• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Patch material

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
JoeAnn Fabric’s, or probably any store that sells sewing fabric. Bring your calipers. I asked for mattress fabric, it was to thick. Ended up with pillow ticking I believe it’s called. .012 and .018 were available. Remember you need to use the compressed measurement. At the store I shopped in, the blue stripes were .018 and the red strip material was .015. Your experience might be different. Buy it by the yard, wash it and cut it into strips. Easy-Peasy
 
JoAnn's Fabrics is the fabric store I use. JoAnn's has the best variety of materials. Be sure to use 100% cotton or 100% linen from flax. The cotton will be easier to find.

They have the usual pillow ticking and mattress ticking. I prefer the #40 Cotton drill cloth in the utility cloth section. Seems to be a tighter weave than the tickings and canvas material. There are the denim offerings and various weights of canvas up to about 0.025" thick. My drill cloth measures about 0.018" thick after washing the sizing out and drying in a hot dryer. You do need to take your measuring device with you to check thickness on the bolt. It is easy to make a roll of patching. Patching for 50 caliber rifle is about 1 1/4" wide. Make a cut in your piece of fabric and it will tear along the threads for an even strip of fabric. You can cut the patch to size or use square patches. About every 1 1/4" along the roll cut almost all the way across the strip to have an easy to separate patch as the ball is started. Watch @B P Maniac Shooter's "Beginner's Video" to see this in action. Once you have made a few rolls to meet your needs you will find this easy to do.
 
Walmart-JoAnnes, probably the same fabric from same weaver just half the price at Walmart. But yes, get a half yard of each and see what works best for you. I like on the thinner side so the ball loads and pulls easily without loosing accuracy.
 
The material from Ox Yoke is most excellent. More expensive than a fabric shop but you have it sent to your front door ready to use without totin' your micrometer around from store to store, fooling with washing out the sizing, etc. The pre cut patches in bags of 500 ea. are even better.
 
Where can I buy patchaterial in a roll ??? Or am I dreaming and I cut and roll it
Ya can't.
Like the others are sayin, ya gotta tuck in yer shirt, an walk in a local fabric shop.
Ya might feel funny tryin it by yourself, so grab a sister or mom or niece or a girl ya trust that can lead ya around the place,, that first time can be hard.
When ya find something that looks good, grab the whole thing (a bolt of fabric), walk up to the big table they got,
(Don't worry, the gals will look at ya funny) and say;
"I want a 1/4 yard",, they cut it, and hand ya a piece of paper with the fabric that say's what they cut.
That be a great big piece 9"s wide and either 36" or 48" long (it say's that on the bolt end)
Look for stuff that's 100% cotton,(it says that too), Algodon is cotton.

Good luck, it was easy for me, Mom was a seamstress,,
 
Last edited:
Definitely take a woman with you to the fabric store. I went in Jo Anns one day to buy knitting needles just for taking tangles out of my bait casting reel. I thought I was going to have to beat up 3 old ladies but they looked to be in their 80s and besides, there were three of them so I wouldn't have come out alive. I was so embarrassed and I even had my wife with me.
Also, I had bought some pillow ticking recently in Jo Anns. It was the .018" ticking. I had to wash it twice to get all the sizing out of it but now it shoots just fine.
 
If you don't want to look like a complete newb at Joanne's, remember to DOWNLOAD THE COUPON to your phone (or print it out). They ALWAYS have at least a 40% off coupon online and sometimes a 50% off (or both). Oh, and check out the "Remnants" bins while there. I usually find an almost-yard of canvas that is just right for a rifle sleeve or bags at half-off. And yes, I am always the only "gentleman" in the store and get strange looks.

I have bought both the blue thicker ticking and the red thinner ticking and found both satisfactory.
 
I've solved my patching woes. I love my copy of a home built Appalachian rifle , with the perfect size grease hole in the stock. When cutting the grease hole , I simply made the hole the size of the patches. All to do is to put my favorite grease on the raw .015 patches , they stick in the grease hole stacked up , ready to pick out one at a time. No sweat. If I can make loading easier , I don't swear as much.
 
Pillow ticking is just twill woven fabric. It doesn't have to be stripped to work (see ox yoke). This just makes it easier to identify. Blue Jean fabric is also twill woven but usually to thick.
 
I’ve bought at both JoAnns and Walmart. While there, also get some heavy cotton flannel for cleaning patches. Bring calipers, red and blue pillow ticking work well, duck canvas is a bit thicker. All have nice tight weaves.
 
Just clean the shop grease off your calipers or micrometer before use at the fabric store. The folks there could get testy otherwise. JoAnn’s stores are fun places to look around in. They have all kinds of craft stuff. Same way with Hobby Lobby. And I never take my wife. It would cost me way more than the price of a yard or two of fabric.
 
I've purchased patching and cleaning materials at JoAnne, wally and other places that I don't recall. Never got a funny look. Always the nicest people you could hope for.

I don't bother with calipers or micrometer when shopping. Buy three or four small pieces of what seems like good candidates, wash them and try them. Maybe try two different ball sizes. When you find the one that works buy more.....lots more. 😀

You can measure it later if you want but it's results that matter.
 
I tend to buy my cotton at Walmart. look for striped pillow ticking or unbleached muslin. Always check the label to ensure that it says 100% cotton. When looking for linen I go to JoAnn fabric. There isn't one in my town so only go occasionally. Do check for the coupon.
 
I have to tell an amusing story. There's a real good quilting store downtown where I buy all my fabric for 18th century shirts, and other related projects. Last time I went in there, the lady behind the sales desk asked what I was making. I replied that I was making an 18th century waistcoat. Without batting an eyelash, or missing a beat, she said "Oh yeah, we get quite a few reenactors in here."

OK, back to our original programming.
 
The FIRST time I went into Jo-Ann's with my Micrometer, I got funny looks. When I made my selection and went to the cutting table, the nice lady asked what i was doing. When I explained my wants and process, she became very helpful; got me out of the pillow ticking/mattress ticking isle, took me to the utility fabrics, and showed me I had options. She understood the need for 100% cotton and tight weave. I left with .012, .015, .018, .023 and a jean fabric at .032. Blue stripe, red stripe, no stripe, tan, dark blue, and black. One quarter of a yard of each, and a coupon to return. I washed and tumbled each lot, then ironed them to get the wrinkles out.

I measured, cut, lubed, loaded and shot for a whole day. Then I went back and bought off the same bolt about a 4 or 5 year supply of three of them.

I went back and picked up YARDS of on-sale 100% cotton fleece in three colors, and now have cleaning patches for life. (cleaning and shooting patches are cut on a drill press with various hole saws modified for the purpose. Fast and efficient.)

When I go back in the store from time to time, they sure remember me!

ADK Bigfoot
 
JoeAnn Fabric’s, or probably any store that sells sewing fabric. Bring your calipers. I asked for mattress fabric, it was to thick. Ended up with pillow ticking I believe it’s called. .012 and .018 were available. Remember you need to use the compressed measurement. At the store I shopped in, the blue stripes were .018 and the red strip material was .015. Your experience might be different. Buy it by the yard, wash it and cut it into strips. Easy-Peasy

Be prepared to get some strange looks from the ladies that work in the fabric department when they see you going through their rolls of material with a pair of calipers.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top