Ramin Ramrod

[hawkeye2]

I need a couple of ramrod blanks and I was wondering about ramin verses hickory. I'll be using the rods as range & cleaning rods and they won't be carried in the thimbles so any difference in appearance doesn't matter. Is ramin as good as hickory? Better? Not as good? Not that it matters with these rods but can it be finished to look like a hickory rod?

 

[longcruise]

Not as strong as hickory but useable. Hardware store dowels used to be ramin but now they seem to be a softer wood. Hickory is an "exotic" wood in these parts so I've used some of those hardware store dowels with success. Three eighths steel for range rods.

I have a 3/8" dowel cutter for making arrows and thought maybe some laminated bamboo flooring could be spun into ramrods.

Whaddaya think? Not HC enough?

 

[tenngun]

Hicory is stonger and seems to be less likly to break. Rammin has worked well in my smoothies. I use a 7/16 hicory for cleaning on all my guns and plain shooting at the range use it as my loader. In the tall timber rammi has served my smtties well. I cant tell a differnce looking at it after oiling and getting stained in use. My 50 uses a 3/8 tappered rod, in real hicory,I dont know that a rammin would break eaiser but would not like to find out.

 

[AZbpBurner]

I've had several Hickory and Several Ramin rods for many years in both 3/8" and 7'16", and haven't broken any of them. If you abuse any rod by flexing it while pounding it down the bore you risk breakage. I get my blanks from ToTW, and always ask for straight rods without cross or angle grain and haven't gotten one yet that wasn't usable.

 

[Zonie]

Ramin has a crushing strength slightly better than hickory but it is not as hard.

Perhaps ramin's greatest fault is dowels are always machined out of large pieces of it without regard to its grain and growth rings.
It also has very vague boundries between its growth rings so if a piece of it has a lot of "grain runout" it is difficult to see.

A good hickory ramrod is made by splitting the wood along the grain. This produces a piece of wood with little or no grain runout.

Hickory has a noticeable boundary between its rings so if grain runout exists, it is easy to see.

Grain runout shows where the growth rings break out the side of the ramrod.
If they exist, the ramrod can split along these rings leaving a knife sharp end that can, and has easily gone thru the hand, wrist or arm of the shooter who had the misfortune of it happening.


http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/ramin/
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/shagbark-hickory/

 

[Spikebuck]

I prefer Hickory, but I haven't had any problem with Ramin. Ramin is a pretty good arrow wood, but because of some of the things already mentioned, I always had a hard time with them taking to a straightening for any length of time. Of course, that's not much of an issue with a ramrod.

I think it's an acceptable sub to Hickory, though maybe not quite as good.

 

[tenngun]

well if you soak it in coal oil for a year it will never break...or so I was told....on the other hand can deer smell a coal oil soaked rod?

 

[longcruise]

Might make a good cover scent :haha:

That coal oil trick has been in the Dixie catalog for years. I have seen it written that it does not work, but that was on the internet so.......

 

[Billnpatti]

It may well work for you but I would only use a wooden rod that had been split out and not sawn. Splitting lets it follow the grain and eliminates grain run out. Run out is your enemy when it comes to ram rods. Wood under strain is subject to breaking along grain lines. If your rod has grain run out, the resulting break will result in an extremely dangerous spear point on the broken end of the rod. This spear point has seriously injured more than a few hands. If you select a rod to use in the bore of a rifle, be sure that it has been split out and not sawn. All dowel rods that are sold in lumber yards and hardware stores are sawn out and turned round. As such, they are subject to splitting along the grain lines and leaving a very dangerous point to jam into your hand.

I agree with marmotslaayer in regard to the old coal oil or kerosene soaking trick. It has been proven in carefully conducted tests that it does not work. It is essentially an old wives tale.

 

[jbwilliams3]

I agree with marmotslaayer in regard to the old coal oil or kerosene soaking trick. It has been proven in carefully conducted tests that it does not work. It is essentially an old wives tale.

It does, however, work at making your rod smell like kerosene.

For what it's worth, the only rod I've ever broken was a ramin dowel although it had run out and I knew I shouldn’t use it. My best rods have been split hickory and they seem nearly indestructible (at least for our purposes!)

I have one 47” barrel and I needed a cleaning rod in a pinch so I used a ramin dowel. It works just fine although it’s 7/16th. I wouldn’t be as confident if it were thinner.

 

[William O.]

Compared to Hickory, Ramin wood is crap.

 

[James Morris]

For range/cleaning rods I make 'em out of 1/4 inch steel and put shrink tube on the full length of them so there's no steel to steel contact. One of the big benefits I've found is that if the barrel's getting a bit dirty you can really put some serious force on a steel rod to drive the ball down without the worry of breaking a wooden one.

 

[Pete G]

Some ramin may be OK, but I got one from TOW that looked suspicious so I put just a small amount of tension on it and it snapped. Glad that I didn't spend any time trying to make a rr out of it.

I have tried the coal oil soak and it does seem to make the rod a little more flexible, but that's something that is hard to measure. I do know that the only rod that I have ever broken had not been soaked and I have never broken one that was, for whatever that's worth.

 

[Dphar]

I need a couple of ramrod blanks and I was wondering about ramin verses hickory. I'll be using the rods as range & cleaning rods and they won't be carried in the thimbles so any difference in appearance doesn't matter. Is ramin as good as hickory? Better? Not as good? Not that it matters with these rods but can it be finished to look like a hickory rod?

It stinks.

Dan

 

[galamb]

If you are just using them as cleaning/range rods and they won't be "carried" on the gun then why not go with Delrin (black sorta like plastic).

I have never been able to get a Delrin tree to grow in my back yard but you can't break these things.

 

[mzloder]

I have never been able to get a Delrin tree to grow in my back yard but you can't break these things

Yuppir!!!! My Renegade wears a black Delrin rod when I'm hunting or playing at the range, the wooden ramrod is just for show. Especially when I am in the woods, I DO NOT want to take the chance on having a broken ramrod! Or a devastating hand injury, far from help!

 

[hawkeye2]

Your problem is that Naugas find Delrin tree shoots irrestable and devour them as soon as they break ground. If you can control the Naugas you shouldn't have any problems growing Delrin trees. A bonus is that you can find lots of uses for the Nauga hides.

 

[Zonie]

But that's the problem.

As soon as I get into their territory with my trusty gun, the Nauga's hide.

 

[hawkeye2]

I've decided to pass on the Ramin, apparently it makes better noodles than ramrods. :grin: I have a cleaning rod I can use for the time being (for loading too) and later I'll take stock and buy an assortment of blanks. I was in Lowe's a couple of days ago and saw Oak dowles in an assortment of diameters and a reasonable price. I looked through a few and saw some with no grain runout. Would Oak or Ash work? I still have an Ash .22 cleaning rod my great uncle split out for me when I got a Winchester 75 target rifle for Christmas in grade school.

 

[PaulN/KS]

White or red oak would be OK but you really can't beat a good piece of ash.