Patch Material Source

[54Bucks]

 I recently did a search on fabrics and was surprised to find that many offer fabrics/patch material for sale online. I tried  Fabric.com and ordered their 10 oz. Bull Denim in Natural color. Washed and dried it measures .020-.022 by my calipers. I'm thinking it's going to snug up some of my loads that I've been using a standard .018 ticking with. For those not close to a fabric store, check them out.Their price for the 10 oz. Bull Denim was $7.98 plus shpg. per yard, and came from Ga. in about 4 days.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

Don't know where you are but surely you have a WalMart in your area. Great source of fabrics in there, and you don't have to go to a dedicated fabric store. Just bring your caliper.

[Daryl]

The Walmart here no longer sells fabrics.

[markwi]

The Walmart around southeastern Wisconsin are selling frabric again. They stopped for a couple of years. I will be going there this weekend and see what they have to offer. Mark

[bgf]

My top picks at the Walmart fabric center are: 1) the 100% cotton "super flannel" for cleaning patches; 2) the cotton duck for thick shooting patches; 3) the "super muslin" for thinner patch needs (I use it in pistol, on woodswalk, etc.).  I had good luck a long time ago with their blue ticking, but one batch I bought was much thinner, and then they did not have it at all for a while.  I'm playing with some "medium weight" denim now, but need to replace a burnt out vent liner before I'll know if it is good, which I suspect it will be. 

A stop by can be good entertainment, depending on whether the salesperson is hip to ML'ing.  I've gotten everything from strange looks to good advice (one lady's son was a MLing shooter and she was paying attention to what people like me were buying/liking).

[Daryl]

The sewing centre here has the 'best' material marked for our needs.

[KNeilson]

Since Ive stared MZloading, I learned a few things...  In Surrey BC, there are more Fabric stores than Starbucks, and the ladies give you funny looks when you measure or say color or pattern doesnt matter when purchasing cloth. At the store I go to( Fabricana)one woman has taken a more curious approach to what I`m doing and has educated me a bit on fabrics.. an interesting thing to me was the quality or repeatability of the fabric has a lot to do with the operator of the loom. This to explain why some bolts were thicker/thinner than others. This being one of the reasons I stop using scraps of cloth in the first place as I was searching for more uniformity than I had atm. Paying for a purchase,I grinned one day as one of her colleauges asked her what I did with the cloth. She said he "cuts it into small pieces and throws it away"...       Kerry

[Daryl]

HA! - yes - forgot about the "colour or pattern don't matter" response.  We've been going to the store downtown long enough, she's educated her employees to the 'shooting' aspect of the cloth we purchase.  If a shooter (whom she doesn't know to be one of "us" has purchased a different cloth than already marked as ' for shooting patches' by her, she'll show it to me and ask it's it's OK to show to the others.  I don't know who bought it, but twice nowwith 2 different guys, the material has been thin and useless for patching - perhaps they're making a shirt of something, although they said it was for shooting. They thought our 'marked' bolts, that we about all use, women included, were too thick.

Hope they show up some day, so we can help them.

[halfstock]

 ;DSome of these dudes are so concerned about their man hood that they won't go near a fabric store unless they are in complete costume so as not to be detected. lmao So I doubt you'll ever see them in person.

[Dave R]

Several years ago I dropped by a local fabric store with a mike, I began miking the fabric, A nice store clerk remarked to another clerk " Oh this man has a device to measure the thickness of our material, The other clerk said that's neet what do you use the fabrick for sir?I announced I wrap it around my balls then ram them down the barrel! I told her "I bet you wish you did not ask don't you" 

[KNeilson]

 

[Candle Snuffer]

Never hurts to have as many sources as possible for patching material. I normally just get the blue pillow ticking from Walmart (25 miles east of me) and some all white cotton material for cleaning patches.  If they stop handling the fabrics I'd have to look elsewhere, but I don't see this happening any time soon - if at all.  Then again, you never know?

[Bob Roller]

It never does any harm to have as many sources for ANYTHING we use. I found out late last year that some suppliers of spring steel made here in the USA were not as friendly as they once were to small shops. One in NC was friendly in 2003 was seemingly hostile in 2011.
One in Mn.couldn't help me unless I bought a 500 year supply but steered me to one who could and did help and that was Lapham-Hickey near Chicago. Their price was fair and UPS screwed me in the grand manner but that was expected. I found out later that the USPS could have done it for less than half of what I paid UPS.
Redundancy IS the answer here and the old saying about all the eggs in one basket is certainly valid and more so than ever.

[William Worth]

I have had some interesting experiences at the fabric store.

One lady let me up in line at the cashier and I refused.  She said that had we been in a hardware store, that I probably would have done the same for her.

On the same trip, when I explained what I was looking for and why, the clerk lit up and told me about having just gotten her concealed carry permit.  Another customer overhearing us came over to tell us about her husband using the same fabric for patch material.

That's how we are in Kentucky.

[satwel]

None of the Walmarts in Eastern MA near me carry fabrics any more. Luckily, there are several Joanne's Fabrics within easy driving distance. I buy their diaper flannel for cleaning patches and the 40 lb drill cloth for rifle patches. It's in the muslin section. After washing and drying several times, it mikes between .018 and .020.

[Habu]

I asked some questions about some fabric listed on eBay (thickness, thread count, etc) and got a note back asking if I was going to sew it or use it for patch material in my flintlock?  I wound up dealing with the seller's husband; he took a mic to several samples so I could figure out which I needed.  The sample arrived, it worked very well, but when I went to buy more the seller was no longer on eBay. 

Now I just stick with buying local, and by the bolt. 

[FRJ]

I went to the Joannes near me yesterday and caliper in hand decended into no mans land to measure pillow ticking. Found some made in China and it measured .015", .005" thinner than I had been using that was now too tight with the new ball mold I just bought. Got nothing but nice comments from the ladies and none of them even stuck their noses up when I told them what I used it for. The new patching shoots great and I can now start and ram a ball without a hammer. FRJ