reducing a ramrod

[George]

I'm going to make a totally wooden ramrod for my 20 ga. fowler, no brass rod tip. Because I want the ramming end large I'm using a 1/2" hickory blank. I'll need to reduce most of the 46" rod to about 3/8". Can anyone advise me what common tools I can use to do this under good control?

Also, If I decide to make the rod a little longer than the barrel so that it sticks out past the muzzle, is there anything I can do to protect the wood against muzzle blast?

Thanks.

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

I like to use a combination of scrapers, sandpaper, rasps/files and a small finish plane. I use the plane to remove the bulk of the wood paying particular attention to the grain and use the rest to fine-tune.

My rod sticks out a bit and I can't really see any way to protect it. But a bit of flash shouldn't do much damage.

 

[MSW]

there's a nice description of how to thin a ramrod in the Gunsmith of Grenville County by Peter Alexander. i've never tried this method, but i commend the book to your use- it'sd expensive, but well worth the money, as it will save you much more than the purchase price in parts you didn't ruin and time trying to fix mistakes you didn't make. (it's really hard to get bloodstains out of maple- don't ask me how i know :redface: )

good luck with your projedct, and
make good smoke

 

[paulvallandigham]

Personally, I would begin with a 5/8" rod, and work it down from there. You want the pushing end( without a jag) to be as close to bore diameter for your smoothbore as possible.

WHY? To support and protect the edges of your wads, to make a consistent seal, shot after shot.

If you own a spokeshave, it does a nice job of removing wood to shape that rod. It can be done with files, however.

A friend of mine used a power belt sander, with fine grit belts, to remove wood from a rod he made for one of my rifles. He inscribed a circle the diameter that he wanted the end of the rod to be, and used that circle to guide him as he removed wood from one side or the other, to make the rod tapered. If you know someone who has a wood lathe, with a long bed, you might be able to shape the rod even faster by using that lathe. :thumbsup:

 

[Capt. Jas.]

http://thosmachine.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/ramrod-scraper/

 

[Bubba45]

I took a 5/8" flat washer and ran a countersink in till it tapered to a real sharp edge then ran the washer over emory paper to sharpen it up.It shaves a rod pretty good by sticking rod through the large side of taper and scraping against smaller diameter pulling toward you.

 

[George]

Thanks for the link, Capt. Jas., and the info about the washer tool, Bubba45. Both are good ideas. I have the rod reduced enough to slide in the pipes, only need to taper the end in the forearm and do final adjusting, tomorrow, and I'll be in business.

I roughed the first bit out with an old Stanley Surform tool and a mild wood rasp, then scraped the last bit with a knife blade. I sharpened an old butcher knife and clamped it vertically in a vise so I could stroke across it using both hands, worked pretty well. I remembered a trick I figured out last time I did this many years ago, to use a pencil to mark circles around the rod every inch or so, then work until I had removed all the marks. Mark again, work again, etc. several times. That helps keep the rod straight, makes it easier to avoid taking too much wood off any one spot.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Spence

 

[longcruise]

Have never made a ramrod from square stock, but have made a bunch of arrows. I can make three 36" inch finished arrows in about 30 minutes with my method. BTW, it's not "my" method since I did not invent it. :surrender:

Here is how to do it. First, you need a jig. The jig is a board of almost any size with a "V" groove routed down the center. You drive a small tack or nail into the groove just about three inches shy of one end. You sit with the board in your lap or put it in a vice or clamp it to a table. The longer it is the less useful it is in your lap! Put your piece of square stock in the "V" and butted up against the little tack to keep it from sliding in the "V". Take your small plane (I don't know the terminology for planes at all, but the one i use is about five inches long) and set the blade to take a very fine cut. Run it down the top edge of your square stock evenly from end to end (to get your tulip end you will have to stop a bit short and do the last bit by hand with other tools). Make your passes even and complete all the way down the blank. Once you have a flat on that top edge, rotate the blank until you have done all four of the corner edges of your blank. Now, you have an eight sided blank. Using the same technique, continue and make it into a 16 sided blank. You could go further and make a 32 sided blank, but it's not necessary.

with 16 sides you are ready to sand. Sand with a pair of "V" blocks about six or seven inches long. Sand along the length with the two blocks with the shaft in the "V"s. Just sand till it's smooth and round. The reason for the "V" sanding blocks is that if you just wrap a piece of sandpaper around the shaft without support, you will end up sanding away more of any softer wood and could end up wavy. That's a BIG problem with soft arrow shaft woods but probably not so much with hardwoods.

I coulda made one in the time it took to type this. :haha:

Also, there always seems to be talk about how to make a tapered ramrod. That can be accomplished very easily using the same jig. Let's say you want to taper 24 inches of your ramrod. With a pencil, draw a ring around your shaft or rod about 10 inches from the end. Draw another ring around it at about 20 inches. Then, set your little plane for a very fine cut. Put the shaft in the jig and place your plane on the shaft so that the front edge is exactly at the little circle you drew at 10 inches. Take one complete pass to the end of the shaft then rotate the shaft a tiny bit and continue the process till you have erased the circle on the shaft. Look it over carefully. If your see any remnants of the circle, make a pass to remove them. Then repeat with the circle at 20 inches. Since your blade is behind the front edge of the plane, your will be ending up with taper longer than 20 inches (probably a bit under the 24" though. Depends on the plane itself). You can do this with more circles for a more rapid taper or with circles further apart for a longer more gradual taper. Or with any combo of circles and distances between the circles. You must use a very fine cut or you might end up with more taper than you wanted.

