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Thread: Making lubed wades :-)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Newport, South Wales
    Posts
    848

    Making lubed wades :-)

    Yes, I know, you've all been doing this for years!
    This is for the newbie's out there thinking about making lubed patches and wads.
    As a beginner myself, I am blown away at how easy and fun it is to make these.
    Black Powder shooting is just getting more and more fun

    As a beginner, I have very often found getting info on the Dark Arts of BP shooting very dificult, so maybe this little post will help new shooters?
    I thought digging range scrap, smelting it down into ingots, then ball casting was awesome fun, but I've just discovered making lubed wads is just as fun, won't scold or poison you and smells AWESOME !!


    How I personally did it for my 44 cal Ruger revolver.

    I bought a very large sheet of 3mm pure wool felt, a 1kg block of pure beeswax and in my case a 12mm leather punch from Crapbay. I also got a bottle of pure Olive Oil from the supermarket. Thus far, I've just been using the olive oil on my cloth patches for the other guns.

    Put a small lump of wax in a pot and put the pot into gently simmering water.
    Once the wax has melted, measure the depth and add the same volume in Olive Oil.
    Once the wax has remelted and it's all liquid (and smells awesome ) dump in all the felt wads.
    Fish them out a few at a time and lay them out on a piece of foil.
    They cool off in a few minutes and are ready to use.

    https://ibb.co/qj2s8vp
    https://ibb.co/6brVS8M
    https://ibb.co/S0Gr24s
    https://ibb.co/f80XXCj


    Like I said guys, I'm not putting this up to teach you long time shooters how to suck eggs, I know you all know how to do it! This was my first time after some research and I thought it could help other beginners to show just how easy it really is. My mix of 50/50 wax/olive oil is only a starting point for me, but has produced some nice looking wads.

    Shops seem to be charging about £7 per hundred, I paid £10 for the felt sheet, £10 for the 1kg beeswax and £10 for the wad cutter. I recon I could make well over 2000 wads for my £30 outlay, probably more!

    I'm not saying buying shop bought wads and patches is wrong, but now knowing how easy and fun it is to make them yourself, I'd never buy them (not that I ever did)
    Last edited by MrChipShoulder; 07-08-2020 at 05:58 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    leeds, west yorkshire
    Posts
    12,947
    i pop into charity shops now and again and buy 100% felt hats very cheaply
    they always ask what size and i say doesnt matter they getting cut up......got a few in loft awaiting destruction if and when

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Stroud
    Posts
    61
    Extra Virgin eh! Nothing but the best for you then
    S

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Notts.
    Posts
    4,212

    Lube

    Hi I use a slightly different method. I only load 12g shotgun black powder but I do lube the 16mm capped wads with Beeswax and Trex melted together. The wads are rolled in this in a flat bottomed frying pan. Seems to be a great improvement over dry wads. The bores still show bare steel after many shots,
    When I die don't let my wife sell my guns for what she thinks I gave for them!!!

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