Patches square, round, daisy cut...

[Daryl]

I use a 2" thick X 6" X 8" slab of black (reclaimed) UHMW for cutting my round patches with ARCH Punches. I bought 2 of these and gave Taylor one - they cost me $10.00 each at Redwood Plastics, here in PG.

 - here that means|: Ultra-High Molecular Weight (Poluethylene).  In the States this material is simply called something like: HDPE High Density PolyEthyline, I think.

The density of the material makes for a long lasting base for cutting patches from multiple layers of material - can cut hundreds in only a few minutes.

[EC121]

I used a 4lb. hammer and a piece of plastic deck board, but it got circles cut in it and the patches didn't cut clean where the circles were.  Usually the bottom layer of the cloth.  Had to use scissors to finish the cuts.  Still worked pretty well, and I got a workout swinging the hammer.

[Daryl]

I just use a 16 ounce claw hammer.

[JBJ]

Thanks, guys. I have been using large hard maple end grain blocks and tried HDPE cutting boards (circular cuts in the maple blocks and cracking the cutting board were not helpful to crisp patch cutting). Per Daryl's suggestion, will try to locate a more substantial HDPE block and multiple layers of cloth. THANKS again!
J.B.

[Daryl]

The Plastics shop had chunks in the garbage bit or rather call it spare 'chunk' bin - as they charged for those.  The actual garbage bin was outside and had nothing usable in it. I just checked the measurement and yes - it is 2" thick, plus a few thou.
Both surfaces are riddled with circles - been using this for all my patch cutting for a number of years & it is still going strong.  A 16 ounce hammer is all that is needed. The heavier the hammer, the more damage to the arch punch - eh- maybe not - one blow instead of 4?
 I use 4 blows and cut 8 layers at a time of .022". The more layers, usually the more waste there will be. Doesn't take long to cut 200 patches, why, that's like 3 trips to the range.

[EC121]

One day when I am i n town, I'm going to the pawn shops and look for a worn out hole saw and arbor.  The drill press would be the way to go.  My wife used to sew primitive clothes.  I have several yards of tight woven canvas.

[Don Steele]

After reading all these contributions, I thought I oughta offer mine too.
I use pre-cut patches. If you cut-at-the-muzzle...all this goes away. 
I must be one of the odd-balls here in that I don't see a need for power tools, hammers of any size, or any other schemes to modernize and mechanize the production of shooting patches. 
Frankly, I enjoy producing my pre-cut patches. I cut a strip of appropriate width from the bolt of material I'm using, then proceed to draw appropriately sized circles on it, using the bottom of a pill bottle for a template. Once that's done, I cut in between those little circles producing a small pile of little squares. Take each little cotton square and carefully follow the circular line around with my nice sharp LEFT-HAND scissors ( best Christmas Gift EVER..!!) thusly producing one round shooting patch. I know...I know...they don't NEED to be round.  Set that one on the bench, pick up another of my little squares and repeat the process.  With my radio playing quietly in the background...this is a surprisingly relaxing way to spend some time. To a casual observer, I probably look like some "crazy old guy sitting in the corner with scissors...humming old songs with a silly smile on his face"...but that might apply to a lot of us here so I figure I'm in good company.  It's almost addicting, in that I sometimes find myself wanting to just go in the office and cut patches, despite the fact that I have waayyyy more then enough for the next coupla months of shooting. I only shoot about 100-120 rds a week, year round, so as you can see...I don't need much.

[g2608671@verizon.net]

Let's see, on average that's 5,720 patches a year. Now that's a lot of scissors work! 
I like it, especially the part about listening to the radio. I don't think many people listen to the radio these days.

[Skirmisher]

Twice I have found old oiled patches in the boxes of old rifles and they were square.  Apparently they worked.
Jim L