JoAnn fabrics files for bankruptcy

[Don Steele]

Just an FYI:
A lot of us have favorite patch materials we find at JoAnn fabrics. I just saw a report this morning that they have filed for bankruptcy protection.  I believe I’ll check my supply on hand and possibly go pick up a few yards of anything I’m low on. 

[P.W.Berkuta]

Thanks for the info

[J.M.Browning]

The stores will remain open while they restructure- they are not closing at this point .

[PIKELAKE]

Sometime ago, someone mentioned a certain fabric and its number that they were using for patches and it was from JoAnn's. I wrote it down somewhere, and who knows where it is. If that information registers, could someone supply it. I sure would appreciate it .   Thanks.  JZ

[Tumbledown]

JoAnn's had a big bump from covid and all of the home crafting. Unfortunately, crafting slowed back down and inflation has made people cut spending where they can.

[Don Steele]

Sometime ago, someone mentioned a certain fabric and its number that they were using for patches and it was from JoAnn's. I wrote it down somewhere, and who knows where it is. If that information registers, could someone supply it. I sure would appreciate it .   Thanks.  JZ

That may be their “ 100% Cotton Drill 40”. It’s a smooth, tight weave fabric that works real well as patch material. When I measure it with a caliper I get .015”, tightly compressed. They also sell a good quality 10 Oz Denim.
I hope they survive reorganization..👍

[Eric Krewson]

I started using pocket drill for patches last year, my guns really like it, I will never use ticking again.

[Dphariss]

Just an FYI:
A lot of us have favorite patch materials we find at JoAnn fabrics. I just saw a report this morning that they have filed for bankruptcy protection.  I believe I’ll check my supply on hand and possibly go pick up a few yards of anything I’m low on. 

I have not found useable patch material in JoAnn’s for years.
Don’t even look anymore.

[Daryl]

The 10 ounce, 12 and 14 denim I have been using for years still works fine for me, as patching material.
Over the last couple years, I've been using the newer 10 ounce that I measure at .021" heavily compressed in calipers.
It's been working very well. It also compresses .0015" more than the 10 ounce denim I bought 6 or more years ago, so
the mfg'r is different than prior.
Although it compresses more, it still seems to work very well in my .36, .50, 20 bore and .69. I saw, at a Joanne's store in
Yuma, Ar. some years back, 11 ounce denim. That would be about perfect, imho and wish the stores here had it. They don't.
I also used this 10 ounce denim with bore sized balls in the .36, my now gone .40, and the .69. With the .690" balls, it was
a little snug, but loadable with the Hickory rod that was in the rifle then. I had an opportunity to have an Osage rod made for
the rifle, and jumped at the opportunity. The old Hickory rod split some 10 or more years ago & was repaired with CA glue. Worked
& still have it as a spare.

[Carl Young]

My wife, who collects fabric like we do rifles, recommends the cotton pocket drill at WallyMart (I think it is made in India). She has a college degree in fabric & custom clothing, and close to 60 years experience from period clothing to dresses that cost 5+ figures. It may be a regional/deep south thing, I don't know. But it is something to consider if you don't have a JoAnn's or like our town the JoAnn closed.

Regards,
Carl

[Bob Roller]

The only patches I ever used were cleaning patches for the M1 Garand and had a big bag of them from Wes Kindig.That was long ago and Wes passed away in 1973.

Bob Roller

[Leatherbark]

I started using pocket drill for patches last year, my guns really like it, I will never use ticking again.

Same here.  With the No. 40 drill patch material there is a brown circular outline of my rifling with no evidence ever of burn through or gases bypassing.  I'll swear someday I'm going to recover and reuse one of those patches to see how many firings it will survive.

