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Is a spiral striped ramrod correct?

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I’m finishing up my Kibler Colonial rifle and trying to decide what to do with the ramrod. I’m tossing around the idea of a spiral stripe. Would that be correct for a rifle of this type (1760-1770’s Virginia)?
 
If you decide to do it, post up exactly how you did it. With pictures of course. Kicking this idea around myself.

I read about a jar filled with aqua fortis. With twine in the jar. The twine was wrapped wet in a spiral. The AF was allowed to seep in. The twine was removed and heat was applied. Sounds like it would work.
 
Use a soldering iron to burn the pattern? Or splurge on a wood burning kit?

To the aqua fortis question, are you using straight acid, acid and iron you made yourself, or ferric nitrate crystals in water? Hickory is a tight grain and may not let the iron get very deep. I've used the ferric nitrate on walnut and beech so far with decent luck. If I had a piece of hickory I'd give it a try for you, but nothing on hand. Closest I have is Oak to replace the plastic ramrod in my recent kit.
 
On a colonial rifle we would be hard pressed to find any depiction or description of this.
I have it on my SMR.
Rr did break and got replaced I doubt that we have any colonial guns with the original rod,, and it’s impossible to say when done. But I would hesitate to do it on any eighteenth century gun.
 
I applied AF all over a red oak dowel to see what the effects would be. The color was very nice. Lighter and darker shades because oak has a lot of varying grain densities.

That dowel snapped like glass when I tried to flex it. The AF took the pliability out of the wood. No flex at all.

Will this happen with hickory? I don't know. But some testing may be in order.
 
I applied AF all over a red oak dowel to see what the effects would be. The color was very nice. Lighter and darker shades because oak has a lot of varying grain densities.

That dowel snapped like glass when I tried to flex it. The AF took the pliability out of the wood. No flex at all.

Will this happen with hickory? I don't know. But some testing may be in order.
I hope not! I did the hickory on my Colonial with aqua fortis.
 
I ended up with a nice color on my ramrod using AF. It still seems to flex nicely, but I also applied a coat of Tried & True oil varnish right after blushing so maybe that restored the wood if it got dried out.
 
I'll have to make a couple to test flexibility. The oak dowels at Lowes are only a couple $ each for 3 foot pieces, I do have an extra and have one that's a slight amount short.

But the question kind if remains aqua fortis or ferric nitrate? The acid stuff carries a lot of free acid, the crystals are supposed to be all balanced.

The striped rod could be considered partly camo, like stripes on a zebra. If the rest of the stock had strips in a similar direction, it might look good
 
Use a good brand of electrical tape, not the cheap stuff and wrap it around your ram rod spaped as you like then use a propane torch to char lightly the exposed wood. I have good results with this method.
I tried the cheap tape but it wasn't as heat resistant as tape like
"3-M".
 
I'll have to make a couple to test flexibility. The oak dowels at Lowes are only a couple $ each for 3 foot pieces, I do have an extra and have one that's a slight amount short.

But the question kind if remains aqua fortis or ferric nitrate? The acid stuff carries a lot of free acid, the crystals are supposed to be all balanced.

The striped rod could be considered partly camo, like stripes on a zebra. If the rest of the stock had strips in a similar direction, it might look good
I used the aquafortis that Kibler sells. No adverse effects that I’ve seen…but it’s only been a couple hours.
 
I'm fairly sure Kiblers uses the crystals and mix with distilled water. I bought the cheapest container of crystals on Amazon, boy do I have a lot of leftover crystals. 4 ounces of mixed product goes a long way, I'm two stocks worth and still most of the bottle left.

I have about 15 ounces of tannic acid mix too.
 
I think striped ramrods look great on southern mountain rifles, but not on earlier guns.

Red oak is a poor choice for ramrods, it is far too brittle. If you have to use oak, look for white oak - it's often used to make baskets so it is plenty pliable enough for a ramrod.
 

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