Making wooden ramrods

[kansas_volunteer]

Zonie is spot on. The holes can be made easier to pull through if countersunk so there is a thinish edge to do the scraping. Hardening the plate might make it last longer.

 

[eggwelder]

that looks like a handy idea for rounding arrow shafts

 

[outdoorman]

Wow! This has really gotten interesting.

Thank you to everyone for their input. There is a lot of information about making ramrods.

Now I have to figure out how I might do this. :grin:

Outdoorman

 

[kansas_volunteer]

Still thinking about all this. When making a wooden ramrod, not cane, but either split from a log or laminated, cut the blank ramrod probably four inches longer than you want and put a long smooth taper on one end to help the piece get started through the rounding plate. Put the blank into the correct hole on the rounding plate, and then grab hold of the taper with vice grips or something and pull the blank through the plate. When done the taper, which will likely wind up pretty messed up, can be cut off leaving the rod at finished length.

Making ramrods would be fun and generally satisfying, but if you only need one or two buying ready made rods might be more practical. However once your set up you could make bunch and sell them or give away to friends.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Of the many woods mentioned so far no one has said anything about Osage Orange (a/k/a Bois d' Arc, Bodark, Hedge and more names) It is as tough as a wood can get and is used for making archery bows. I like to work OO but have never had a chunk long enough to make into ramrods. Long billets can be purchased, most from Kansas, but they are expensive.

 

[Billnpatti]

When I lived in Indiana, there were a lot of Osage Orange trees growing in the area. It seemed that most of them were along old fence rows. Unfortunately, most were all gnarled and twisted and finding one that was straight enough to use for lumber was almost impossible. However, there was one saw mill operator in town that found usable trees somewhere and he would sell Osage Orange lumber from his mill. I only bought it once. I did not like working with it because the wood contains something that is an ugly pigment. The pioneers and Indians used Osage Orange wood chips to make dye. Anyway, the saw dust got all over my shop and I had a bunch of stuff that got some of the pigment on it. Once was enough.

Okay, back to question about using it for a ram rod. I'd say that since it is used as a bow wood, it would be pretty strong and would likely make a good rod. I don't care for the color, though. But, that is just a personal thing and has nothing to do with its usability as a rod wood.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have worked tons of osage, it is a ring porous wood with the early wood (spring growth) chalky and weak. The late wood (summer-fall) is the tough stuff but getting a 3/8" piece with very little early wood would be hard.

The reason we chase a ring from one end of the bow to the other is grain runouts on the bows back have a tendency to break when the bow is flexed because of the weakness of the early wood

Very tight ring stuff may fill the bill.

The piece in the middle has plenty of late wood but the lighter rings would be weak. Up under the sapwood on the middle piece the tree quit growing and the rings are very tight, this would make a ramrod.



Osage turns very dark over time or you can hasten the process with clorox or lye. I stained some with aquafortis once and it turned black.

I took this picture abut 10 years ago so it 8 years of darkening.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Osage turns very dark over time

Actually, the darkening process is a matter of UV exposure from light. Kept in dark the wood only darkens slightly. I have done a lot of searching and research and have never found a way to prevent the darkening. At one time there was a woman who went under the business name of Lumber Lady who sold a product claimed to prevent OO from darkening. But she died and never revealed her formula.

 

[nhmoose]

Here are some pics of one a made and have used for 20+ years.
http://s1383.photobucket.com/user/geezerinnh/media/ramrod tool1_zpsvxewtsuc.jpg.html?o=2

 

[kansas_volunteer]

The reason so much osage orange is found along fence rows is because the trees themselves were used as fences. Young osage shoots and saplings are thorny. Osage was used as a thorny hedge to keep livestock in. By cutting back the trees periodically thorn covered growth was encouraged. Over time the hedge became dense, and would stop farm critters better than barb wire.

Osage is native to Texas and Oklahoma. The government way back when promoted it as a living fence. That's why so much of it is now found all around the country -- and even in Australia.

There was a lot of it here in eastern Kansas. No one I know of manages their hedge anymore. They just grow wild and unkempt. Crooked trees now grow in the old hedge rows. I did see a hedge being worked and cut back when I was young. It was just a couple miles NE of Fontana, KS. It was later ripped out.

Osage hereabouts is often called hedge wood.

It does darken overtime. UV light does a lot to darken the wood. Although I have some put away that has not been exposed much to light and it is getting darker. It's brown now. I've handled a very old Indian bow of osage orange at the KU museum. It is as dark as strong black coffee.

I've often thought if I were building my own house and wanted wooden floors I'd use osage. As light played across it and the color changed parts would darken faster than others and it would probably develop an interesting variegated shading.

It ought to make a decent ramrod. I'd search for fast growing trees. Slow growing osage, with very thin growth rings might be too brittle to be reliable. Smaller diameter trees have lots of sap wood. This might be the easiest and most reliable part to use.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Yep on all counts. Add the name "hedge" to the many others ascribed to the tree.
It is a very-very tough border tree. There is a WWII story that the Germans took up positions on one side of a hedge row because the knew American tanks could not penetrate it. That was true for a while until some Private who grew up on a farm designed and built a type of pusher to put on our tanks. After demonstrating to skeptical Generals that it worked they order many built. I hope that Private got a promotion.

 

[Coot]

You are likely thinking of the "Culin Hedgerow Cutter" which was invented by Sgt. Curtis "Bud" Culin who was awarded the Legion of Merit for his invention of welding "tusks" onto the front of tanks that could then charge thru and rip out the dense hedgerows.

For Kansas Volunteer - I have Heart Pine floors in my house which I built 20 years ago. Today, if I move a rug or bookcase, you can see a lighter color rectangle on the floor where the wood was protected from sunlight.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Glad to learn Sgt. Culin was recognized.
All woods are, to varying degrees, photo sensitive.