Patch material thickness?

[Valkyrie]

Why wash it? I use it straight without washing and don’t have any issues?

 

[Stumpkiller]

No,I own a set of digital calipers, but I figured thin cloth would be hard to measure accurately. I guess if one measures it with calipers you would let your calipers squeeze it hard,or am wrong? I use my calipers for reloading, and they function plenty well enough for the task ,but they probably are not idea for measuring material thickness.

Use no more pressure that you can apply and still get a zero reading with the jaws empty. You will distort the jaws (especially with a micrometer) if you twist them hard. That's why the good ones have a clutch.

 

[dragnetbill]

Be very careful about the color. Blue always shoots to the left and red always shoots to the right.

I have a little ticking material that has red, white, blue and black stripes; it shoots wherever it wants too.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Why wash it? I use it straight without washing and don’t have any issues?

The material has a sizing (starch like) additive to make the material feel smooth on the bolt and handle easier for the clerks to measure and cut. When you wash the material, you remove the sizing, make the fabric more supple to go into the groove, compress better on the lands, take lubricant into the fiber and shrink slightly to make a tighter weave.

If you are buying your patching precut from your local gun store, then you are buying prewashed material.

If it works for you fine, but I do suggest that you wash, dry and test to see if there isn't an improvement.

 

[Barry Strickland]

OK, I'm going to show my "geezerness" here. Pillow ticking was made purposely with a very high thread count. The reason was to prevent pin feathers from working through the pillow and poking you in the face. It was typically white with blue stripes. After washing the sizing out of a piece of cotton material hold it up to the sky and see how many pinholes you can see through it. The high thread count will show very few holes. The bad stuff that has come on the market for some time is a thinner material with a lower thread count. Looking through it is like looking through a sieve. Do this with any thickness material you use to be sure it has a high thread count. How I miss Indian Head Cotton. It was a thin material (flour sacks) that was great for shallow groove rifling.

 

[Grenadier1758]

That's one of the reasons I like cotton pocket drill cloth (#40 utility cloth from JoAnn's). It has a high thread count and is supposed to use three threads in the weave. Once you wash it in very hot water and dry on high heat, there are very few holes to be seen. Even that cloth can be sourced from various vendors. The latest pieces I have bought end up at 0.017" thick and compresses to about 0.010".

 

[Dr5x]

THERE SEEMS TO BE A FIRM BELIEFE THAT ALL TICKING I EXACTLY ALIKE. TICKING FROM THE '50'S ISVEXACTLY LIKR TODAY'S TICKING.
.THESE DIFFERENT FBRICS MAY LOOK AND EVEN FEEL THE SAME BUT PROBABLY ARE ALL OVER THE PACE IN THICKNESS.
I HAVE AVOIDED USING TICKING AND PREFERTHE COTTON DENIMS.
AN ODD FACT IS THAT ALL COTTON FABRICS ARE RARE IN EUROPE,


IF YOU FIND A TICKING THAT WORKS WELL FOR YOU, BUY A BUNCH OF IT WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE BECAUSE THE NEXT TICKING YOU FIND MAY BE DIFFERENT ENOUGH TO GREATLY AFFECT YOUR ACCURACY AND YOU'LL WONDER WHY.

DUTCH

OK, I'm going to show my "geezerness" here. Pillow ticking was made purposely with a very high thread count. The reason was to prevent pin feathers from working through the pillow and poking you in the face. It was typically white with blue stripes. After washing the sizing out of a piece of cotton material hold it up to the sky and see how many pinholes you can see through it. The high thread count will show very few holes. The bad stuff that has come on the market for some time is a thinner material with a lower thread count. Looking through it is like looking through a sieve. Do this with any thickness material you use to be sure it has a high thread count. How I miss Indian Head Cotton. It was a thin material (flour sacks) that was great for shallow groove rifling.

