Wood ramrods

[Daryl]

same way with arrows- roll them on a tble top, then rub the raised area with a boning tool of some sort. A smooth bone works. 

[Dphariss]

Straighten them,Harry!

Most are cross grained and this is poison in ramrod no matter how straight it is.

Dan

[Harnic]

Most are cross grained and this is poison in ramrod no matter how straight it is.

Dan

You're right there Dan!  The grain in this scrap wood is all over the place!  The semi-straight one looks usable, the other 2 would end up sticking through a hand when they sheared off whilst trying to ram a tight ball/patch combo.  Track's ramrod supply seems pretty !@*%&@ poor this time.  I won't be trying them again!

[Birddog6]

I get my hickory ramrods from the same supplier as Simon.  I too searched to find a good source and started getting them from Steve Bailey at
573-547-4540 sbailey@brick.net.  I have been more than satisfied with the parts I get from Steve, and he pulled me out of the fire by shipping parts very quick when I let myself run out of 5/16 rods needed to complete a rifle for a show a couple weeks ago.
                                                                       Roger Sells

Same here.....  Steve Bailey is the ramrod man if you want quality hickory ramrods. I have bought over a hundred from him & they are simply the best hickory rods you will find.  I use to go to Friendship & sort thru hundreds of RR's trying to find 8-10 good ones, would many times come home with 0-3....... 
Not any more, I get them from Steve in bundles of 10 & all 10 of them will be good. Best rods I have seen in 30 years.

Keith Lisle

PS:  And the guy wanting instructions on installing the RR tips.  Email me at  Birddogsix@yahoo.com   .  Put  RR tip in the subject line.  I can email you the instructions in detail.

[Daryl]

There was someone on here selling rods a while back - Taylor bought a bunch - the ones I got were excellent - took a bit of sanding and slightly undersize, but nice whippy rods. Working one down from a larger size is easy with Tom's rod-shaver.

[Harnic]

same way with arrows- roll them on a tble top, then rub the raised area with a boning tool of some sort. A smooth bone works. 

I found a primitive archery site http://www.primitiveways.com/arrow_straightening.html that suggests using a soapstone tool for straightening shafts.  I just happen to have a good size chunk of soapstone I can make said tool from.  Looks perfect & soapstone being naturally slick shouldn't damage the shafts at all.

[FRJ]

Why not  buy a hickory board at Lowe's and split it out and make your own? I'd use the same process that I use for a board bow and  look thru all the board till I find one with nice  straight grain and go from there. With all the complicated work that goes into making a rifle it should be simple to make  a RR. Frank

[Harnic]

Why not  buy a hickory board at Lowe's and split it out and make your own? I'd use the same process that I use for a board bow and  look thru all the board till I find one with nice  straight grain and go from there. With all the complicated work that goes into making a rifle it should be simple to make  a RR. Frank

True enough Frank, but I'm really nit-picking here as I rarely use the rod on the rifle, preferring a stainless steel rod with a big ebony knob on the end.  It's just a bit awkward on the trail walks.

[Daryl]

FRJ - if the hardwood shop near you has enough boards in hickory, to paw through to get a plank of prospective ram-rods, GREAT.

You can actually rip (or split) them into square rods following the grain, then use Tom-Tom's tool to make a rod out of the square, very easily.

[doug]

      Foolish question but what is the functional difference between oak and hickory when it comes to making ramrods?  Oak planks are a lot more common around here than hickory.

cheers Doug

[David R. Pennington]

Ramrods don"t need to be perfectly straight unless you're hung up on everything being perfecct, as our mass produced machine made society teaches us. If you split out a rod you probably won't get a perfecctly straight one but I like a little crook in one as it holds itself in the pipes better. I'll try to post a picture of my homemade ramrod turners as soon as I can figure out how to do it. I can split out a ramrod and hand hew a timber for a cabin but I am technichally challenged. You can persuade some of the really bad crooks out like some of the fellows said with steam, etc.., but all you have to do is soak them in water overnight and clamp them crooked just a little the opposite way till they dry.

[Daryl]

Doug - the early growth wood in hickory are the strongest 'glue' between growth rings of any NA wood.  Hickory's flexibility and resistance to breaking on a growth wood make is quite suitable for rods - and self bows which can have growth ring runnout on their backs and still not break.

Maple also has strong early growth wood, but is quite brittle in comparrison and consequently not good for ramrods.

 Ash and Oak have very weak growth wood lines(early growth) of all - being soft and punky, therefore split much more easily between growth rings, more like cedar. Elm might make a better ram rod than others, not as good as hickory, but better than maple, etc.  Bodark ie: Hedge Apple ie: Osage Orange might make a good 'heavy' rod in larger sizes.

[catman]

Maybe it's just me but I have found that hickory from Tenn. is the best for making my ramrods.
Ark. hickory seems to be lighter in dense weight but does have more flex in compairison. My .02

I make a lot of Ark. hickory rods for friends, never any complaints but I do like that Tenn. hickory.

[omark]

uuhhh,,,,,,,,(holding hand up in back of room),,,,,,,,whats a self bow??   mark

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Omark, Daryl is referring to primitive archery tackle.  A self bow is made from one piece of wood alone, as opposed to a finger jointed or laminated bow.

[omark]

i see, taylor, thank you very much.     mark

[WadePatton]

Doug - the early growth wood in hickory are the strongest 'glue' between growth rings of any NA wood.  Hickory's flexibility and resistance to breaking on a growth wood make is quite suitable for rods - and self bows which can have growth ring runnout on their backs and still not break.

Maple also has strong early growth wood, but is quite brittle in comparrison and consequently not good for ramrods.

 Ash and Oak have very weak growth wood lines(early growth) of all - being soft and punky, therefore split much more easily between growth rings, more like cedar. Elm might make a better ram rod than others, not as good as hickory, but better than maple, etc.  Bodark ie: Hedge Apple ie: Osage Orange might make a good 'heavy' rod in larger sizes.

bodock doesn't seem so heavy in small sections.  i'm certainly going to try it.  anyone try persimmon? it has a tight grain and density enough for striking things.  dogwood? any other tough/flexi/straight woods? 

sweetgum (liquidambar styraciflua) might work if sawn out and turned-it's certainly not going to split out.  it was used in slab form for wooden wheels BITD because it won't split*.  If it's tough enough--I'll be trying that one too (i have one crowding my house).



*if you've had it on a woodsplitter you'll know how it tears and twists and shears moreso than splits.

[Daryl]

Taylor has made a couple rods from Osage Orange (Bodarc)  These turned out into amazingly nice rods.  The rods were fair size, tapered.  I do not know if Osage would make a good 3/8" or 5/16" rod.  Sure makes a nice stick bow, though.

[Tim Hamblen]

Some thoughts on wood for ramrods. If you can find it , use some hophornbeam, or in the local vernacular"Ironwood". Now across the country Ironwood might be several different woods but here in Indiana, it's hophornbeam. We also have American Hornbeam, but finding a straight grain piece id @!*% near impossible. Some of the older Friendship attendees might remember Don Walp who used to sset up inside the gate where Roger now holds court.Don sold great wood and also sold hophornbeam ramrods. He used to promote them by grabbing a 4 footer and bending it till the ends touched. Good stuff. I have a 7 foot log I have been drying for about 8 years and hopoe to work some rods out of it this Winter. Hophornbeam does not get very big, this log is about 8" in diameter.
  Osage Orange or Hedge Apple. I've built dozens of bows from osage. Great stuff. If I remember right the specific gravity of osage is .96 and hickory .72-.75. Osage is heavier but in two ramrods you'd have to measure the difference with a gram scale. Very little added weight. The Peter Alexander video and book mentions osage and he wonderded why you do not see it much in old originals. Easy answer. Osage is native to OK and TX and there was none here in the East until the Germans brought it here to make hedgerows.I had some very straight grained osage that I had laid back for bows and made a ramrod from it for a .54 flinter I built. Good stuff.

[VAshooter]

I got some good straight hickory blanks from Wayne Dunlap this spring. He advertises in Muzzle Blasts and always has hickory in stock.

[wilkie]

Iv'e used the fiberglass driveway marker rods as range rods and epoxied shell caseings on the ends that were threaded to hold brushes and jags or other things.

[Daryl]

Seems to me, the English used to use Green Heart for rods - ram and fishing.  The rod in Taylor's 15 bore  caplock Manton is just such a wood, I think, as-is the rod in our friend Len's,  H. Wahl 11 bore heavy folwer. Very fine grained dense wood.

[WadePatton]

Great on the Hophornbeam.  It's listed as a TN species but I've not identified any yet.  While Osage, Daryl we call it Bodock and Hedgeapple too, doesn't grow much here on the Highland Rim, it's beyond plentiful and treated as a nuisance down in the Nashville Basin (most of mid-TN and just 2 miles away, 400' down).  Nearly anyone will let you take all you want.  I've handled a good bit of it.  Burns green, don't ask how i know.
 
I'll collect some 48" sections soon enough.

Also, reading around i find that Sweetgum has an "interlocking" grain pattern.  I'll be sawing that out too.  

duh, look for the tree with "hops"

[Roger Fisher]

Those steel centered wood rods mentioned earlier are okay and I use one in/with my smoothie.  The claim that they can't be broken in normal use is a bit of a stretch.  I was on a timed woodsrun at Union Co Pa (okay it was a few years ago) and had a good run going all I did was squeeze the bugger and she split away from the center (ruined my time alright) I did squeeze the snot out of it being all excited and such.   Good ol super glue fixed it and still being used...  Normal use   I was a bit stronger then than now.

[flintlock]

Very early in my muzzleloading carrier I learned that one of the easiest ways to break a ramrod is to grip the rod with your thumb pointing upwards alongside the rod! It's very easy to end up putting a bending motion on the rod with your thumb. Instead, wrap your thumb around the rod. It's much harder to exert a serious bending motion on the rod with your thumb in this position.