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We took the photo with the sun as a backlight to best illuminate the cuts on the lands. The enlarged picture can be somewhat misleading. The effect of the back light will emphasize and illuminate the edges of the threads. [USER=942]@waksupi[/USER] is correct in that a tight weave is needed.  The patch cloth in the above photo is the #40 cotton drill cloth from JoAnn's and has been confirmed to have a tight weave, generally better than pillow ticking.  A slip measurement using a micrometer is 0.018" and compressed using my digital caliper is 0.012".  The stress that the material took getting compressed into the 0.005" of windage between the ball and the lands puts a lot of stress on the patching.