As many of you folks read here on the MLF pillow ticking bought by the yard at a cloth store not only works very well for patches but it is really low cost if your willing to make your own.
All store bought material has "sizing" in it when it is new.
This sizing is a starch that makes the material lay flat and fold easily. This makes it easy to cut out patterns and sew but it does tend to keep patch lubes from soaking into the material and it may leave some of the sizing in the bore when the gun is fired so many feel the sizing should be washed out before the patches are cut.
Some have observed that washing out the sizing changes the thickness of the material so I thought I would look into this.
Using some blue and white striped pillow ticking from WalMart I did some measuring and washing.
The measuring was done with a RCBS Dial caliper and a number of measurements were taken to get the average thickness.
Two different methods were used to find the thickness of the material.
One method was to use the fairly large flat surfaces between the jaws to grasp the material which spreads out the area being measured and doesn't crush the fabric. I will call this the "large area" in my results.
The other method was to use just the thin relatively sharp areas of the jaws which tends to crush the material, rather like what happens when the patch is placed between the roundball and the bore of a gun. I will call this the "small area" in my results.
The washing was done with some other cloths so it included some fabric softener that might have had a small effect on the readings.
The thickness I read for the new fabric with sizing in it was .017 (small area) and .022 (large area).
After washing and drying the fabric the thickness I read was .017 (small area) and .025 (large area).
This washed material didn't really want to lay flat and it was somewhat wrinkled having been dried in a cloths dryer.
To smooth it out I decided to iron it and then measure it to see if this had an effect on the materials thickness.
The ironing was done at a "cotton" setting and the material was lightly sprinkled with water to create the steam ironing works best with.
I used a piece of plywood to support the material because "She who must be obeyed" doesn't like me using "her stuff".
The iron I used is mine and I bought it at a thrift store for about $2.00 some years ago.
After ironing I read the following values for the materials thickness.
.015 (small area)
.022 (large area).
Ironing the material not only made it nice and flat and easy to fold but it seemed to make its thickness more consistent.
Where the pre washed and post washed readings varied as much as +/- .002 there was very little variation in the readings after ironing it.
So, is all of this information valuable? I don't know that it is but I thought you folks might find it interesting. :grin:
As an after thought you might want to keep your eyes open for an old used iron at a thrift shop.
Not only can you iron your patch material without using "HER" iron but an iron used with a small wet piece of material can raise small dents in a gunstock making them totally disappear.
All store bought material has "sizing" in it when it is new.
This sizing is a starch that makes the material lay flat and fold easily. This makes it easy to cut out patterns and sew but it does tend to keep patch lubes from soaking into the material and it may leave some of the sizing in the bore when the gun is fired so many feel the sizing should be washed out before the patches are cut.
Some have observed that washing out the sizing changes the thickness of the material so I thought I would look into this.
Using some blue and white striped pillow ticking from WalMart I did some measuring and washing.
The measuring was done with a RCBS Dial caliper and a number of measurements were taken to get the average thickness.
Two different methods were used to find the thickness of the material.
One method was to use the fairly large flat surfaces between the jaws to grasp the material which spreads out the area being measured and doesn't crush the fabric. I will call this the "large area" in my results.
The other method was to use just the thin relatively sharp areas of the jaws which tends to crush the material, rather like what happens when the patch is placed between the roundball and the bore of a gun. I will call this the "small area" in my results.
The washing was done with some other cloths so it included some fabric softener that might have had a small effect on the readings.
The thickness I read for the new fabric with sizing in it was .017 (small area) and .022 (large area).
After washing and drying the fabric the thickness I read was .017 (small area) and .025 (large area).
This washed material didn't really want to lay flat and it was somewhat wrinkled having been dried in a cloths dryer.
To smooth it out I decided to iron it and then measure it to see if this had an effect on the materials thickness.
The ironing was done at a "cotton" setting and the material was lightly sprinkled with water to create the steam ironing works best with.
I used a piece of plywood to support the material because "She who must be obeyed" doesn't like me using "her stuff".
The iron I used is mine and I bought it at a thrift store for about $2.00 some years ago.
After ironing I read the following values for the materials thickness.
.015 (small area)
.022 (large area).
Ironing the material not only made it nice and flat and easy to fold but it seemed to make its thickness more consistent.
Where the pre washed and post washed readings varied as much as +/- .002 there was very little variation in the readings after ironing it.
So, is all of this information valuable? I don't know that it is but I thought you folks might find it interesting. :grin:
As an after thought you might want to keep your eyes open for an old used iron at a thrift shop.
Not only can you iron your patch material without using "HER" iron but an iron used with a small wet piece of material can raise small dents in a gunstock making them totally disappear.
