Homemade cleaning Patches

[rcscott30]

I've been doing a lot more shooting since my last move and cleaning patches online have become expensive ordering every month. What material do you all use for your own patches?

 

[garypl]

100% cotton flannel from JoAnn or Hobby Lobby or any other fabric store. I use pinking shears to cut them into any size you want and they are less expensive than anything you can buy precut. Also repurpose olf T shirts for free!

 

[rcscott30]

100% cotton flannel from JoAnn or Hobby Lobby or any other fabric store. I use pinking shears to cut them into any size you want and they are less expensive than anything you can buy precut. Also repurpose olf T shirts for free!

I saw cotton flannel on Walmart website, but it's colored. Will that affect anything?

 

[garypl]

I saw cotton flannel on Walmart website, but it's colored. Will that affect anything?

No, but I have always found white cotton flannel wherever they sell fabric. I just like to be able to better see how much crud is coming out while cleaning, but I expect as long as it's 100% cotton flannel it should all work regardless of color...

 

[deermanok]

I use pretty much any cotton material I can find. Old sheets, pillow cases, tee-shirts, etc.
Color doesn't matter too much but not too dark either.

 

[kyron4]

 

[Duk]

Old white tee-shirts then i can see what comes out

 

[Rancocas]

I mainly use my old, worn-out T-shirts. Sometimes an old flannel shirt. Some of my wife's old blouses and dresses work too. All easy to come by, and I have a pile of it. Cut it into strips or squares appropriate for caliber. Lighter colors show the dirt better, but color really doesn't matter.
I really can't fathom why anyone would buy a cleaning rag.

 

[lou puleff]

I buy the cozy flannel at Joanne by the bolt when it goes on sale usually around the holidays the prices have gone up in the last couple of years but still save a ton of money cutting your own !

 

[Frontstuffer070]

Ya'll actually BUY material and or cleaning patches? I go to a local church clothing ministry and pick out flannel shirts and white cotton shirts. The best part its all free at the ministry. I do donate other unwanted clothing items to them on occasion too though.

 

[lou puleff]

Yes I buy mine due to consistency of the thickness.

 

[SOLANCO]

If your store has a fabric labelled diaper flannel try that. I like it better than the flimsier flannel fabrics. I wash my flannel before cutting to get rid of sizing. Makes it easier to work with.
The diaper flannel is also good for cleaning your eyeglasses. No scratches.

 

[Cruzatte]

I've been doing a lot more shooting since my last move and cleaning patches online have become expensive ordering every month. What material do you all use for your own patches?

I use the least expensive, 100% cotton flannel I can find, tear it into 2" strips, and then proceed to cut the strips into squares. Be sure to run the fabric through the washer & dryer when you get it home

 

[Sir Boniface Harrison]

An old white cotton Tee - shirt. I got 300 round patches out of it, and use the remainder for cleaning patches. I never buy either round patches or cleaning patches.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I am another cheap skate who uses old t-shirts, flannel shirts etc. I even picked up one of those fancy fabric plastic cutting squares and a rolling cutter at a garage sale to cut patches. I can make a few hundred in just a few minutes and one less thing goes to the landfill unused. I can size the patches according to the bore size. A 32 takes a much smaller patch than a 54 or shotgun. If the patch is too thin I double them up. Occasionally that give me practice on retrieving a lost patch. Undersized brass or copper bore brushes work well for that.

 

[rp77469]

Took a queue from my wife and bought a pizza cutter style rolling rolling cutter made by Fiskar. Flannel from Jo-Ann, wash and dry. I use the wife's cutting mat and have at until I have a couple gallon baggies of patches.

 

[deerstalkert]

discarded sheets from a vacation rental. wife buys 1000 thread count sheets. they almost always mic at .015 so i use them for shooting patches also. have enough ruined sheets to last the rest of my life, and then they can wrap me up in what is left.
i even have some that are Red. makes finding fired patches in the snow a snap.
i have some home made shears that i made from two 18 inch planer blades. lock them in a vise and rip the sheets into 2 inch strips. then shear them a dozen at a time.
reminds me i am getting low.

 

[longcruise]

Yes I buy mine due to consistency of the thickness.

Me too. On the scale of cost it's so inexpensive that it's not worth the effort to track down discarded or second hand shop stuff. I start a tear with scissors of the correct width for the caliber and tear off a strip it maintains the width. No need to cut each patch individually. Fold it over and over then cut it across each end. I can make 20 or so in about 30 seconds. A hundred in a few minutes at home or in the field.

 

[rcscott30]

I bought a few yards of flannel on hobby lobby website, 40% off sale. Will measure the thickness of the ticking at my local Walmart before my purchase.

 

[JEBMs]

During the confusion of COVID Walmart had a Black Friday kind of thing going where they would just put huge boxes of stuff in the aisles with low prices on them for a week or so during the thanksgiving week. They had 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheet sets for $25 a set (all sizes) so I picked up 4 sets to make my wife smile. When I checked them out I asked the lady if they rung up at $25 and she said no they were only $10. I paid for my stuff, ran and put it in the truck, and ran back in. I got my son and his wife 4 sets and got us 4 more sets and got me 2 for well . . . . just because. I took my handy dandy cutter and made cleaning patches of all sizes for both BP and modern guns.

This thing cuts multiple thicknesses so fast that you have to run to keep up with it. I’m set for cleaning patches for ever now.