Making wooden ramrods

[kansas_volunteer]

The ash that grows east of the Rockies, really east of the 98th meridian, is hard to snap when green, and even when fairly dry. Eastern ash is one of the best woods for heat/steam bending. Eastern trees can grow very large, although aren't often seen in public, they hide in the woods. Ash in the east is threatened with near extinction as there is a beetle that kills them, like the beetle that brought Dutch Elmwood disease, and the blight that wiped out chestnuts. Ash makes good bows. I'm trying to collect a supply of it before the beetle gets here. Cities in the area are already planning ways to pay for what it will take to remove all the dieing ash trèes.

 

[eggwelder]

interesting point about the masts. I have read that the original masts of the USS Constitution are/were actually made of 4 longitudinal separate pieces, held together with glue and heat shrunk iron bands. cross section would look like a pie. extremely strong, as the british found out. i may be wrong.
anyway, my oak ramrod is made the same way, in quarters. (no iron bands, however). it is extremely flexible, i can bend it thru an arc that will have the ends at 90° to each other. it`s tapered, and if it wants to splinter and shear off, it will have to do it in four different directions.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

One way of making arrow shafts back in the 1930s was to glue four square pieces together before rounding them. I can't think of a simple way to describe grain orientation except to say the grain orientation when viewed from the end appeared to be diamond shaped, sorta. The end grain orientation was the same for each of the four joined sections. There was a repeatable pattern to it, it just wasn't random.

To make a laminated ramrod of 3/8ths diameter you'd need a 1/2" square laminated piece of the required length. Each of the four laminates would be 1/4" square. That could the reduced in thickness, perhaps planed octagonal and the made round by pulling through a dowel forming tool. It would be more work than some might want to do but it would make an exceptionally fine wooden ramrod.

 

[eggwelder]

i think we are talking about the same thing with different words.
what you describe is what i was trying to say, but made more sense to me than my own description. mine is made in such a manner, and adds a day or so to the process while you wait for glue to dry.
some high end fly fishing rods are made in this same or very similar manner.

 

[BillinOregon]

Volunteer: I wonder if a fella could make a ramrod using strips of river cane (in lieu of non-HC bamboo) for the laminations.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

I suppose river cane would work. I wouldn't be surprised if some old timer didn't use it as is just to make a ramrod. I bet the obsessive HC/PC boys would have a fit if you tried bringing it into their camp though. If you had thick pieces of it four sections might be enough to glue up a rod. You could probably leave the curved outer "bark" intact.

Bamboo fly rod makers used a planning jig and a razor sharp block plane, like a Record 09 1/2, to get the sections shaped. Might be too much work for a ramrod, but could be an entertaining project.

It comes to mind on ebay you can sometimes find old bamboo fly rods being sold for parts. The butt section of some might be useable as ramrods, but it's only a WAG.

Some get all worked up at the mention of them, but I like fiberglass ramrods. Mine are brown and sorta look like wood if you don't have your glasses on. On the other hand I do like a good hickory rod. Back when I started that's all everyone used. For some reason nobody seems scared of them back then.

 

[Zonie]

IMO fly rods are made to be bendable whiplike tools where bending is the primary goal.
Taking a heavy axial push on them to ram something down a muzzleloading barrel is not what they are designed for.

Ramrods are not meant to bend.
Yes, they must give a little if they are forced to bend but basically they are used to drive a heavy load in a direction that is parallel with their axis.

IMO, trying to make a ramrod that bends nicely is basically trying to design a tool that makes up for the users error instead of making a good, stiff tool that can ram the ball even in a fouled bore.

 

[Bruce M]

I get oak from hardware store under $ 2.00 I check them for any defects or rot,get them straight.Measure and cut for the rifle, put in a drill and sand with sand paper in one hand.Works for me, can put on brass ends or a empty brass rifle shell cut neck off with tubing cutter ,will work in a pinch for driving ball down barrel.

 

[Archer 756]

:hmm: Cane fly rods for ram rod $$$$ to use :idunno:

 

[kansas_volunteer]

Just tossing out the fly rod idea. Broken bamboo rods can be had fairly cheaply. Butt sections are much stiffer than tip sections, and much stiffer than those limp black plastic ramrods plaguing the game nowadays. A broken fishing pole would allow experimentation with a laminated ramrod. It's not something I'd bother with but for someone with a scientific mind it might be rewarding.

 

[eggwelder]

mine is laminated.....

 

[Rifleman1776]

Pine is also light as air when dried. Good for masts.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I think the best and more traditional way of making a ram rod, was to split the wood (hickory or any other) lengthwise. Using hardware store dowels for ram rods is a good way to skewer your hand! If you have been using HWS dowels, consider yourself lucky!

