making Ram rod and woods to make them out of.

[Bill Raby]

I think ebony is likely the best wood used for ramrods. You see it on fancy European guns, but I have not seen it used on American guns. It would be an extremely expensive ramrod. I have never seen it used as a ramrod before, but I think black palm would be ideal. Very strong, hard, and flexible. It sure looks pretty neat. The stuff is a nightmare to work with. Asian wood and likely not very historically correct.

[Hudnut]

Has anyone dealt with dowelsondemand.com?  Quite a variety of woods.

[Dan Fruth]

I used to make windsor chairs, and went to a workshop offered by Mike Dunbar from New Hampshire. We used only hand split ash, white oak, or hickory.  for the chair spindles and the bent backs. The legs were maple and the seats white pine or poplar. I made several chairs by getting good logs about 5' long and 12" to 8" and no limbs. Once split into quarters, the pieces for the spindles were split down till small enough to spoke shave round. These woods would split straight with the grain, and a run-out could be controlled with a knife or hatchet. It is essential that the grain run straight throughout the entire piece. I got lazy latter on and bought quarter sawn boards from the sawmill, which I could rip on a table saw to the right size and then shave round. I never used dried woods but always as green as possible, which worked very well. The ends that fit into the seat or back I would put in a coffee can of sand that sat on the wood stove, and would dry the sap out of the ends. I would think of the woods used, hickery and white oak would be my first choice for a ram rod......Flexible yet strong as long as there was no grain run-out. A run-out could sheer and create a long sharp end that would go right through your hand!

[Daryl]

I agree about purple heart - made a bow from it which lasted about a dozen shots, then let go in tension. Maybe should have been wider and thinner.  Funny, it never crysled, just broke, like ramin - very similar - seems short grained and brittle -  straight across with short little 'fibers sticking straight up. When it went, it didn't go pow - just kinda collapsed.

I am still using the hickory rod Taylor put on my 69 - back in 1986 - 32 years and thousands and thousands of shots - maybe 6? Slight tapered, .500" down to .400". Within a month of taking possession, I was using 12 oz. denim I measured at .030" compressed in calipers - .025" scrunched hard in the mic. Hickory certainly does work well.  I cracked it about 8 years ago and repaired
the crack with thin CA - wrapping the rod in tight elastic bands, then removed those a day later. It's been great ever since.

I think a greenheart rod would be nice for this rifle - or maybe that Bodark or Horseapple rod from Ron.

[Jeff Durnell]

Just getting started with these guns, but I make bows and have osage, locust, mulberry, hophornbeam, hickory, sugar maple, and more that I could use for ramrods.

[Greg Pennell]

The folks around here who make baskets, and weave chair bottoms use white oak and shag-bark hickory. I’ve used shag-bark (scaly-bark) for the ramrods I’ve made...split out a piece, spokeshave to knock the corners off, then drive it through a homemade doweling plate. Then back to the spokeshave to taper, scrape/sand, and finish. Definitely the hard way to get a ramrod...

Greg

[Daryl]

How would  iron wood (hophornbeam) work for rods? I remember them being really tough when trying to break off the branches.

[Levy]

Down here in north Florida we have an understory tree/bush that we call Sparkleberry (it has an edible berry).  While squirrel hunting I will keep my eyes open for straight ones (shoots) to cut and scrape the bark off.  I straighten while green if needed and then tie them in bundles to dry.  It seems strong, tough and flexible and already tapered.  In this neck of the woods, it would be hard for me to imagine finding anything in the woods that was better and needed so little work to make it into a ram rod.  A couple of years ago when I attended the Knoxville Show, I took along a bundle of them and had no trouble finding folks that wanted to try one.  I think I gave a long one to Dennis Glazener to use for a ram rod or wiping stick for his fowler.  James Levy 

[kerry]

I've been eyeballing a bamboo fly rod section. Seems to have a bit of flex built in taper.

[rich pierce]

Bamboo is one of those that is actually abrasive.

