FOR SALE ANOTHER BALL STARTER

[FishDFly]

When you hit the sprue on the ball with a short starter, it does not care if it's round or flat.

 

[Griz44Mag]

How important is it for the dimple in the end of the rod to be an exact curve to fit the ball you want to start?

Not important at all. The reason the dimple is there is to keep the rod centered on the ball whilst you give it a good smack....

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

INCREDIBLE starter sir!

Just waiting for the clowns to show up to loudly proclaim “but starters aren’t period!” YEAH RIGHT. Between this and multiple other sources such as the works of Ned Robert’s I think we can put that myth to rest!

 

[toot]

there will allways be NASAYERS!!

 

[L W Smith]

Based on this information provided on this forum by Spence 10 on 5-27-17:
_Scloppetaria:_ by Capt. Henry Beaufroy, 1808 [Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufroy], originally published as “Scloppetaria, by a Corporal of Riflemen”
https://books.google.com/books?id=...BwMQ6AEIUTAN#v=onepage&q=scloppetaria&f=false

Here's his rammer.

I made this one which is an approximate rendition of it.

I have been using short starters of this type for quite a while now and find they work very well. This starter is made of curly maple and 3/8" solid brass rod. The rod is pinned to the "handle" with a brass rod. I will ship this to you for $18.50. I prefer PayPal F & F. Thanks for looking.
Allan

Would a3/8 aluminum work just as well

 

[L W Smith]

[QUOTE="L W Smith, post: 1771258, member: 32687"
[/QUOTE]
What would be the problem with using aluminum 3/8 rod versus brass ?

 

[FishDFly]

The end on aluminum might mushroom sooner over time.

 

[simonbeans]

Seeing as how I was trying to make a reasonable rendition of an historical item, I felt it would be more correct to use materials available in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. And also:

Discovery of aluminum was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, whose work was extended by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.
Aluminium was difficult to refine and thus uncommon in actual usage. Soon after its discovery, the price of aluminium exceeded that of gold. It was only reduced after the initiation of the first industrial production by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. Aluminium became much more available to the public with the Hall–Héroult process developed independently by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886, and the Bayer process developed by Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer in 1889. These processes have been used for aluminium production up to the present.

 

[starman]

Thanks. That is what I was thinking.

 

[FishDFly]

Learned something new.

 

[Are. M.]

Aluminium was difficult to refine and thus uncommon in actual usage. Soon after its discovery, the price of aluminium exceeded that of gold.

Learning is good. In fact, the tippy top of the Washington Monument is made of aluminum because of its value at the time.

RM