Hope that helps!

 

[longcruise]

Just got to thinking and came up with an idea. You could foot a piece of square ebony stock on the last six or eight inches of your rod stock and make it with an ebony tulip end.

 

[George]

Just got to thinking and came up with an idea. You could foot a piece of square ebony stock on the last six or eight inches of your rod stock and make it with an ebony tulip end.

Good idea, if I had the talent. I do have a gun done in a similar way. This is a turkey smoothbore done by Ron Paull, and he used a piece of bone, first, then a cap of ivory on that. The nose cap of the stock is of black horn, buffalo, I suppose. He's a very talented fellow.

Spence

 

[Capt. Jas.]

I often use cow horn and wedges resting on a shoulder for my rammers.

 

[Goldhunter]

Also, If I decide to make the rod a little longer than the barrel so that it sticks out past the muzzle, is there anything I can do to protect the wood against muzzle blast?

Thanks.

Spence

I can tell you the muzzle blast from my GPR destroyed the wood end of my ramrod. I left the new rod about an inch longer than the muzzle, finished the wood with whatever varnish/oil/sealer I used (can't remember). This particular rod has the brass tip on the end that goes into the stock. Not sure why I left it that long but I did (perhaps to give a bit more to grab when cleaning). :hmm: Anyway...

The blast charred the end to the point that it created a 'dished' effect. I cut that off so the rod was about .5 longer than muzzle and resealed. The rod is now egg shaped from the blast.

I don't think a metal tip would be affected much. But YMMV. All my rods that have metal tips at the muzzle end are flush with the muzzle.

 

[George]

I can tell you the muzzle blast from my GPR destroyed the wood end of my ramrod.

Thanks for the info. I figured that would be the case, but, being only a hunter, I shoot very little and don't know if it's enough to eat a rod. I finished the rod and left it 1 1/2" beyond the muzzle, so I'll find out. If I see it beginning to char away I'll cut it back.... if thine rod offend the, cut it off.

I don't think a metal tip would be affected much. But YMMV.

I made this new rod because I'm going to try using the very basic methods and equipment the old boys used, and the rod I have always used for this gun has a brass tip at the muzzle for screwing in jags, worms, etc. It's a 20 ga. smoothbore, so I carry it with a 20 ga. shotgun button on the tip. That sticks out in the muzzle blast and there is no sign of wear on it after 13 year. Lot of black fouling, but no wear.

Spence

 

[longcruise]

That is real pretty work by mister Paul

Good idea, if I had the talent.

Hah! One thing you can be sure of, If I suggest something, then I have done it. And, if I have done it anybody, absolutely anybody can do it! :haha:

There are two easy ways to foot a rod or shaft.

First one is to just have your footing and rod blank the same matching size. Cut a deep v in your rod blank and a matching taper in your footing material. Just glue it and clamp it tight. Then proceed to make your rod.

Second way is pretty easy too. Take your main rod blank and cut it straight up the center for about five or six inches. When you have done that, you will have a saw kerf where you made your cut. Then just cut or plane a taper into your footing material blank. Put the rod blank material into a vise so that the saw kerf matches perfectly with where the blank extends beyond the vise. Swipe glue into the kerf and over the tapered footing material. Take a hammer and drive the wedge into the kerf all the way into the end of the kerf. Position in the vise is crtical so as to prevent splitting the rod blank when the taper is driven into it. Put a couple of c clamps or whatever kind you have along the "ears" of the rod blank that are outside the footing taper. Helps get a good glue joint. When it is all set up, just plain or cut the ears off before you put the blank in the jig to plane to round.

This might not be a project you are interested in pursueing but just thought I'd throw it out there in case it might be of use to any of the forum readers.

Am getting ready to make a seven foot plaining jig so's I can plane out some six foot shafts for atlatls.

 

[wmaser]

I clamp an electric drill in my vise and put the hickory blank in the chuck. Wrap sandpaper around the blank and turn on the drill. ( Wear a pair of gloves. It gets hot). Check diameter frequently.

 

[brubincam]

-----drill and sandpaper works for me-----

 

[tg]

I put several extra coats of marine spar varnish on the last few inches on my wooden ramrods to help protect against burning, this one does not come out as far as many I have had in the past it is a plain rod with no metal on it at all for use with a .58 Fusil de Chase, this coating has done well so far, I do not shoot as much as I used to the amount of usage is probably a big factor with any coating.I cheated and added a short piece to the end of a 3/8 rod for mine, the joint shows but I think one could probably do a better job and make it less visabale.

 

[George]

I clamp an electric drill in my vise and put the hickory blank in the chuck. Wrap sandpaper around the blank and turn on the drill. ( Wear a pair of gloves. It gets hot). Check diameter frequently.

I thought of doing that, not with a drill but with a drill press which can be adjusted to a horizontal position. I was leery because of the length of the rod, 48", thought it might get to whipping. Good to know about your doing that.

You, too, rubincam.

Spence.

 

[George]

I put several extra coats of marine spar varnish on the last few inches on my wooden ramrods to help protect against burning...

Considered that, but since so many finishes are very flammable I thought it might make the problem worse. If it doesn't turn your gun into a torch I may try it.

I cheated and added a short piece to the end of a 3/8 rod for mine, the joint shows but I think one could probably do a better job and make it less visabale.

Good idea, and it looks good. Don't know why it would be a problem if it did show.

Spence

 

[Dirk Perry]

Spence,
rasps and scrapers are good PC tools, but ive tapered RR's with just a belt sander clamped upside down in my vise. works great.