[Sequatchie Rifle]

I wouldn't hesitate to make a good ramrod out of Osage Orange or Black Locust is I couldn't find Hickory.  Yew, though wonderfully flexible and springy, is too soft for a ramrod - it would wear quickly at the muzzle.  In fact, thinking about it further, Osage Orange may be preferable to any other wood.

That should start something...

I grew up on the Cumberland Plateau and now live in NE Alabama where there are an abundance of “ramrod trees”! I hunted squirrels with a 43 inch barreled.32 flintlock and broke several rods loading my rifle due to not swabbing the barrel as frequently as I should have. I have, on occasion, whittled a rod out of saplings. First rule- don’t unless it is your last resort! Most wood is too soft unless you dry it. Beech and maple don’t work well! Dogwood is too soft. Ironwood and black gum will work in a pinch, but hickory is by far the best, especially once it has seasoned. I’d stick with hickory. It’s easy to split and shave down. By the way, I finally replaced the ramrod on that rifle with a steel one. That rifle is gone, I use a .40 cal now!

[WadePatton]

How would  iron wood (hophornbeam) work for rods? I remember them being really tough when trying to break off the branches.

It must be Winter up your way too.

I read everything I could find about ramrods woods a while back and I'm sure the first part of this thread too--or maybe my research pre-dated that. 

Somewhere in all that information I ran across a tale of a fellow selling ironwood rammers and that they could be bent double without breaking.  This 'over flexibility' is NOT a good thing as the rammer will likely belly out on compression and rub the rifling mid-bore.  There's some ironwood in my county, but none on my place. I'd play with it for other things, but not a ramrod. 

Of course diameter controls stiffness in most all structural forms, I have no idea what diameter those rods were.

Osage is so tough that if I ever get some nice splits off it, I'll make some-but as noted above it has internal spikes that make it difficult and doesn't make a lot of straight wood.  Split hickory is really the easiest/best around here in the land of hardwoods.

Also, someone mentioned cane/bamboo above: I think it's the silica content that would be rough on the steel as it is noted for being very hard on tools for those who work it.  Probably best avoided.  Some hold that shooting rarely wears out a bbl, but that cleaning and loading (in our case) does.

[rick/pa]

I was going to ask about holly as a wood for ramrods but a quick search showed that it is not a dense wood and while hard, is not strong. It is also susceptible to deterioration and damage from rot.  That said, it might pass for a short pistol ramrod.  Has any ever had experience with holly? I saw a reference that it was often dyed and used as a substitute for ebony.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I believe that ash would make a serviceable ramrod, though I haven't had the need to use it  - yet!  My reasoning for saying this is my experience making shafts for a set of arrows for my yew warbow.
I needed shafts that were at least 3.8" in diameter, heavy, and about 36" long.  So I went to our local hardwoods dealer and found a board of ash that had remarkably straight grain.  I ripped the board into 1/2" squares.  These I ran through a Lee Valley Tools doweling cutter, set up to create rods just over 3/8" in diameter.  These shafts are tapered on both ends, creating what are know as 'barrelled' shafts.  I simply used a small hand plane, and had no issues with grain run out or splitting.  Sanding between to eight inch grooved blocks of wood with abrasive cloth finished them up and I post a picture here for demo purposes.
The shafts needed no straightening whatsoever, are stiff enough for the 100 pound bow, and have very little run-out in the grain.  I think they'd have made good ramrods.  Will have to give that a go.

[rich pierce]

I think there is correlation between how a particular hardwood must be handled in making a bow and how it will perform under extreme conditions as a ramrod material.

Bows can be made from hickory boards with not a care in the world about “grain violation”.  That is, growth rings can run out some on the face or back of the bow and the bow does not need to be backed to ensure it does not fail under tension. I’ve heard red elm and red oak are also worry-free about grain violation. Other woods like black locust, ash, Osage orange, hornbeams, cherry, black walnut, and others must either be skilled on the back to one growth ring, backed with something like sinew, rawhide, or snakeskin, or be at risk for failure on tension.

None of that may matter much if ramrods from finicky bow woods are split and follow the grain 100%.

