Ticking Thickness

[bkisel]

I've read a bunch about folks going to Wal-Marts and such to get pillow ticking for making patches. I read .017 a lot as being the thickness of the ticking. Is this always the case or generally the case? Do you need to go to Wal-Marts or the fabric store with a micrometer or will/should the clerks know the thickness of the particular ticking?

Thanks

 

[BigDogg]

I'd take a mic along. They can be had for cheap from Harbor Freight. I think I paid $8 for mine.

 

[sniper68]

will/should the clerks know the thickness of the particular ticking? Thanks

:shocked2: :rotf:

:rotf:

:rotf:
Sorry :redface: , I know yours is a serious question, but I couldn't help myself. Take mikes, not calipers and make sure the material is 100% cotton! Depending how you use your mikes, it should read 17-18 thnds. Plan on finding, in most cases the ticking yourself. :thumbsup:
Although you'll find it with red or blue stripes or plane, I've seen it with black, green stripes and patterns. :v

 

[D Sanders]

or will/should the clerks know the thickness of the particular ticking?

Thanks

The Wal Mart clerks wouldn't know a thousandths of an inch from a thousand inches. Use a cheep Horrible Freight I mean Harbor Freight micrometer for this job. Thread it down on the fabric till you can feel some compression on it. This is the method I use and it has served me well. :thumbsup:


HH 60

 

[Tumblernotch]

The ticking I buy from Walmart and JoAnn's usually measures .018". I have gotten .021" at Walmart before. The clerks know less than nothing about the thicknesses. Calipers will do just fine for measuring.

 

[Stumpkiller]

That's OK. They'll ask what weight cotton you want and we have to say "Dawk?"

I ask for cotton mattress ticking and sometimes they take me right to the nice blue striped material.

 

[Kapow]

I (finally) found some today in a fabric shop. Three different colours: brown, red and blue so i got 1/2 yard of each.

Are they different thicknesses for each colour? This stuff was made in Canada.

Each bolt of cloth had a tag on it saying a different weight, eg 12 lbs and they varied by about 1/2 lb for each one. Don't know if this related to thickness???

What do you guys mean buy 'sizing' that needs to be washed out? So many questions... :idunno:

How gay do you feel going into a fabric shop?
:redface: :redface: :redface:
The sales girl was smoking hot too, might need to replenish my supplies soon... :hmm:

 

[Greyfeather]

The sizing is starch in the new ticking, wash it out before use. Curious minds want to know, how do you store you supply of hot sales girls?

 

[Kapow]

I bait them with my innocent good looks of course...

 

[Bill Hall]

How gay do you feel going into a fabric shop?
:redface: :redface: :redface:

Actually, when I'm the only man in the store, I feel kinda studly. :thumbsup: Bill

 

[David W.]

I'd take a mic along. They can be had for cheap from Harbor Freight. I think I paid $8 for mine.

Check ebay and find a used Starrett. They aren't that expensive and are much higher quality than the bargan basement mic's.

 

[paulvallandigham]

"Sizing" is a starch-like product put into the cloth so it irons flat, and can be wrapped around a bolt tight, for transportation. You need to wash the fabric TWICE to remove all the sizing. Then iron the fabric flat, before taking a measure of its thickness.

The Sales women in the fabric stores I have visited here are older women who scowl at men when we enter THEIR stores. We obviously are NOT wanted there. One biddy did mellow a bit when I asked her to show me her pillow ticking. Her mouth dropped open when I pulled my micrometer and its case out of my shirt pocket, then removed the mike and began measuring the thicknesses of the 3 bolts of ticking she showed me.

There seems to be NO correlation between the color of the Strips on the ticking, and its thickness, so don't even begin to think you can choose fabric by the color! :shocked2: You have to measure it- with a micrometer if you have one, or with calipers if you don't. I have tried both instruments on measuring the same fabric, and got the same readings. Maybe I AM doing something right. :idunno: :surrender: Maybe not- I am just consistent in my errors! :blah: :shocked2:

 

[trent/OH]

Take mikes, not calipers and make sure the material is 100% cotton!

Actually, with cotton prices as high as they have been, there's a chance you'll be able to find an appropriate 100% linen at a competitive price. One benefit of ticking is that those little stripes make it easy to cut consistently sized strips of patching.

 

[Macon Due]

Man....you got that right on high prices!! Yesterday I bought 'tickin' at 10 bucks per yard, blue denim at 10 bucks per yard and canvas at 10 bucks per yard. All 100% cotton and all different thickness...from 18 thou. to 23 thou. I couldn't believe how high it all was and every stinking piece was from.....CHINA!!!
Macon

 

[roundball]

I'd take a mic along. They can be had for cheap from Harbor Freight. I think I paid $8 for mine.

Check ebay and find a used Starrett. They aren't that expensive and are much higher quality than the bargan basement mic's.

Bought a steel caliper made in Japan a good 25 years ago as a Sears 'Craftsmsan'...top notch quality and even that long ago it cost $75.00...but its as true to day as it was when I got it

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've got a classic old Starrett 200 series. I fold the fabric into three thicknesses and measure that to average it out.

Most fabric stores I've been in the girls are helpful and take in interest when I tell them what it's for (though I claim for Rev. War reinactment and not hunting). Two colleges in the area and a lot of part-timers on the weekends. Should be a great pick-up place - no comptition. THE ADMIRAL usually gets all hackled out. ;-)

 

[roundball]

My experience was that the JoAnns Fabric's help staff found my introduction & explanation intriguing...and the lady that waited on me was not only helpful but interested, staying with me while I was measuring fabrics like cotton duck...(I needed something thicker than normal for the 9/16" marbles in a .62cal experiment)...she had heard about guns called Flintlocks, asked a few questions about how they worked, what the patch material was used for, etc

 

[Kapow]

I don't know how many stores I asked for pillow ticking, the answer was always the same, "huh? what's that?" Finally found it back in the first store I asked in after they got new stock in.

The sales girl that well and truly had my attention (lets just equate her to a big bore double barrel, if you know what I mean :bow: ) asked me what it was for. Gulp, I told her, and expected the store alarms to go off, such is the anti hunting sentiment in this country.

To give you an example, I was in hospital last year after a tick bite I got hunting in Africa. the doctor didn't want to treat me!

But yes I got a lot of sideways scowls from female customers - like the enemy had got behind their lines or something. I suppose a female might get a similar feeling being in a gunstore.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Not in any gunstore I have been around. Women are welcome like long-lost cousins! :bow:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

True, but you don't want to be a guy waiting at the counter while all the clerks are trying to "help" the pretty young lady.
I had in mind that my ticking measured .018" and I wanted something just a bit thinner so when I found ticking which measured .016" I thought that was just what I needed and got two yards. When I got home and measured my old ticking I found it too measured .016". Oh well, at least I now have plenty of it. :idunno: