Walking sticks

Catherine G.,
I doubt that that Brassica stem will be long-term durable for a walking-stick, not enough lignan glueing the cellulosic fibers, would split and delaminate. Ordinary wood is more durable (and least labor in stripping, staining, polyurethaning); perhaps the ultimate in flexible fracture resistance is cornelian-cherry (prized for drumming rappers, but hard to find in walking-stick sizes), for rigid strength hawthorn would be my choice (dense, but gives a fine pattern of limb-scar knobs). Most of my work is in sweetgum, it's the prevalent vine-wrapped species hereabouts (lightweight, easy to carve to shape). You are always balancing weight vs. durability!
Technical tip: for those pesky fibers that stick out after cross-grain carving: a quick pass high over a gas flame will flash them off without changing the main stick surface.

Stanton - thank you for the information. I don't plan to use the stems as walking sticks, however, I hope the information helps others who might consider the plant.

A suggestion of an accessory for your walking sticks. Instantly turn the stick into a shield to ward off dogs, snakes, etc.

Have flat, hinged metal segments that can be quickly pushed from lying along the stick to extending out from the stick. With three or four sets of such metal segments spaced around the walking stick, when those  all project extend a foot out from the walking stick, spin the stick and you have what appears as a solid shield to an animal.

This can be accomplished by having two foot long metal pieces that normally lie along the stick. Hinge them together and then when pushed together project out from the stick. Secure them to the bottom of the stick (also prevents wear and tear). Connect a move able bit of pipe at the top as a handle. Push the handle toward the bottom and you will force the flat metal segments to extend.

Sorry if this quick write up is not clear. I am new to Permies, but happy to follow up with more details if you wish. I will try to check in in a few days if I can figure out how to get back to this thread.
Phil

Those are some beautiful walking sticks!!! Wow. Much better than the stuff you can buy at the typical sporting shop in town. I'm reminded of other things you can make with sticks, like the thing in this YT video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK6BuoX_0To Those smaller items could also be beautifully crafted and sold at a premium.

For those wanting to beef up sticks that may be weaker than they prefer, I made a cane from wine corks with spacers made from 1/4" clear, blue plastic disks. Pretty wobbly and unreliable., were it not for the 3/8" allthread rod running down the center.

The same could be done to longer sticks of solid wood by splitting a 2x2 in half, cutting out the center to accommodate the 3/8" allthread, then gluing the two pieces back together. You could use two different woods, if that met your fancy.

Some of these walking sticks are gorgeous. William, have you moved forward with this as a hobby or cottage industry?

Then, Michael, there is the problem of finding those sticks with just the right amount of curves to make them interesting.

I have to spend days, even weeks out in the forest before I find ones like these (okay, there might be a bit of potential compost in this post).

[end smart aleck font]

Michael Cox wrote:William - most "found" walking sticks won't pass commercial standards without additional work. As a starting point, look into what is required to straighten a stick. Steam bending is commonly used, because found sticks are rarely truly straight.

Stick making doesn't have to be complicated - although I suppose an expert makes it look easy! I found this video on making traditional Irish Shillelaghs:



My black thorn are still a bit young yet, but I've got a bit of hawthorne to cut back this winter....

To those interesting in doing inlay work on walking sticks and canes, take a tip from the fishing pole builders:  Use a slow speed lathe to keep the epoxy from drooping.  It's amazing what you can do with epoxy, if you can get the wood to spin at, say, 5 RPM.

I made mine from a variable speed BBQ motor that only goes up to about 15 RPMs.

I made different ends that have holes in them just big enough to slip over the motor shaft. A bit of painter's tape snugs them, if worn.  The different shapes allow me to secure different shaped sticks.

For the other end, I used one of those double casters you see on bed frames. The two rollers allow the stick to turn easily.

If you want to be blown away, check out Stinnet Sticks-   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddd6-ynZJ8U   His work is incredible.

I wanted to get a stick made by Simon Heath in England. I wanted one with a carving of my Jersey bulls head- Simon works from photographs. I also wanted it in yew wood, with just the natural colours of the wood. I had no idea about cost- turns out that with the cost of freight- which was horrendous- it would have set me back almost two thousand Australian dollars. I'll still do it if I win the lottery. I have a lot of physical problems stemming from having a crushed and almost severed sciatic nerve, so I do use a stick if I need to stand for a while. I have a couple of bought sticks and a couple I've made myself- but I would like a special one Check out Simons gallery-  https://simon-heath.co.uk/gallery/

One more note on the subject of natural walking sticks: I just discovered that beaked hazelnut stalks are suitably stiff for walking sticks once they reach a diameter of 5/8" / 1.5 cm. That's a very mature stalk; anything thinner is far too flexible. Nice bark pattern.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:One more note on the subject of natural walking sticks: I just discovered that beaked hazelnut stalks are suitably stiff for walking sticks once they reach a diameter of 5/8" / 1.5 cm. That's a very mature stalk; anything thinner is far too flexible. Nice bark pattern.