[WadePatton]

Interesting note about Ash, and straight and strong--it's what _all_ the rest of the world prefer for Snooker cues.  The 8-ball crowd never was into it, they're onto fancy modern composites, but look up Snooker cues and you'll find nothing but Ash as the forward part of the shaft--from the most expensive makers in Europe to all the copies and mid-line stuff being made in the Far East.  North American Ash.

Being injured a little while back i had to pay money for firewood and got some of the absolute finest, tight-grained, arrow-straight hickory you ever saw.  I hate burning it, and have dozens of splits off to the side for handles and whatever---oh wait---Pistols!   

Hope the Ash Borer threat has passed.  I saw some bored wood (no good for anything but the fire) but haven't seen a single tree down on my place with lots of Ash. I've been gouging on some today.

Back to your rammers!

[WadePatton]

I think there is correlation between how a particular hardwood must be handled in making a bow and how it will perform under extreme conditions as a ramrod material.

Bows can be made from hickory boards with not a care in the world about “grain violation”.  That is, growth rings can run out some on the face or back of the bow and the bow does not need to be backed to ensure it does not fail under tension. I’ve heard red elm and red oak are also worry-free about grain violation. Other woods like black locust, ash, Osage orange, hornbeams, cherry, black walnut, and others must either be skilled on the back to one growth ring, backed with something like sinew, rawhide, or snakeskin, or be at risk for failure on tension.

None of that may matter much if ramrods from finicky bow woods are split and follow the grain 100%.

on the grain violation, there's just no way I can see that with Red Oak, it's just way super easy to split (but that's given a straight grain). 

[bob in the woods]

I have some very nice ash trees on my property, but the wood you get can vary between them. One log was spectacular, and the ram rod I split from it has been in use for my .54 rifle for the last 18 years. It's strong and very flexible , the train being fine and straight.  My dog sled, also of ash, has survived some fairly nasty "bumps" without issue.  [snowshoes , too ]    Hickory ....especially good hickory , is harder to find here.

[rfd]

lately i've been making Good rods from aspen found in that home depot forest.   

[shootrj2003]

Dixie gun works founder always pushed for oil soaked hickory ,the idea is to replace the water content with oil and thus remain flexible aand not dry out,biut this requires long soaking times I used to keep some soaking in a pvc tube  don’t know if it helped or not as no matter what eventually they break as none of mine are original ,to thier guns. I use oak,hickory and when necessary hardware poplar dowels,Kerosene is a wonderful elixir,old Cosby method of saving dry harness and old saddles is soak them in kerosene or brush it on,been there done that ,it works well.

[Fly Navy]

I also use hickory with a couple coats of Tried & True oil.

[HighUintas]

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere in the search, so maybe it wouldn't work well. What about cherry? I found a very tight and straight grained 5/8" cherry dowel at Rockler today. The oak dowels were no good and i wasn't seeing any hickory boards that looked worth buying. So, I came home with the cherry dowel.

Thoughts?

[steven baker]

Ramrods , many years ago my Pappy was not happy when he lost his handle for his sledge hammer, he never asked where that new hickory ramrod came from, Go figure that! Take care Steven.

[BOB HILL]

I second Sparkleberry for Ramrods. I used some for carved walking sticks many years ago at the advice of an older cousin. I never tried it for Ramrods until I saw ol’ Sparkleberry Jim Levy at Knoxville with a bundle of them. It was love at first site. We have used it ever since. I buy more every time Jim has them. Natures own rrod.
 Bob

[Wingshot]

Back in the day when I was making Osage and Hickory bows the arrow wood of choice was Port Orford Cedar. That resource all but vanished and other woods were quickly put to use including Maple. I made a doweling jig with a makeshift router table, feeder blocks and a drill. It worked quite well for some hardwoods but not all. I don’t recall ever trying to run a hickory split through it but now my curiosity has me wondering if I should build another “turner”. The set up I made back in the 90’s would put a taper on as well if set up properly. My hunting arrows were “barrel tapered” which basically gave them the aerodynamics of a dart.