Pillow ticking

[jcs266]

Thanks for all the info everyone... You guys are great! Learning here can save alot of problems that come with hit and miss guessing.

 

[ord sgt]

What other types of material commonly found at home is suitable?

Ask the female of the house for her clean but ragged knickers (panties), the 100% cotton ones. They can be used for loading patches, along with cleaning patches. The nylon ones can be used for cleaning only. Same thing with your undies, 100% cotton ones only. BTW, the 100% cotton undies can be used to make char cloth, to go with your flint and steel fire starting kit.

 

[jcs266]

Ask the female of the house for her clean but ragged knickers (panties), the 100% cotton ones. They can be used for loading patches, along with cleaning patches. The nylon ones can be used for cleaning only. Same thing with your undies, 100% cotton ones only. BTW, the 100% cotton undies can be used to make char cloth, to go with your flint and steel fire starting kit.

They’ve been commandeered for the ML kit - thanks for the tip! Hopefully she won’t notice. I can blame it on a burglary if necessary.

 

[pmccoywss]

What other types of material commonly found at home is suitable?

Talk to your grandmother and great aunts, and ask them about linen tablecloths or napkins. These are still common in the older generation's homes, but seldom used.

Linen is thinner, but stonger, than cotton, and works well with every rifle I've tried it in.

 

[Trooper]

They’ve been commandeered for the ML kit - thanks for the tip! Hopefully she won’t notice. I can blame it on a burglary if necessary.

A pantie raid?

 

[Trooper]

I don't think you really got pillow ticking.
Pillow ticking is thick material meant to keep the sharp parts of bird feathers pillows used to be stuffed with from being able to stick thru it. It is usually .015-.020" thick. It almost always has blue or red stripes on it.

As for the .006 thick cloth you bought goes, most likely it would not work well for patching a round ball in a rifled gun although it might be OK for a smoothbore.
That's assuming the cloth is made out of 100% cotton. If it has synthetic material in it, I would use it for cleaning patches but not for shooting.

Rifled guns patches must be at least several thousandths of an inch thicker than the depth of the rifling grooves in order to properly seal them.
Rifles made for shooting patched balls have rifling grooves that range from .005 to .013 deep.
You might be able to get by using 2 or 3 of your .006" thick patches stacked together. The only way you'll know if it works is to try it.

I’ll give the material to my wife, I’m sure she can use it for something. I was able to locate pillow ticking on amazon and ordered two striped pillow cases they call pillow ticking.

 

[Rifleman1776]

My ticking comes from Walmart. I measure in the store. I wash without soap and use. It sort of fluffs up when dried and I don't care what it measures then. I just use. It works.

 

[Notchy Bob]

This thread has been a fun read, and I have learned a lot! I'm a country boy and live about 20 miles out of town, and look for any excuse to not drive in. There is a JoAnn's store in town, but I've not been in it. There is a WalMart, too, but I just don't like going to town when I can avoid it. However, after reading all of this, it does sound as if JoAnn's Fabric should just open a muzzleloading section.

I did some research on ticking a few years ago. As noted in one of the previous posts, ticking was intended for mattresses and pillows, and it is supposed to be a tight weave to keep feathers from coming out. The stripes might be printed or woven in. The ticking with the woven in stripes is considered superior.

I buy patching material online from the usual muzzleloading suppliers, especially Track of the Wolf. I think they get theirs from Eastern Maine Shooting Supplies (EMSS), which also has a retail outlet of their own online. These folks sell patch material that is intended specifically for use in muzzleloaders and they are aware of the need for specific thicknesses. They have plain, white all-cotton fabric that is dense and tightly woven in .005", .010", .015", and .020" thicknesses. I could not find the thickness of their ticking shown on their website or online catalog, so I called and asked. They told me it was .018". I have two large pieces of their ticking and miked it in several places at .018". This is fabric "as sold," not after washing. That's good quality control. EMSS sells it in strips, as precut patches, in odd-sized remnant pieces, and in "bulk" as an 18" x 36" unit. The EMSS ticking I have on hand has the blue stripes woven in, not printed.

If you like shopping in stores, I'm sure JoAnn's and WalMart appreciate the business. However, and speaking only for myself, I'm pretty happy with the patching material I get from Track. It is made and marketed for shooting, and thickness is consistent. That's good enough for me.

Regarding the actual measurement of fabric thickness, I think @Grenadier1758 was spot on, as he usually is:

I use the micrometer as if I am a tool maker and won't compress fabric. My father was a tool maker and his micrometers were precision instruments and he decidedly would not put that kind of stress on those threads on his micrometers not would he let me abuse a micrometer to compress a fabric. I did find a micrometer that fell behind a workbench for several years that I use for compression measurements. You need two measurements. The first is the slip (uncompressed thickness) measurement and with a snug thumb and finger compression. That shows that the fabric will compress and verify a tight weave. You will apply more compression on the fabric on loading than you will with a micrometer. If your ball is 0.010" less in diameter than the land to land diameter of the bore, then you are compressing the fabric to 0.005" on the lands and no one uses a micrometer to compress the fabric that thin. I can't compress fabric that thin with any of my Vernier calipers nor as thin as I can with that poor old found and abused micrometer.