 

[dlpowell]

Everybody has a preference. I determine the optimal patch thickness by ease of loading and accuracy. I also make my patch lube. Been shooting bp since the 70's. Never owned a caliper to measure patch thickness. From a bench I can get 5 shots touching in the center of the target at 50 yards. That's accurate enough for me. This is a simple sport.

 

[Dr5x]

YOU HAVE A FAIRLY SENSITIVE TOUCH TO SELECT YOUR PATCHING MATERIAL,
A LOT OF US ARE ALL THUMBS AND NEED EXTRA DEVICES TO KEEP US ON THE RIGHT PATH.
WHATEVER WORKS BEST IS BEST.

DUTCH

Everybody has a preference. I determine the optimal patch thickness by ease of loading and accuracy. I also make my patch lube. Been shooting bp since the 70's. Never owned a caliper to measure patch thickness. From a bench I can get 5 shots touching in the center of the target at 50 yards. That's accurate enough for me. This is a simple sport.

 

[Zeb]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I bought some a Walmart yesterday. I have been going there for years,and had no Idea they sold it ,and I was surprised how cheap. I didn't have calipers, but I bought a piece of the blueish gray stripe,and a piece of the red stripe in case they measured different. I bought 8 inches of each,and figure that will be enough for around 400 patches. I measured them when I got home,and they measured the same.I doubled it and held pressure on the thumb wheel of my calipers, and slowly let up on the wheel till the material would slide through while pulling it.I came up with .029.5" for each piece.The small strip of it that I got with the gun measured .028.7" ,so it is all pretty close. I only measured each piece once, because with the variables in thumb pressure, and effort in pulling the material through the caliper jaws I know that I could get slightly different readings,and I figured I am close enough with the first measurement.

 

[Dr5x]

You are correct in thinking you will get slightly different thickness measurements using thumb pressures. The same with a micrometer but if you practice on a single piece of cloth, moving from place to place you soon find that you are getting the same measurement every time.

I was amazed at what big difference in my accuracy resulted from such small differences in powder charge, patch lube slickness and patch thickness.

Dutch

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I bought some a Walmart yesterday. I have been going there for years,and had no Idea they sold it ,and I was surprised how cheap. I didn't have calipers, but I bought a piece of the blueish gray stripe,and a piece of the red stripe in case they measured different. I bought 8 inches of each,and figure that will be enough for around 400 patches. I measured them when I got home,and they measured the same.I doubled it and held pressure on the thumb wheel of my calipers, and slowly let up on the wheel till the material would slide through while pulling it.I came up with .029.5" for each piece.The small strip of it that I got with the gun measured .028.7" ,so it is all pretty close. I only measured each piece once, because with the variables in thumb pressure, and effort in pulling the material through the caliper jaws I know that I could get slightly different readings,and I figured I am close enough with the first measurement.

 

[Newtire]

Whichever thickness you choose, be sure the powder gasses don't burn thru it. I like that idea someone mentioned of looking thru the fabric to judge the tightness of the weave. Now what to do with the stuff I got on sale at Walmart?

 

[Zeb]

It seems to me that what I picked up a Walmart is pretty tightly woven. I only bought 8 inches,but got 9 inches of each,and one piece has the brand Waverly on the edge.I assume they are both the same brand though..If I cut this into patches what is the ideal size for square patches for 50 cal.?

 

[Darkhorse]

Take a small piece of that Walmart Ticking and hold a match to it. If it burns your OK, but if it starts to drip a little throw it all away because it's not 100% cotton. You don't want that stuff coating your barrel each time you shoot.
I bought some patching material from the folks at eastern maine shooting supplies because I wanted check out his .015 ticking. It was a lot denser with a higher thread count than what I had found at a fabric store. The price was right also. Check out his site, they have a large selection of thickness's. This is their ebay site.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ssn=easternmaineshootingsupplies&rt=nc

 

[tenngun]

I bought an expensive linen shirt. Wore it out and thought it would make good rag tinder. Came out of my tinder cooker little burnt pieces of plastic .... so check first.