Description
ARE ALL HANDMADE.
All our Cleaning Rods are made from sustainably sourced woods.
The Walnut used is from the USA, and is yard cured for up to 24 months.
Our Olive Wood handles are sourced from Farms across Southern Africa, and we only use fallen trees that have lived out their lives, then repurposed. This too is cured. On some of our handles, you may be lucky to see “burn” marks which fantastically enhance the beauty of the piece. This comes from the tree being burnt at a young age, surviving the fire and re growing around said marks.
When any natural burs or knots occur in our olive wood handles, we carefully drill these out and stabilise with a marine grade two part epoxy resin. This maintains the beauty of the wood without detracting from its functionality. The process is much like what a dentist would do when filling a tooth.
We use an age forgotten process called “Shellac” (the same used on pianos today), to coat ALL our wood, up to 17 coats are applied with 24 hours drying time between coats (So yes, 17 days just for the coatings) . The final few coats are applied at a speed of 3000 RPM to ensure a fantastic and smooth finish, but still allowing for microscopic channels, not easy to see with the naked eye, but providing essential grip when using!
Our Brass is polished, also at high speed, however, brass does tarnish with age, should you wish to keep in this state, or want to keep it polished, we highly recommend NOT using chemicals, but rather very fine steel wool, and it will maintain its lustre.
Should your wood parts get scratched during use, simply rub alcohol onto effected areas and allow to dry, this will rub out minor marks. (We highly recommend NOT using a 25 year old Whiskey, as this may invoke a visit from ancestors past.)
ALL our wooden rods are “tapped” and actually screwed into the brass parts, then epoxy glued, and pinned with brass rods. You may be lucky to actually see one of these pins, however it’s unlikely.
The transport bags are made to be loose fitting and spacious to allow for the addition of other rods, jags, and other essential components.
These rods have been designed and used extensively, and will not fail in their intended purpose of Cleaning the Best Shotguns and Double Rifles in the World. DO NOT BEND IT OVER YOUR KNEE TO SEE HOW FAR IT WILL BEND, IT WILL BREAK, AS THIS IS NOT ITS INTENDED PURPOSE!
ALL our Walnut, in every batch is sourced, and made, from the exact same “quarter cut” tree. We marry these up and match them as close as possible so that the Rod looks as one, however, it is a tree and colour and grain MAY vary slightly, simply adding to the absolute beauty of all wood products.
“Shellac” is a type of resin secreted by the Lac bug found in both India and Thailand. It has been used for aeons. It lost its popularity during the 1920s as the main cure for woods, due to the introduction of nitrocellulose lacquers. We, however, prefer this process of ages past.
May you have generations of joy,
