Cleaning with cloth patches?

J

jaughtman

New member
Hey! I was given an amount of real cloth cleaning patches recently and one thing came to mind since I had several strings/lint particles clinging to me from handling them - do they lint-up your gun a lot worse than synthetic patches?

Jamie
 
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I too use and like cloth patches and have noticed the lint and strings. I guess I should be more worried about the strings but have never given it much thought. Have never been aware that it casued a problem or at least I can't point to this as something that has caused a problem. As far as the dry use, that is something I just keep to a minimum. Solvent, Oil and one pass with dry.


Be Safe !!!
 
in stead of throwing away old cotton undershirts and underwear when they get old and holey, i put them in a bag somewhere, and when i need cleaning cloths, i get one and with a pair of scissors, i have all the patches i need. as for lint, you can just blow them right off.
 
I also keep old cotton shirts for patches. When I cut out the patches I cut these on a bias (45 degrees) and there is no stringing of the edges. Being old and through many washing there is no lint left in them.

I do pull out the short strings at the corners.

However, I’ve had no problem with stringing or lint with commercial patches.
 
I've had a little bit of lint going with the DIY approach. When I'm really worried about it, I wipe down the gun with a commercial patch or a silicone cloth after cleaning the gun.

Then again, using a silicone cloth too many times puts fuzz all over the gun too :mad:.
 
I'm of a mind that the "new" (been around a long time now) synthetic patches are *worthless*. Ok, maybe I just don't like them & that makes them seem worthless to me. Over the last decade or two, cotton patches have gotten harder & harder to find so old tee shirts & even sheets don't get thrown away here. Never had enough lint left over after cleaning to be a problem.
 
I use cleaning patches from Cabelas, etc - that are 100% cotton flannel ...and I've never seen a lint problem.

I don't think I've ever used patches that were synthetic ...
 
I use only cotton. Lint isn't a problem. A final run through with a clean dry patch ought to push all lint, loose threads, etc. out of the bore or chambers.
 
I actually prefer Outer's patches becasue they seem to soak up oil or solvent easily

But no problems here with cotton patches. Once in a while, a little lint. But I examine all the firearms once a month so no worries
 
"...that are 100% cotton flannel..." You can buy 100% cotton flannel by the yard in any fabric shop and cut it up for a whole lot less that you can buy 'em from Cabela's or anywhere else. Look for remnant flannel. A couple of yards, 60" wide, will give you hundreds of 2" x 4"(or any size you need) patches. Cost you less than $10 in a discount fabric shop. The nice women who work in those places are used to guys asking questions.
"...clinging to me..." Not an issue if it's on you.
"...why is lint a big concern..." It might, I say again might get soaked with dirty solvent, etc and get stuck in the moving parts. Oil soaked lint will hold dust, et al. Worse in cold weather.
 
cloth cleaning patches

I clean this way:
Run a brush through the barrel several times.
I use GI patches so I must pull the strings off the patches before using them.
Wet each patch with a cleaning solution.
Use enough patches to have a clean bore.
 
greyson

I use the papery patches, and cotton patches, and Q-tips. Ultimately a little something usually gets left behind somewhere on or in the gun I'm cleaning. But all you should be worried about is getting off anything your patches or Q-tips leave behind that is VISIBLE. a tinny little fiber from a Q-tip wont harm anything. When you think about the forces going on in your gun, something as small as that is really nothing to be concerned about. I always try to look down the boor and make sure there are no fuzzies left over, if there are I just go through with another patch and check again. Sometimes Q-tips or patches will get caught on a sharp edge or rough surface of the gun... in that case, just go in with another patch or Q-tip and try to reverse what you did or "back it out" and sorta loop it out of the area your working on. Kinda like if you got your Shirt caught on splintery fence as you walked by, you wouldent just keep pulling, you'd stop, back up... pull your shirt back the way it came, and then hopefully not rip your shirt, let alone leave a huge chunk of it behind.

I could agree with T. O'Heir as far as lint attracting other debris and gumming things up, but if you do a good job cleaning, there wont be anything substantial left behind to be concerned about. No matter what type of patches your using.
 
make my own pacthes

Like many of you I save my old t-shirts. I then borrow my wifes rotary cutter and her cutting board. She is a quilter so she has cool cutting stuff:rolleyes:. I trim the seams, cut into strips and into patches. Not much lint and there free.:D
 
Not much lint problem with cloth patches, tho I DO try to get it all out if I spot a fuzzy. No idea why.:confused: A tiny piece in the bore will cause no harm, but I don't want it there... OCD?;)

As for cutting up underwear, by the time I'm ready to throw 'em out I want those things nowhere NEAR my guns...:D
 
Until you come across a surplus WWII (1943) box of 10,000 .30 cal cotton patches you won't know what "loose threads" are. I noticed even with 10,000 of them they seemed to be disappearing unusually fast. When the dogs started sniffing around the Quad I figured out why. Mice like them too.

I've used these patches for a long time and never had any problems with loose string in the weapon.
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