Rick

Amen, Bro.
Years ago I became so concerned about having difficulty finding GOOD hickory rod blanks I switched to Stainless steel and Delrin. Wood rods are used only at ronny and where 'authenticity' is required. Then I use a small ball, sometimes thinner patching and am ultra-careful about swabbing between shots to assure an easy seating and avoid stress on the rod. I also stay super conscious to not grab the rod high for seating the ball. I've had too much pain in the past year (not gun or shooting related) to be anxious to inflict more on myself. :shake:

 

[Billnpatti]

Let me add to what others have said about the necessity of splitting out a piece of wood to make a rod for your rifle. I don't know what all woods are good for making a rod but I do know that Hickory is an excellent choice. Since lumber is not cut following the grain when it is sawn, I would not recommend trying to use it to make a rod. The best thing to do is find a good log of a length that will give you a rod of the length that you want. Do not choose a log that was cut from the limb of a tree or from a leaning tree. The reason for this is that limbs or leaning trees have what is called stress wood in them. Stress wood develops in limbs and leaning trees because the tree has to resist the effects of gravity pulling on any part that is not sanding vertical. Any lumber that is cut from a limb or leaning tree is guaranteed to warp and twist due to that stress wood. That is why when timber cutters go through a forest cutting timber for lumber, they will cull all leaning trees and will remove the limbs keeping only the trunk that has been standing vertically. The limbs will usually be used for chipping to make chipboard or ground up to make other man made materials.

Choose your log and then split it down the middle. Split each half into quarters. Keep splitting until you have pieces of split wood, called billets, that you can make rods from. Initially you may have to use wedges to split your log. As you split it into smaller pieces, you will be able to use a froe to split it. Lacking a froe, you can use a sharp ax and a piece of wood to use as a mallet to pound on the back of the ax to drive it through the wood as you split it.

Bottom line, whatever wood you use, use only wood from the trunk of a vertically growing tree and split it out to make a proper rod.

 

[Black Hand]

Since lumber is not cut following the grain when it is sawn, I would not recommend trying to use it to make a rod.

Commercially-sawn lumber can be used, BUT one must pick boards where the grain is parallel to the faces/edges of the board. This assures the grain runs the length of the board with very little (if any) grain run-out. This is from personal experience - my rod is made from such a piece of commercial lumber.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

I wonder if hickory lumber might be used if you worked it down to a single growth ring then straightened it like wood from a live tree.

Elm might make a nice ramrod. It doesn't like to split, so it would require extra work to get a clean ramrod sized piece out of a log. It straightens very easily. If it broke while ramming a ball it wouldn't snap cleanly into one long splinter. There'd be fibers tying the pieces together.

When I've straightened Elm and ash I wrapped the piece in a wet towel then wrapped that with a heating pad set on high. I leave it cooking for an hour or so before taking it out. The wood is almost as limp as a wet noodle. It practically bends itself and easy it to work by hand.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

mine is laminated.....

True. I was thinking of laminating cane.

 

[eggwelder]

we don`t get cane up here in Newfoundland. when i was in southern Ontario, there was a kind of cane to be found, but not really useful for anything. i do need to make a new ramrod to replace a fibreglass one that broke. i`ll be looking in the local woods for one, and if i cannot find anything suitable i`ll laminate another one.

 

[Zonie]

I guess I might add, one of the biggest problems with splitting out a hunk of wood to make a ramrod from is getting it down to a nice round size that can be used.

Whittling can only go so far and sanding can seem like it takes forever.

A better way of getting a round ramrod, and one that follows the existing grain is to pull the wood thru a series of holes in a steel plate.

A piece of 1/8" thick steel works nicely. Much thicker than that takes a lot of work to drill all of the holes and anything thinner than 3/32" will be too flimsy to do the job.

It also takes a stout workbench and a good vise to hold the steel but if the holes are pretty close together in size it doesn't take a whole lot of force to pull the wood thru them.

That does bring up the problem with making the steel plate though.

Drill bits over 3/8" in diameter can be expensive and hard to find which brings me to Harbor Freight.

I'm not a fan of their drill bits but they do offer a set of reduced shank titanium nitride drills from 1/16" to 1/2" in 1/64" increments at a very fair price.
If you only have a regular electric hand drill, 3/8" is about the maximum size drill it will chuck.
The hole sizes you will need are more like 3/8" to 1/2" so be sure the bigger drills have a shank size your drill can use.

To get the ramrod blank started into the first 1/2" hole you might want to taper the end a bit and soak the wood in some water.
Stick the tapered end thru the biggest hole and grab the end of the wood with some pliers and give a good pull.
In no time at all, you will end up with a nice, round rod.

Here's a current link to the drill bits I mentioned:
http://www.harborfreight.com/titanium-nitride-coated-drill-bit-set-29-pc-61637.html

 

[Cruzatte]

Well Zonie, I don't know if you'll think it's worth the money or not, but this ramrod scraper might be just the ticket. Contact information and pricing are listed at the bottom of the page.