Singeing a ramrod...

Does anyone know of a tutorial or video to show how to singe a spiral design into a ramrod. I'm told you soak a rag in lighter fluid, wrap it around the rod in a spiral fashion and light it on fire, but I'm curious if you let it burn out, douse it quickly, how you attach on the ends, etc. etc..

This is what I had in mind.

I have heard of two slightly different methods.

1. Take a ramrod thimble you don't mind sacrificing, and cut a wide diagonal slot in it, as wide as you want the stripe on your ramrod. Insert the rod into the thimble, and as you rotate the rod, singe it with a flame.
2. Tape the ramrod in a spiral fashion, and singe the exposed portion of the ramrod with a flame as you rotate the rod.

It would be nice if you could insure that the spiral is equal-distant along it's length, so the tape idea sounds like a good one (as well as soaking a rag in lighter fluid and wrapping it), but doesn't the tape melt and create a God awful mess?

In looking at my photo again, I see that the singed portion isn't spiral, it's just broken segments that are singed, so the spare ramrod pipe idea actually makes sense.

I use the narrower white medical tape,and put a barber shop pole spiral on the rod. When you torch it go quick,as not to start the tape on fire.When you take it off, clean up the rod with 90% alchohol and scuff pad.It does leave adhesive residue but,it is pretty easy to clean up. When done cleaning up, seal it up with a thin coat of finish.

Thanks, that seems logical and easy enough to do. I'm going to give it a try.

Prairieofthedog said:

I use the narrower white medical tape,and put a barber shop pole spiral on the rod. When you torch it go quick,as not to start the tape on fire.When you take it off, clean up the rod with 90% alchohol and scuff pad.It does leave adhesive residue but,it is pretty easy to clean up. When done cleaning up, seal it up with a thin coat of finish.

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So I did it. It looks OK, cleaned up well and quickly, but the ramrod warped and I had to work it by hand to try to get it straight again. Hopefully it will stay that way.

I have used electrical tape on my primitive arrows ! The best tape I have found is 3M but any high quality tape works , the cheap tape not so good! I use a propane torch for my heat source. I have been well pleased with the results I got!

I have used a legenth of cotton clothes line, soaked in KEROSENE, wrapped around the weeping stick / ram rod and fastened it with a tack /push pin and set it alight, works for me. some people do the same thing with out KEROSENE and put it in a legenth of PVC pipe with a end cap on one end and immerse into the pipe filled with KEROSENE and LEXONITE / ROFFING TAR . it will give you a beautiful spiral pattern.

Keep in mind that the spiral pattern was popular during the later period, round 1820 or so.

Yeah, mostly I'd be using it for "mountain rifles", circa 1820-1840.

Pete G said:

Keep in mind that the spiral pattern was popular during the later period, round 1820 or so.

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Wait- we don't wrap a string soaked in kerosene around it then light the string on fire?

I did it about 40 years ago on a Hawken build. Soaked a cotton rope(clothes line) in water, removing the excess water, wrapped the rope in a spiral down the length of the sanded ramrod. Used a propane torch with a pointed flame shape to darken the exposed wood area being sure to keep the flame moving to avoid charring the wood. Stained and finished the rod with linseed oil.

why couldn't you set your propane torch on the bench , put the ramrod in your drill, then slowly rotate the ramrod over the flame?

Too busy for my tastes, but it's your ramrod. Enjoy.

I've done a number of them over the years, and not very hard to do. I just use masking tape around the ram rod, and a propane torch. You keep the flame moving, so you don't actually burn the rod. After done, you remove the tape as well as you can, and then use alcohol to remove the adhesive that has melted onto the wood. After it's all clean, I just use some tru oil on the rod and it's good to go for a long time.

all this so we can have a CANDY STRIPER ram rod! seams that all of the original ones still with the gun are just plain, think about it??