Have Been Using A Different Approach Making Felt Wads.

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We had a photographer hang around here for a few years taking photos of western ranchers and ranch life. Beautiful stuff. One year a lady tagged along and she bought up a bunch of old hats and some jeans View attachment 240270from people, somebody said she sold them in a vintage shop in New York City.
Well just to show how miserly ....................... urh thrifty lets say( sounds ever so much better) I figure most of them like the one in your picture come "pre- lubed" already ! Just think of the money saved on bear oil and bees wax! 😄
 
Pack of Wonder Wads, 100 pieces, in .36 caliber after taxes in Canada about $18.00 Canadian ($13.60 USD) puts them at 18 cents a wad, the last batch I made I calculated at 10 cents a wad. On the plus side I found a farm about an hour from me that sells beef tallow for $2.99 Can ($2.26 US) a pound. I was using lamb tallow but the farm I get it from raised their price to $40.00 Can ($30.20 US) a pound. I'm switching over to Beef Tallow.
I see midway USA has them in some calibers for two cents a piece, and that's a pretty good price I think.
Squint
 
Tweeter was a boy scout fore she went to Vietnam, found out the hard way, nobody gives a damn.

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Traveling Wilbury's, (Dylan, Harrison, Orbison, Petty, Lynn) supergroup from the late 80's. Song supposedly written mostly by Dylan and Petty, main verses sung by Dylan. Recorded on first album. Song lyrics roam around here and there, alot have no connection. Supposedly meant to be that way. Great group of musicians, great music from some of the greatest of the day. After Roy Orbison passed away word was that the rest of the group talked of Del Shannon joining, replacing Roy, but Del passed away, Harrison lost interest and the group never recorded or performed again. Great music and performers as were the supergroup 'The Highwaymen'. This is off subject but Wireforhire appeared to be wondering about Karma's post.

Nifty forum handle "Tweeter" from Canada! 👍🙂
 
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Traveling Wilbury's, (Dylan, Harrison, Orbison, Petty, Lynn) supergroup from the late 80's. Song supposedly written mostly by Dylan and Petty, main verses sung by Dylan. Recorded on first album. Song lyrics roam around here and there, alot have no connection. Supposedly meant to be that way. Great group of musicians, great music from some of the greatest of the day. After Roy Orbison passed away word was that the rest of the group talked of Del Shannon joining, replacing Roy, but Del passed away, Harrison lost interest and the group never recorded or performed again. Great music and performers as were the supergroup 'The Highwaymen'. This is off subject but Wireforhire appeared to be wondering about Karma's post.

Nifty forum handle "Tweeter" from Canada! 👍🙂
Yes.^^^ watched a documentary on the band. They all sit around noodling on guitars until they worked out a tune and then they’d write lyrics to fit the music. Interesting process from some of the most talented musicians and wordsmiths around.

And… back to our regular programming…
 
Well just to show how miserly ....................... urh thrifty lets say( sounds ever so much better) I figure most of them like the one in your picture come "pre- lubed" already ! Just think of the money saved on bear oil and bees wax! 😄
Speaking for my favorite topper, that’s some highly corrosive juice in that felt! Blackpowder fouling has nothing on it!
 
Traveling Wilbury's, (Dylan, Harrison, Orbison, Petty, Lynn) supergroup from the late 80's. Song supposedly written mostly by Dylan and Petty, main verses sung by Dylan. Recorded on first album. Song lyrics roam around here and there, alot have no connection. Supposedly meant to be that way. Great group of musicians, great music from some of the greatest of the day. After Roy Orbison passed away word was that the rest of the group talked of Del Shannon joining, replacing Roy, but Del passed away, Harrison lost interest and the group never recorded or performed again. Great music and performers as were the supergroup 'The Highwaymen'. This is off subject but Wireforhire appeared to be wondering about Karma's post.

Nifty forum handle "Tweeter" from Canada! 👍🙂
Thanks, I need to get the recording. WZ
 
Thanks, I need to get the recording. WZ
I don't think I ever wanted to be a cowboy being raised on a dairy farm. I had and loved my riding horse and watched "Rawhide" with Gill Favor and Roudy Yates characters every Friday night after the milking was done, but those weren't the real deal either. I'm not sure even real cowboys thought the life nearly as romantic as Hollywood likes to protray it !
Some how riding drag, eating dust all day long with bacon, beans and hard tac for supper , baking your brains out by day then ,cold.,wet and sleeping on the ground by night, for a dollar a day would kinda loose it's appeal after the first couple of weeks me thinks !
I would guess the real cowboys didn't think of themselves as particularly different/ special they were just adapting to the environment they were born into and making the best of it or turning outlaw !
 
I don't think I ever wanted to be a cowboy being raised on a dairy farm. I had and loved my riding horse and watched "Rawhide" with Gill Favor and Roudy Yates characters every Friday night after the milking was done, but those weren't the real deal either. I'm not sure even real cowboys thought the life nearly as romantic as Hollywood likes to portray it !
Some how riding drag, eating dust all day long with bacon, beans and hard tac for supper , baking your brains out by day then ,cold.,wet and sleeping on the ground by night, for a dollar a day would kinda loose it's appeal after the first couple of weeks me thinks !
I would guess the real cowboys didn't think of themselves as particularly different/ special they were just adapting to the environment they were born into and making the best of it or turning outlaw !
 
