Tempering a hickory ramrod...

[Citra47]

I read years ago in the Dixie catalog that a hickory ramrod can be tempered by soaking it in coal oil for a few months. The problem is that coal oil may have been common in the 1800's but it isn't now. Some people say coal oil is the same as kerosene but taint so. Does anyone know of a chemical or product that will work to temper hickory ramrods? Ballistol is made from coal but I have never read of it being used for ramrods . Any ideas? :idunno:

 

[4570tc]

I did a thread on this , except I used kerosene. Every body said it does not work.

 

[Citra47]

Thanks 4570tc. I had not seen your thread.

 

[F.G. Ford]

Most places that sell home heating supplies will carry some #1 heating oil, that is as close to coal oil that you will get.
If you take a piece of abs plumbing pipe, glue a cap on the bottom fill it with #1 oil soak it for 20 days it will give it a horrible smell, but will help it not to break.
It will never be unbreakable.
Good straight grain hickory is about the best you can use.
It is hard to find store bought perfect straight grain "hickory" in most cases I find it easy to make my own.
In 47 years of shooting black powder, I have never had a straight grain hickory rod break.
Store bought ones, many breakages!
Old Ford

 

[Black Hand]

Old wives tale...
Get a good hickory ramrod with no grain run-out or make your own.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Soaking ramrods in kerosene, coal oil, or anything else, simply does NOT WORK. More than 30 years ago, the President of my local gun club, bought a half dozen hickory rods at Friendship, all straight grained. He put three of them in a pipe with end caps, and filled with #1 fuel oil, and let them soak over the winter. 5-6 months. The other three rods were stored in his garage right next to the pipe with the 3 rods soaking.

The next spring, he took the 3 rods out of the pipe, and wiped them off. They still STUNK FOR MORE THAN A MONTH, AND WERE STILL SMELLY WHEN HE brought them down to the club to show the rest of us.

His test was to take all 6 rods and make a loop with each of them, trying to touch the ends of each rod( 48")to each other.

All 6 rods passed the test. There simply was no difference in the flexibility of the soaked rods vs. the rods that were not soaked.

We had alot of experienced shooters in the club who were present that day. They believed this old wive's tale, until they saw that test done in front of them. Several took the sticks and tested the sticks themselves to see if the soaked sticks bent easier by comparison to the others. All went away shaking their heads, convinced that those old tales were not true.

The issue was raised by new members every couple of years after that, but we had Lots of people to tell the askers not to waste their time. And the story of Ray's test was repeated to the new guys.

One member knew a dealer at Friendship, who sold ramrods. He told him about Ray's test, and even the dealer smiled, as he had customers all the time asking if they should soak the rods to make them more flexible! He thanked our member for the information saying he had never bothered to test the rods himself, and never soaked any of the rods. He was delighted that someone had finally done a legitimate test to answer the question, once and for all. :thumbsup:

[I was a true spectator at the time, having only joined the club to do its legal work. I didn't own a gun at the time this test was done. I had also heard about soaking ramrods in kerosene to make them more flexible, but didn't own any hickory ramrods to test, one way or the other.]

 

[Loyalist Dave]

A couple of things. Home heating oil is a form of very clean diesel fuel. It will run a diesel vehicle, cleaner than the diesel from a gas station. It is called "home heating oil" as it is taxed at a much lower rate than vehicle fuel.

So any test of the idea using home heating oil or diesel fuel was not necessarily a valid test.

Is true, that Coal Oil are not the same thing as Kerosene, coal oil comes from a specific type of coal, kerosene comes from petroleum, however, chemically, BOTH coal oil and Kerosene are composed of alkane hydrocarbons of ten or sixteen carbon atoms..., and when refined are the same. :wink:

This explains why in the past folks have confused kerosene with coal oil..., it worked the same, and probably smelled nearly the same.

Finally, what you have here is an excellent example of informational shift. Was the original purpose of soaking the ramrods to make them more flexible, or was it to maintain the flexability? :hmm:

You see if you simply stain and seal a ramrod, they can become brittle. I have seen this with my own. Now if you soak them in an oil that will evaporate, like coal oil or kerosene, you do provide a moisture barrier. (I oil mine with Ballistol, simply as I often rub them down with the stuff.) So if you prevent moisture from penetrating the rod, that moisture cannot cause the rod to swell in the pipes, AND cannot in cold weather make the rod stiff. So it may be that flexability is maintained in all weather conditions, and the old "tale" got modified over time? This is the hypothesis. :hmm:

I just know that my ramrods last quite well when applying some oil to them when I clean the rifle, and longer than when simply stained and using BLO.

On the other hand perhaps oil simply reduces the wear on the rod from the barrel crown to rod contact when loading and cleaning, and without the oil the wear on the rod would cause it to eventually break, and the causality is wrong (lack of flexibility) but the result is correct (the oil increases the rod durability). :hmm:

LD

 

[kbuck]

Is there a botanist aboard that can explain the interaction among the several natural components in wood (lignin, pectin, cellulose, etc.) and the ability of its properties to be changed by the introduction of any oil soak? I am thinking that water might not leave the wood so fast, thereby preventing it from drying, but actually adding to its flexibility?