We have many (non-beaked) hazelnuts and I plan to start coppicing a few of them each year. I will test larger rods for this very use case. Great tip!

I'm got my eye on a couple of ash and slippery elm saplings  to harvest next fall, to try my hand at steam-bending a walking cane. I imagine I'll need to make a bending jig beforehand, but I believe I can use my BBQ/Smoker box to generate and hold the steam for the job.

Something I did not find in any of the previous posts, which may be worth noting: Canes and walking sticks are widely used and collected by martial arts enthusiasts, who may represent an additional market to stick makers.

When my grandparents lived in Alaska, they used to do crafts with diamond willow. I have a lamp base that they made, and Granddad's walking stick. (I'd get up and take a picture of it, but my Rat Terrier is asleep on my lap, LOL!). All five of us 'kids' (now all in our sixties) got one of their lamps. I don't actually use the walking stick much; my grandfather was six feet tall and strongly built; it's a little long for me, and heavier than is really comfortable for a petite female. But it's at least fifty years old, and still going strong!

You can find images on-line if you want to see what diamond willow looks like. And it's not exclusively found in Alaska - apparently people used diamond willow for fence posts in Missouri a long time ago (I can't imagine that they lasted very long).

When I moved into my house there was a large patch of bamboo “trees” (they’re in the grass family) growing thick and tall in the corner of my back yard right up to the fence bordering my neighbor’s yard. I had my yard service cut down a big swath along the fence to comply
with city regulations, and trim them to below the height of the fence since they would bend over the fence onto the roof of my neighbor
during our frequent windy days. Knowing the usefulness of bamboo on my urban homestead I gathered up the cut bamboo and
saved them for future use. I grabbed two good looking long specimens with no side shoots or leaves, just straight bare stalks, and turned
them into walking sticks with no further modifications needed. They’re incredible! Super strong since they grow in segments, yet super
lightweight since they’re hollow which is why they’re great for flutes and for pipes (smoking, irrigation, etc.). One of them was cut at an
angle on the top creating a sharp point, so it will serve as an effective weapon if needed (think spear) while on my walks, among other
things. Since they make such great walking sticks I thought it would be good to market them, but I don’t have the skills to smooth out the ends and the rough edges or to decorate them, so I just use them to make my own personal ones and for other projects like building
fences and trellises for climbing plants. Grows really fast and really easy for those with the tools and the skills to make them into
marketable walking sticks. Peace pipes and flutes are always in demand too.

Not sure why the formatting of my post came out the way it did with the sentences broken up. It wasn’t typed in that way. Oh well.

I made my first cane when I saw a Scot's Broom plant that had grown up just below a pond I had built. It had been run over by the farm's tractor and had a wild un-symetrick  "S" curve.  I cut it and  took it home. After some months of drying and seasoning, I barked it and rubbed in some linseed oil. Being very crooked, I found it had some advantages; more ways to grasp it, and spin it, and I mystified a few agressive dogs walking in my neighborhood. When my son was born, my dad drove to the Oregon coast to see him. (I think he was feeling his mortality, and he was a polio survivor, one leg was pretty skinny and a bit crooked.) So during his brief visit he asked me if I had a cane he could borrow? I allowed as how I had one and it could be his. The tight "S" curve at the top grip made a useful hook for picking things up or hooking a door knob, or spinning it around in the face of an aggressive dog to mystify him. My dad used the cane the rest of his life, which wasn't too far off.  He said once that he'd gotten a lot of comments about it. I have the cane now.
Since then, I have made many canes and walking sticks with Cytisus scoparia. It's generally despised as an invasive, but tough, hard and not too heavy, and you never get told not to cut it because it's hated as an invasive! I have other broom stories but I'll save that for later.
Having torn a meniscus in one knee in a fall I do appreciate haveing canes and walking sticks at hand, and they can be useful if there's a nasty dog loose. One I have I made from an apple branch, and it's got lots of slight knobs where branches were. I trimmed it long enough to make it useful on steep trails, and the top end has a slight angle that accomodates my wrist well, and on REAL steep terrane I have my right hand on the grip end, and my left on one or more of the branch bumps so I have two secure grips in a situation on a rocky ridge-top clamber.