Originally Posted By: jmc
What's the hairy looking material in the case?


That might be "tow" which, in the old days, was made of flax, hemp or maybe jute. A wad of it was twisted onto a jag for scrubbing the bores, in the same manner that we today use patches. This was commonly used in the m/l era, and I assume carried over into the early breechloading era as well.

SRH

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