 

[Herb]

I soak my comleted and stained rods in a piece of electrical conduit, submerged in pure neatsfoot oil. This is a leather treatment product and there are blends, but I use 100% pure from a farm-ranch store. Leave it in anywhere from a week to a month, depending on when I get the rifle done. It has no odor once dried, and I don't know if it makes any major difference in the rod, but I like it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Like others, I believe the kerosene is worthless.
I soak mine in lemon oil for several weeks. Without testing except from use, I believe it makes them flexy and strong.

 

[F.G. Ford]

Many people make a ramrod out of any stick they find.
Some are more refined and get their ram rod stock from the wooden dowels at the lumber yard......must be good stuff , or they wouldn't sell it. It is good stuff, but not for ramrods.
Hickory, or Ironwood is not easy to find.
Many lumber yards don't even carry it.
You may have to go to a wood specialty store, to find these woods.
Birch, maple, oak, beech,cherry, walnut do not make good ramrods. They will break sooner or later.
Many of us try to make our guns as traditional as possible, and use what we can find, and end up with these store bought dowels.
As previously stated, if you oil your ramrod, it will not dry out. So use whatever reciepy you find best.
I believe the theory of soaking in coal oil was to introduce the effect of not drying out.
Straight grained bamboo also works well. Ask any fly fishing fellow that has the opportunity to use a bamboo fishing rod. They are tough!
Old Ford

 

[Rifleman1776]

Straight grained bamboo also works well. Ask any fly fishing fellow that has the opportunity to use a bamboo fishing rod. They are tough!
Old Ford

Bamboo fly rods are made from many small pieces glued together. And, they are subject to entirely different stresses than a ramrod. And, they are incredibly expensive.
Sorry, not good advice, IMHO.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Bamboo is a grass, not a wood. It has to be cut in quarter sections, and then glued together to give both strength and flexibility to a fishing rod. It would cost far too much to try to get a bamboo rod to use for a cleaning/loading rod for a MLer.

There is a man who advertises in Muzzle Blasts that sells hickory rods. He has a minimum order requirement, so several shooters need to pool their funds to buy rods from him. I always buy extras- as you never know who will be at the club range, and break a factory junk rod during a shoot. I do the same shopping at Friendship- always buying a few extras.
the most popular size is 3/8" in diameter. I do own smaller and larger sticks, but the 3/8"( .375") diameter rods seem to work for anyone shooting guns from .40-.54 caliber. I think the longest my " supply " of rods has lasted has been 2 years! with most of them sold to other club members in need. :hmm:

If you aren't a member of the NMLRA, you should be. I can't see any reason for attempting to use birch and foreign wood( Ramin) dowels for such an important task as loading a rifle. My rifle's hickory rod was made in about 1978-79. Its still working just fine. I only wish the American Dollar was worth as much as my ramrod still is, that I bought back then for $1.00 or less. :hatsoff:

 

[Billnpatti]

Actually, coal oil is an old term for kerosine. The term was still in use when I was a youngster. We had a heating stove that used kerosine. Some places sold it under the name of kerosine while others sold it as coal oil. It is the same stuff. You can use kerosine or diesel fuel to try to temper a ramrod but when I tried it by soaking the hickory rods for a couple months, I could tell no difference betweeen the soaked rods and the unsoaked rods. I am now of the opinion that soaking hickory rods does nothing for them other than making them smell like kerosine.

 

[J.D.]

Well, I gotta add a thought from someone who makes a few long bows, and who knows a little about hickory. As to keeping hickory from drying out, any bowmaker who knows his wood will tell you that hickory absorbs ambient moisture and is very, very difficult to dry to the moisture content required to make a bow, without a dry box. In addition, Hickory is difficult to seal, long term, to prevent it's absorbing ambient moisture.

It's hickory's affinity for absorbing moisture is what makes it take a set, even in well designed and well tillered bows.

The bottom line, is, hickory doesn't need to be treated to remain flexible. Use good straight grained hick and you won't have to worry about breaking ramrods. There are dealers who sell good hickory rammer blanks, or one can split their own hickory rammer with a little effort.

Hickory rammers do need to be made a little smaller in diameter than other woods, as it can, and will expand and bind in the pipes in wet weather.

J.D.

 

[Melton Kidd]

#1 heating oil in Canada is a lot lighter than #1 heating oil in the U.S. #1 heating oil in the U.S. is basically the same as #1 diesel before the sulfur was removed.

I would use #1 Canadian heating oil in place of kerosene, but I would not use #1 U.S. heating oil.

 

[Zonie]

You folks who want to soak your ramrods in coal oil, kerosene or jet fuel go ahead and do it.

IMO, it won't improve a good ramrod and it won't help a crappy one. Simply put, I think the idea is a bunch of hooie but what the hey! The only thing it might hurt is if the ramrod is taken out hunting the deer will think a D-9 Cat. has been moved into the area. :grin:

 

[Gatofeo]

Great great great great Grampa Gato soaked his ramrod in the fat drippings of Dodo Birds and Passenger Pigeons.
Said he could coil his ramrod like a spring and it wouldn't break.
Kinda hard to find these fat drippings, though ... :haha:

 

[Billnpatti]

Hmmmmm.......I think I just got soaked in someting but it was not Dodo fat. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[Rifleman1776]

#1 heating oil in Canada is a lot lighter than #1 heating oil in the U.S. #1 heating oil in the U.S. is basically the same as #1 diesel before the sulfur was removed.

I would use #1 Canadian heating oil in place of kerosene, but I would not use #1 U.S. heating oil.

And, in England, kerosene is called parrafin.