My dad taught me the same thing with regard to precision tools... you don't want to stress or force them. I have a dial caliper that measures in thousandths, but when I want a really precise measurement, I use a Starrett micrometer my dad gave me many years ago. It looks like this one:

That little black knob sticking out on the right ratchets. You turn the knurled section gently until the post is snug on whatever you are measuring, then turn the ratchet knob until it ratchets and you take your measurement. Using this technique, you will not overtighten or damage the device, and you will get consistent and accurate measurements. I agree with @Grenadier1758, that you simply cannot compress the fabric with a micrometer as much as a tight-fitting ball will compress a patch in a rifle bore. A "compressed measurement" with a caliper or micrometer is not likely tell you much, in my opinion, although you are certainly entitled to your own. The bottom line, really, is how the ball and patch combination shoot. The key to accuracy is consistency, and buying the same fabric from the same manufacturer repeatedly should help provide that.

Finally, just to throw a little fuel on the "precut" versus "cut at the muzzle" controversy, I found this historical document recently:

This was from the Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, Volume 15 (1922), 482-501, by Thomas Doran, entitled "Kansas Sixty Years Ago." It was Mr. Doran's recollections of growing up in Kansas in the 1860's. His comment that "the nightly occupation was molding bullets and cutting patching" caught my attention. So, here is at least one documented instance of people using pre-cut patches. He didn't say if they used ticking, though.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[jcs266]

seams that all WALLY WORLDS have it. mine has the blue at 15 thousands in thickness, and red at 20 thousandths!

My Walmart has the red and the blue striped ticking also. I get the same measurements you do. I bought a yard of the blue striped at .015” and also a yard of white tightly woven linen that runs .010” thick for my smoothbore Harpers Ferry pistol.

 

[jcs266]

Yes, the ticking will shrink in area, but the ticking will be thicker and more compressible.

All fabric should be washed to remove the sizing and reduce the likelihood of shrinkage.

I’ve got it in the wash machine right now. No soap, just a cold water wash and then will hang dry it.

 

[William O.]

Here in my neck of the woods, the local fabric store ha both pillow and mattress ticking

 

[Grenadier1758]

I’ve got it in the wash machine right now. No soap, just a cold water wash and then will hang dry it.

You want hot water to aid in the shrinking and tightening if the weave. You want soap to remove the sizing. Hang drying is fine, but so is hot air drying. In the dryer, the fabric will be fluffed up more than the hang dry. No matter really, but however you wash the fabric, the sizing must be removed.

 

[jcs266]

You want hot water to aid in the shrinking and tightening if the weave. You want soap to remove the sizing. Hang drying is fine, but so is hot air drying. In the dryer, the fabric will be fluffed up more than the hang dry. No matter really, but however you wash the fabric, the sizing must be removed.

OK, back in the washer it went with soap, then the dryer just long enough to dry both one-yard sheets

Thanks for the heads-up on the process. I measured it afterwards and both are still .010” and .015” when i gently squeeze the caliper jaws - perfect!

 

[eggwelder]

Having my infantry days behind me, i`m now a cook in the army. I don`t cook anymore, being a Warrant officer. I get to do all the admin and disciplinary actions now instead. i had access to white aprons when they were too stained up to be used. I have about 12 left, but we no longer use the white cotton aprons. Get a lot of patches out of one apron. Just under a sq yd, and are close to denim in thickness. Measure in around .15 but varies. It is not a precision material.

i have sent troops to go get the Blank firing attachment for the 84mm Carl G, camoflage paint, and young cooks to go find the bacon stretcher

 

[Cattywompuss]

We sent them for Flight line ot to the Cop shack for K9P lubricant. If they were really naive, we could get them running around with a plastic bag getting air samples.

We used to tell newbs to go get the keys out of the humvee and or C-130s. Or a bucket of prop wash.

 

[eggwelder]

bucket of steam from the heating plant

 

[Trooper]

Having my infantry days behind me, i`m now a cook in the army. I don`t cook anymore, being a Warrant officer. I get to do all the admin and disciplinary actions now instead. i had access to white aprons when they were too stained up to be used. I have about 12 left, but we no longer use the white cotton aprons. Get a lot of patches out of one apron. Just under a sq yd, and are close to denim in thickness. Measure in around .15 but varies. It is not a precision material.

i have sent troops to go get the Blank firing attachment for the 84mm Carl G, camoflage paint, and young cooks to go find the bacon stretcher

BFA for the Carl G? Thats rich! I love it!

 

[Booneliane]

I won’t buy over the internet.

I bought several yards (on the cheap) years ago online. It mic’d at .009. It said 100% cotton, but it just didn’t “feel” right. After a burn test, boy I think it’s got some poly blend in there.

Never did try it as a patch material.

 

[Booneliane]

I’ve also learned stripe color has no bearing on thickness.

 

[user 48679]

They’ve been commandeered for the ML kit - thanks for the tip! Hopefully she won’t notice. I can blame it on a burglary if necessary.

AHA ! ! A good, old-fashioned panty raid...……..