Great Patch Material

[Herb]

I have found a material I really like, got it at HomeFabrics and Rugs in Idaho Falls, but they have a web site http://homefabricsonline.com, with stores in a number of states.  Call that up, click on fabrics and then canvas and enter search number 210881.  This is "natural canvas, item 210881, at $6.99 a yard, which is 36" x 60" at the Idaho store.  The web site says $5.99 and 36x54, but the yard I got is about 60" wide.   This would yield about 759 1 3/4" square patches for my .58 at a cost of 96 cents per hundred.  It is white, very tight weave, soft, looks like linen on one side and is ridged on the other.  It mikes about .021 with the ratchet and about .013 or .014 crushed, which is what happens when you load.  So it is a thick patch.  I shot it in my .58 flint Hawken with 120 grains of Goex 2F, picked up the patches, washed them, and shot them in my .54 Bridger Hawken, and they could have been used again.  I also got a linen, Item 291404, "LD4006KA solid linen" at $9.99 per yard, which was 40 x 62".  It mikes .020 and crushes to .012.  This store has more linen than anyplace I know.

[smylee grouch]

Thanks for that info Herb. Did you get the chance to try the linen out yet?

[moleeyes36]

Herb, was the material washed and dried before you measured the thickness with the micrometer or was it unwashed when measured?

[Old Ford2]

Hi,
Except for #4 ( a flyer??) that is a pretty fine group for 100 yds.
Show us more!
Question: You don't trim your patches at loading??
Fred

[Herb]

Yes, I have shot the linen and I like it.  I have several yards of linens from HomeFabric.  This "canvas" material has no sizing (starch) in it, is quite soft, so no need to wash it.  It is nothing like canvas.  I just cut the patches 1 3/4" square with scissors, don't cut at the muzzle.  They don't need to be quite that big, but I cut some too small, maybe 1 1/2" square, and they were hard to keep covered around the ball and accuracy wasn't as good.  Sometimes I get a flyer like that and don't know why.  I don't think it is my holding or 80 year-old eyes, starting to develop cataracts.  But it might be how I take up the recoil at the bench, or more likely how I see the sights.  I was working with patches for a 400 yard group, so that is why the heavy loads.  Actually, I just discovered that measure really holds 130 grains of Goex 2F, which gave 1765 fps, so these patches took that velocity.  I made a new one to hold exactly 120 grains of Goex 2F.

[William Worth]

I was just recently looking at the canvas drop cloths sold at Lowes and wondering if they might make a decent patch material.  It must be a pretty tight weave to reliably stop paint.  It did seem rather stiff.

[Herb]

This "canvas" is very soft, that is not a good name for it.  The reason the price was higher in Idaho Falls is that they'd  lost the tags off the bolt and didn't know what it was so called it item 165026 "canvas bluemist texture" WHITE.  I kept bugging them by phone until they figured out what it really is.  I need to order two more yards for my big bores.

[Daryl]

I'd be careful winding the mic's barrel too hard - crushing the fabric as you call it.  When I do that with an 'empty' (no fabric between the jaws) mic, I get the same reduction from a ratcheted reading as you get, but it is is merely bending the mic's body itself as it is impossible to crush the mic's anvils, but easy to bend it's body with the quick thread of the barrel's winding mechanism creating enormous pressure at the anvils.

Herb- this is not to detract from your post. That patching seems to be doing a really good job in your rifle an it you are happy with it and it works for others - great - it's certainly cheaper than 10 ounce or 12 ounce denim that I'm using. Wish is was available here- I'll have to look.
 

[Herb]

You must have a grip like a gorilla.  When I crush my mike's jaws, I get only a one-thousandths reduction.  This in my $5 Herter's mike from the 1960's, made in Germany.  If you want that fabric, just order it off the HomeFabrics.com website.

[Herb]

I just registered on the HomeFabric web site.  They have coupons, think I'll wait for one of those.  Easiest way to get this natural canvas is to order it by phone from the  Idaho Falls store, they told me they would send it out.  I dealt with Shauna and April.  Just tell them you want that number, 210881 the natural canvas that Herb wanted to use for muzzleloader shooting patches. Phone number 208-524-7135.  Two years ago I got some really good linen there, "Hopsack Cream Line Item 161353" at $7.99 per yard.  Idaho couldn't find it, but it is on the web site as limited availability.  This is .020 on the ratchet but compresses to only .014, that is a thick linen.  I intend to order another two yards of it, soon as I figure out how to add several items to the basket on the web site.

[Daryl]

You must have a grip like a gorilla.  When I crush my mike's jaws, I get only a one-thousandths reduction.  This in my $5 Herter's mike from the 1960's, made in Germany.  If you want that fabric, just order it off the HomeFabrics.com website.

I don't understand - you noted .021" with the ratchet, but .013" to .014" that is more than .001" difference.

As to grip - ask Don Getz. I'm lacking the hand strength these days, but used to crush coconuts and sometimes inmate's wrists when I was a young fellow

[Herb]

You said you got that reading with an empty mike, just bending the jaws. 

[Daryl]

Herb  - your words    "It mikes about .021 with the ratchet and about .013 or .014 crushed, which is what happens when you load." from your first paragraph.

If I close the my mic, then crank on the barrel, I can get that same bending of the mic's arch that you show when cranking on the cloth - "crushed" - your words - which is not a true measurement- you are actually bending the tool if running it much past the ratcheted closing.

[Herb]

So it is .014 instead of .013.

[Jerry V Lape]

I ordered both the canvas and linen from your source in Idaho Falls.  Then it was shipped to me from their store in Mesa, AZ about 4 miles away.  Haven't had a chance to try it yet but I will soon.  The canvas isn't much different than others I have but the linen is the first I have found which is thick enough for me.  Thanks.  Next time I will save the $8 shipping and just stop by the local branch.