i make my soft wads out of old horse hair carpet pad . i then hot lube them with bee's wax and windex .
for hard cards , i make them out of construiction MDF or Black board
for the thick over the powder cards . matting board found at art supply stores works real well .
over the shot cards i punch just from regular poster paper .

now all the above being said . you dont need all that .
a wad of leaves or bee's nest over the powder and another over the shot will give a relitivly good patern and hold things in place .
but truthfuly your patern wond be as good with the leaves .


on the comment about cotton balls .
be very carful . the powder can ignight the cotton exspecialy if lubed . it can leave a smoker out ther in a time of year when fire dangers are normaly high

razz is also correct . the log cabin , muzzleloading emporum . muzzleloader builder supply . all may have something that will work . you will just have to look and see

jasons place " historical trekking " would be a good place to ask .
but i would go to frontier folk
http://frontierfolk.net/phpBB/index.php?sid=c17d8c52db7e2c7400a32bcfb7241207
however your going to get more of a historic information there

both places are good and will give you information to build on

Last edited by captchee; 10/16/10.
[Linked Image]