Flax Tow As Wadding

[Tallswife]

Wool---Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other animals, including cashmere and mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, hide and fur clothing from bison, angora from rabbits, and other types of wool from camelids. Wool consists of protein together with a small percentage of lipids. In this regard it is chemically quite distinct from the more dominant textile, cotton, which is mainly cellulose.

Flax---also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, Linum usitatissimum, in the family Linaceae.It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climate.Textiles made from flax are known in Western countries as linen, and are traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen.Its oil is known as linseed oil.

TOW---In the textile industry, a tow (or hards) is a coarse, broken fibre, removed during processing flax, hemp, or jute and separated from the chives. Flax tows are often used as upholstery stuffing and oakum. Tows in general are frequently cut up to produce staple fibre.


Wool is naturally flame resistant and offers a greater level of fire safety than other fibres. In addition, wool does not melt, drip or stick to the skin when it burns. Wool's inherent fire resistance comes from its naturally high nitrogen and water content, requiring higher levels of oxygen in the surrounding environment in order to burn. Yes it has an odor

Wadding is a disc of material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile or to separate powder from shot. Wadding can be crucial to a gun's efficiency, since any gas that leaks past a projectile as it is being fired is wasted. A harder or more carefully designed item which serves this purpose is often called a sabot

 

[Grenadier1758]

Thank you @Tallswife for clearly defining specifically the differences in those materials that can be used for wadding.

I have used tow from flax as a cleaning wad. The coarse fibers work great in removing fouling from the bore.