Bob

[Daryl]

Here is some testing we did on a .60 cal. Hawken Rifle that had the barrel shortened. ON this day, we used re-claimed patches, we re-lubed - on the left and right hand targets.
The target in the middle was shot with fresh patches.
This barrel had very deep rifling, in the .025" range. We used .034" thick(14ounce), reclaimed patches (fired from my .69 rifle) with .595" balls in the .60. Shooting was from a
single rest, bench at 50 yards. The powder was GOEX 2F.
In the past, I have, in my .69 used the same patch for a 5 shot group. The patch was still "vital" after being shot 5 times & could have gone another 2 or 3 shots for sure.

[Longknife]

I always go to JoAnn's for my shooting patch material. They have the widest selectin and best prices of anyone.

[alacran]

I use JoAnn's 40 drill for most of my rifles and for my pistols. It does not work for my .58 or my .61 Jaegers. I use a very tightly woven canvas .020 lubed with bear oil on these. The drill does not hold up on either of these rifles.

[MuskratMike]

Stopped in yesterday and bought some more red stripped ticking. I need the thinner ticking in my 40's as a use a .395 ball and with my lube of 50/50 T.O.T.W. mink and pure neatsfoot oil I get great accuracy and never have a burn through on the patches. It did seem like they had less inventory than usual.

[recurve]

went yesterday bought a half bolt of the 10oz replacement called Bull denim and 2 yrds of 12oz denim sold out of pocket drill in all sizes reading pa store

most stuff 30-50% off the denim 25% off

[Daryl]

Denim is VERY expensive here. When on sale which is not often it's usually 50% off, but normally it's over $30.00 per meter (39.37").
Daryl

[Leatherbark]

The Jo-Ann's in Beckley WV had everything on sale Tuesday.  The No. 40 Cotton Drill cloth was normally $7.99 a yard and they had it 30 % off.  The shelves were starting to look bare as if they were planning on going out of business. Could be because of the bankruptcy plus there is a Michael's craft store going in nearby.  So, I bought 10 yards of the drill cloth. Hopefully that will do me until I'm 100.

Bob

[Robby]

Seems like that outfit files for bankruptcy about every ten years or so.
Robby

[Marcruger]

I throw this out every once in a while.   The Minute Men patching canvas (I order plain not teflon) is the tightest weave, toughest cloth I have ever run into.  Like the weave of carbon fiber.  You cannot see sunlight through it before or after firing.  I have used it since around 2009, and never found anything to compare to it.  Call and leave a message.  He doesn't use email or the internet as far as I can tell.   No, I did not discover it.  My friend Dave who wins matches every year at Friendship put me onto it. 

[Rosetree]

I wanted to try the Drill cloth.   My local store - 3 mi - was out.  tried another local - 12 mi out - both had no stock.
I used the drop-down box to look for stores that had stock.  One did - Downingtown, Pa.  Called and asked for a stock check, and she said the actually had it.  ( 20 yd ).
Drove up and got 4 yds.
Also, she told me everything was OK with the re-org.  No significant issues.  And expected most stores to remain open.
One thing of interest to the online shopper is that the counter sale is not tied to inventory control.  Maybe you can't to that with fabrics. 

[Maven]

Just got back from my local JoAnn fabric store and asked directly whether the local store would be closing:  It isn't going to.  As for patching, there was plenty of all cotton fabrics, including denim, some pillow ticking, Osnaburg (a tad thin), muslin, etc.  Like many of you, I take my micrometer with me and measure fabric thickness, i.e., suitability for ML guns.  I purchased some ~.015" - .016" pillow ticking, but they also had the .014" versions in red and blue as well as white flannel for cleaning patches in all manner of guns.  Btw, the woman who helped me knew all about said materials for ML'ing guns as her husband shoots, builds, and repairs them.

[Daryl]

That's handy having a salesperson like that, instead of the blank stares I get. "You shoot it out of a GUN?"
Last Jo-Annes I was in, was in Yuma Arizona, some years back and they had 11 ounce. I was thinking that
would be perfect in EVERY rifle with a .005" undersized ball and with .010" in many, with .025" to .030" undersized
balls in smoothbores.

[Sharpsman]

WalMart has all the pillow ticking you'll ever need!