I posted earlier about a dual use ramrod for 1" bores and golf ball bores. It was basically a slightly less than 1" handle with an end of golf ball bore around 1" in length of the 12" total length. Longest bore I have is 11". Well the machinist got things wrong and went from brass to aluminum to finally steel (not a good material for a ramrod). After getting warned up and down about it's potential hazards I realized that it would make a perfect jag for cleaning my pieces. Simply wrap a soap soaked rag around the knurled ends of the rod to run up and down the bores. In that mode it works perfect, but I still needed a ramrod. That's when the Safety Ramrod talk started.
Turns out the fellow making the piece for me has designed a double brass ended ramrod with ash or some other hardwood as the middle link between the brass ends. The brass was turned to accept a turned down section of the wood. After pressing the wood into the brass with plenty of glue as well, two cross bolt holes were drilled and tapped through the brass and wood. Those crossbolt's were applied with LocTite and left to harden. The brass was then turned smooth and each have a convex head to help start the wads and to leave the wads in a pressure building position. Concern was expressed about the golf ball end being launched into a waiting hand. This was covered by the taper that was applied to the wood and brass at that end. Still larger and not a reverse taper, but a whole lot better than a flat can that can be seen in my first steel model. Smithy.
