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Tapered ramrod
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Booshway
posted
Anybody here ever made a tapered ramrod?
I didn't like the rod on my fowler and decided to make a new one. I bought a 7/16 x 48" rod blank from TOW. I watched a video from the guy at midway make a tapered and figured I could do it to. I made a jig from 2 x 2 and covered it with sand paper and attached it to a board. I used a drill to turn the rod through the jig tapering from 7/16" to 3/8" and the end going in the gun to 5/16". I tapered the tip for a 5/16 8 x 32 thread tip. Not a bad little project.
 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I remember seeing them made by drilling pieces of 1/4 angle iron with successively smaller holes, and sharpening them with a round Swiss file.
 
Posts: 353 | Location: Pocono Mts. in PA | Registered: 12 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I took a pair of repro 18th century scissors from my sewing kit. I clamped the handles into the vice using two wooden blocks to keep from marring the scissor handles, and I left the scissor jaws open and pointed at the ceiling in a moderate V. Then I took the large ramrod blanks and laid it into the V of the scissors and gently pulled. Two, very small and very long curly-cues of wood were scrapped off the ramrod blank. I rotated the blank a fraction and repeated. I would bear down a little harder as the rod neared it's far end, and thus after many many passes through the scissors, I had a rough tapered ramrod. Some sanding and checking on the fit in my tradeguns (as I made two) and voila... tapered, one piece ramrod.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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I offer this in the FWIW vane. I use a washer clamped in the vice and draw the ramrod through it. It works much like the V of the scissors cutting a small curl of wood off the rod with each pass. I used this method to peal the bark from small sprouts and have them for more or less period correct ramrods. They add a bit of gee whizz factor at the shooting line and start some good conversations. YMMV.

doggoner


The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. --Thomas Jefferson
 
Posts: 31 | Location: Perkinston, MS | Registered: 13 April 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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That's probably a LOT safer than having the pointy ends of scissors pointed upward on one's bench. Wink

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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That’s a good tip Doggoner. I have used a small block plane and that worked easy enough but I’ll have to try the washer method next time.

The method mentioned by first poster works well and is easy to do.


Shoot Safe
 
Posts: 43 | Location: Dallas, Texas | Registered: 15 February 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I used a block plane to shave down one end of a ramrod and finished it with a lot of sandpaper work.

On a hunt in northern Michigan one time I broke my ramrod. I was able to cut a 1/2 inch sapling and shave it down with my knife. Also with the knife I bored a hole through one end so I could run a cleaning patch through it.
Crude, but it worked well enough for me to carry on through several more days of the hunt.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Yeah! Adapt and overcome.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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I've always tapered mine using a knife and sandpaper. I'll just buy the hickory blanks, cut them to length and taper them till they fit the thimbles.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of JoeM
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I used a washer to do some shaping / dress up on one of my ramrods that felt like it was kind of oval in some areas, and it worked really well. That was a good idea, doggoner. Smiler


Ohio Joe / Chadron Fur Trade Days
 
Posts: 69 | Location: Nebraska | Registered: 05 August 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I have a small, relatively soft, sandstone stone that I found up in the mountains some years ago. It has about a 7/16" hole bored through the middle of it.
I wonder if it was once used to straighten arrow shafts?


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Sounds like a reasonable hypothesis.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of JoeM
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quote:
Originally posted by Boartooth:
Sounds like a reasonable hypothesis.


I agree!


Ohio Joe / Chadron Fur Trade Days
 
Posts: 69 | Location: Nebraska | Registered: 05 August 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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