homegrown rammers

[WadePatton]

Whilst I'm satisfied pursuant to our prior discussions that Osage, Ironwood, Ash, and of course Hickory make excellent rammers for rifles, I've not made one yet.  Never got the time to get back to my hickory log, still haven't learned to ID Ironwood, DID split out some Osage but it was too twisty/flawed. 

BUT found a fresh busted Persimmon today while gather firewood (black locust).  A large standing dead black locust had fallen over and broken the Persimmon off near the ground.  I cut a 60-inch section and toted it out to the truck.  @!*% heavy for 7 inches diameter-the uppermost cut.  Plenty left.

Decided to split the rest out where it lays.    That way i don't cut the wrong place (hidden flaws) and can tote smaller pieces.  BUT first will split this one tomorrow, see what i find. 

[frogwalking]

I can't remember what it was, persimmon maybe, that I cut a few years ago hanging over the horse fence, but it was some kind of wild fruit wood.  The wood was a pretty color and I thought I would come back later and cut it up to turn or make something pretty out of.  I did come back to cut it up and haul the wood (6 or 8 inched dia.) out.  It was eaten up so that it looked and felt like Styrofoam. The wood must have been sweet is all I could figure.  It only lay in the woods a few months.  I would go get the persimmon sooner rather than later.  Just my .02 worth. Some one on the forum will know better than I about persimmon.

[Mike Brooks]

I have never been able to get persimon to dry flat. I suspect you'll end up with pretzels.......I may be wrong though, never tried to make RR's from it. I'd stick with Hickory or ash. Which reminds me, I need to split some more out.

[rudyc]

I once split some Persimmon logs into staves for a self-bow. All of it twisted like a barber pole. The trees were nice and straight looking before I cut them.

[WadePatton]

Oh yeah, the trees tend to be very tall, skinny and straight on my place.  Twists like Poplar huh? (Poplar cups and bows too-but makes fine lumber.)

  All righty then, I'll split a few and see what i can do--without getting too deep into it.  I'll keep looking for freshly killed Ash or Hickory. 

Neighbor has an Ash, but methinks it's been down too long.  Mom has some GREAT straight ash, but it's all firewood length (some saved for short handles).