I made up 2 ramrods today from oak dowels that I got at Home Depot for a little over a dollar each. If they hold up, I'll report back. I checked the grain runout carefully. You can make a traditional bow out of oak, so they should be strong enough. We'll see. I epoxyed & pinned the tips on. They came from the junk box & off old fiberglass ramrods(which I hate). Some of them were 8-32 so..........
I decided to tap them up to 10-32. I went to Sears, and the tap & bit came in the same package. I actually prefer 8-32 tips, but I no longer have very many 8/32 ramrod accessories. I just enlarged them to 10-32.
I stained them with Fiebing's Dark Brown shoe dye & slathered them real good with Purified Linseed Oil.
They look really nice and I saved my stock of hand split hickory rods for longer barreled guns.
This one is on my Renegade. Notice the brass pipes I just put on it.
Here's the one I put on my Hawken. I made the gun hangers too.