Replies

1. 
   lat_axe | Jul 15, 2020 08:14am | #1

   A good source of 100%cotton lint-free white cloth of the thin variety useful in workshops is the hotel laundry service industry. The ladywife buys both whole sheets and bags of "lint-free rags" which can contain some coloured material as well as the white but is mostly the latter.

   Both are generally very inexpensive. Because they come from a laundry, they're always very clean. Nor are they very worn, as the hotel industry tends to reject bed linen that's anything but new or near-new looking.

   She gets hers in the UK as that's where we live but there seems a good chance that US hotel laundry services will do the same.

   Lataxe

2. 
   DRBWWing | Jul 15, 2020 11:14am | #2

   I use the cloths bakers use to flour when making bread.

3. 
   joeleonetti | Jul 20, 2020 05:15pm | #3

   Lost At Press in their blog section posted a blog within the last week outlining what they thought were "premium" shop rags. If I needed more, this is the direction I would go. I don't recall what it is though.

4. 
   roy.unit8c | Jul 20, 2020 06:08pm | #4

   The rags in the Lost Art Press Blog that joeleonetti mentioned are called Huck towels used by hospitals.

5. 
   tbonetim | Jul 20, 2020 10:42pm | #5

   Dang. I thought this was going to be a newly discovered Scott Joplin recording to listen to while chopping mortises.

6. 
   fivebirdscustom | Jul 21, 2020 09:55am | #6

   I do believe the quality of rags/towels available in the big box stores has fallen in the last ten years or so. I know I've been frustrated with lint from the t-shirt style painter's rags or thin, crappy terry cloth rags.

   Currently I have a pile of both. The t-shirt style have to be washed at least once before I use them in the shop.

   I can't stand microfiber cloths (because my hands are always really dry and they snag constantly), but others love them. They do tend to pick up sawdust and chunks of crap really easily, making them unusable for finishing afterwards. But, they are usually lint-free and very absorbent.

7. 
   Deleted | Jul 21, 2020 10:00am | #7

   “[Deleted]”

8. 
   mikaol | Jul 21, 2020 08:23pm | #8

   I got great ones in 50-lots at Harbor Freight.com
   Mikaol

9. 
   chipsawdust | Jul 21, 2020 08:38pm | #9

   My wife tends to throw away clothes and bedding she hasn't used forever, or is past its prime. I intercept these things and turn those into shop rags for everything from wood finishing to mechanic work. Since it's a variety of materials I can pick and choose. No plastic cloth (poly-anything). We like cotton and I, for one, like wool (she doesn't).

   I never run out of rags!