I don't think I ever wanted to be a cowboy being raised on a dairy farm. I had and loved my riding horse and watched "Rawhide" with Gill Favor and Roudy Yates characters every Friday night after the milking was done, but those weren't the real deal either. I'm not sure even real cowboys thought the life nearly as romantic as Hollywood likes to protray it !
Some how riding drag, eating dust all day long with bacon, beans and hard tac for supper , baking your brains out by day then ,cold.,wet and sleeping on the ground by night, for a dollar a day would kinda loose it's appeal after the first couple of weeks me thinks !
I would guess the real cowboys didn't think of themselves as particularly different/ special they were just adapting to the environment they were born into and making the best of it or turning outlaw !
That’s pretty accurate in my experience. It’s not an easy life for the average cowboy, if there is such a thing, long hours, low pay, hard work in all weather conditions, in my fathers words, “it ain’t for sissies.” But it’s really almost a calling for those who are bent that way. I know guys who would probably do it for free if it came to that. A good friend of mine is pushing 80 and works every day. Not so much on horseback these days but his long years as a cowboy have left him busted up, riddled with arthritis, near penniless and unable (and maybe unwilling) to ever retire. He does have a couple of good saddle horses and a few colts he’ll leave to his kids. (His second wife left him long ago) He’s not a special case, lots of old cowboys end up just like Jack. Most of them do believe it’s a romantic life and couldn’t imagine anything else.
 
Next month I'm making 1/4 inch thick lubed wads for my .36 cal 51 Navy. Just for fun I'll do a material balance and calculate the % Scrap of Felt & Lube. I'll start a separate thread showing the calculations and % Yields and % Scrap and the Costs of Felt Offcut and the lube in the offcuts. I'm picking up the felt tomorrow and the lamb tallow and beeswax I'll get next week. That'll be fun :thumb:
You are overthinking this WAAAYY too much.
Felt is cheap.
If you make square wads ( Don’t laugh. They work fine. Their purpose is to help keep the fouling soft. NOTHING ELSE ) you will not have any waste at all.
You should lube them AFTER punching or cutting them out.
 
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That’s pretty accurate in my experience. It’s not an easy life for the average cowboy, if there is such a thing, long hours, low pay, hard work in all weather conditions, in my fathers words, “it ain’t for sissies.” But it’s really almost a calling for those who are bent that way. I know guys who would probably do it for free if it came to that. A good friend of mine is pushing 80 and works every day. Not so much on horseback these days but his long years as a cowboy have left him busted up, riddled with arthritis, near penniless and unable (and maybe unwilling) to ever retire. He does have a couple of good saddle horses and a few colts he’ll leave to his kids. (His second wife left him long ago) He’s not a special case, lots of old cowboys end up just like Jack. Most of them do believe it’s a romantic life and couldn’t imagine anything else.
I'll be 74 in the fall and am still working the glass trade with my son for a living. I did start to notice in the last couple years the cold gets to me more now as I didn't seem to notice it much before. Boy, the years just seem to sneak up on a fella and one day he realizes he's getting old!
I get asked quite often when I'm going to retire and my answer is " I guess when my toes curl up and the Good Lord retires me"!
I still get a good feeling of accomplishment after a hard job is done and the customer is happy!
The part of me adopted from the Farmer/Cowboy eithos is preferring to die in the traces with my boots still on!
 
Bad Karma, you're a bowyer too! Another great hobby/pastime
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve tillered anything, in fact I gave the last of my staves to a friend of my sons. He’s never tillered anything but he’s an avid longbow man and he wants to try so we’re gonna try to bring him along as much a possible…
 
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve tillered anything, in fact I gave the last of my staves to a friend of my sons. He’s never tillered anything but he’s an avid longbow man and he wants to try so we’re gonna try to bring him along as much a possible…
How about that, I just started another pyramid style Hickory bow (my favorite long bow design) for my second grandson. I have been messing around with trapping the sides ,making the tips stiff, laminating on Ipe bellies and most recently fire hardening the bellies of Hickory making them almost the equal of Old Sage Orange (Bodark) or Yew in compression.
Apparently the Eastern Indians were aware of the process as they often would make bows of lighting struck trees and then learned over time they could create the same effect by baking the bellies of white wood bows over a hot fire.
Any way it sure works well for virtually eliminating string follow in white wood bows as it reinforces the belly wood cells against compression collapse.
 
I'm going to have to knock a bow out pretty quick. I had my shoulder fixed a year ago and it's still not up to my 55lb longbow. I'm going to shoot for 40lbs. I have some assorted staves in the barn, plus a primo hickory board. But the one I'm thinking of using is a piece of hophornbeam shoot. It was about 1¼" at the big end and it's partially tillered already. Should make a decent lightweight bow, that wood is HARD & HEAVY
 
I messed around with felt wads for quite a while, but eventually went back to a lead ball with beeswax/Crisco lube over that. I'm happy with it.
 
How about that, I just started another pyramid style Hickory bow (my favorite long bow design) for my second grandson. I have been messing around with trapping the sides ,making the tips stiff, laminating on Ipe bellies and most recently fire hardening the bellies of Hickory making them almost the equal of Old Sage Orange (Bodark) or Yew in compression.
Apparently the Eastern Indians were aware of the process as they often would make bows of lighting struck trees and then learned over time they could create the same effect by baking the bellies of white wood bows over a hot fire.
Any way it sure works well for virtually eliminating string follow in white wood bows as it reinforces the belly wood cells against compression collapse.
interesting, made me curious so I took a look at the old Leatherwall. Darned if some of the old posters are still there. Tim Baker seems to be around, Jawge just passed away… Dean Torges did some time ago…
 
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