Does cloth - linen or pillow ticking - have grain?

[Naphtali]

Paper for patching has a grain whose direction and tear resistance is easy to identify. What about linen and/or pillow ticking whose intended use is for muzzle loading a slug?

I am at the stage where I can have made a patch cutter in the outline of a cross, or I can cut single strips of cloth to render as a cross to load slugs. Since no one I know uses a slug gun, and I have no experience with these kinds of patches, I am hopeful someone can guide me.

[rhbrink]

Try to tear the fabric bet one way will be easier than the other.

[longbow]

It sounds like you are looking at patching a long slug (not round ball) with a cross patch like a Chase patch (crossed paper strips).

I am no expert here but I have never seen cloth patching done that way and I am betting that loading would be a problem as once cut the fibers of the cloth will separate easily so will fray and pull out.

I have only seen paper used for cross strip patching. That of course doesn't mean can't be used or hasn't been used.

I will be interested to find out.

Longbow

[rhbrink]

I got my "THE MUZZLE-LOADING CAP LOCK RIFLE" out and did some reading on page 101 Ned Roberts writes about making false muzzles for slug guns. What he says that the cross patch was used with paper along with a 3 strip paper patch. And that if a linen patch was used it would have been cut round. He does go to say that if a linen cross patch were used it would be neccessary to use a smaller bullet for the linen being thicker that it would be difficult to load.

These are muzzleloading rifles that he is writing about, if you are planning on using the cross patch in a cartridge rifle I could see where the throat might strip the patch off the boolit as it leaves the cartridge on entering the rifled portion of the barrel as opposed to the wrapped paper which grips the boolit very tightly and survives the transition, maybe! I've had a few that didn't but that's another story.

Try it and see what happens and please report back with results so the rest of us can learn something. Good or bad.

Richard

[PAT303]

This is one question I've never found an answer for.I have a swiss federal stutzen that used a linen patch but the genuine boolit measures right on bore dia so how you load it has got me.I've tried it but short of a hammer it'll never go down. Pat

[ironhead7544]

I would say yes on the pillow ticking. A record holder I know puts the colored side down with the stripes parallel with the front sight. This is for a round ball strip thats cut with a straight razor. Dont know about chunk guns but he doesnt use a patch for them. BTW, he washes the ticking twice before use.