt of it or a major portion of a bolt. When I get it home if I need patches I will cut off from the bolt what I need to make the patches or strips. These I will wash twice to remove the sizing then dry and iron them. I then create the patches or strips I will need for the next few months or even a year. The remainder of the bolt is kept in an airtight dark container and stored away from the direct light, heat and cold. I have a partial bolt of material that I bought 8 years ago and since it is the only material of this thickness I use on one single rifle it will last me for many more years. The patches still work great and if I find one lying on the range I still can re-grease it and fire it again.
"Muskrat" Mike
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https://www.onlinefabricstore.com/47-inch-aca-blue-ticking-fabric-.htm
I just posted this ticking material recommendation on another site. I highly recommend this ticking which has a thickness of 0.015" after being washed. It solved my torn/burned patches problems.
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You might consider a Rollie wheel cutter by fiskars while you’re shopping. Look for discount coupon for it.
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And take a dial or digital caliper with you to verify the compressed thickness.
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(https://up.picr.de/41516727nw.jpg)
This is the handiest for carrying into the fabric store.
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I totally agree a measuring device is important when buying any material for patching. An old buckskinner friend of mine gave me a snap-mic that Ames probably made forty years before the one pictured in the previous post. It has saved me from so many material buying mistakes. Before I got the old Ames mic I had a simple plastic dial caliper
that worked fine, but it relied on thumb pressure, where the Ames pretty much duplicates the same pressure every time.
Hungry Horse
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Have you tried micing Muslin at a fabric store? The Jo Anne store here carries it is .015 unwashed.
Tim
And take a dial or digital caliper with you to verify the compressed thickness.
Tim, Did I understand: mixing Muslim? Thanks, Jerry
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Mic-ing = measuring I suspect.
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MUSLIN...not Muslim
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I recently bought a yard of #40 Drill from Joann's. My nearby store was out for weeks, so went to a more distant store. Young lady had trouble with my request - but a more mature lady found it in the utility section. Seemed like nice solid material in the store. I took it home and washed it, tumbled to damp, then draped it on the porch to fully dry. Seems ok. Waiting to get the ok to drive again then I'll test it out. It did measure 017 in the store. after washing it did not lose anything on that measurement. Surely if it works well I'll get another 2 yards.
Too bad they won't ship.