Walking Stick

[rogheff]

Now that's one awesome stick.  It does remind me of Diamond Willow, which I absolutely love carving.

In my experience, a rubber tip made for crutches is the most resilient and pliable and is great for gripping on surfaces.  Doesn't really go well with a Ren Faire motiff though.  I'd wrap the ground end with copper wire tightly and twist is closed (about an inch from the end).  That way the end can get all beat up, but won't crack.

As for color, you might try good'ol Sharpies markers.  The more muted colors give a slight variation to the wood.  The bold colors hold up well, but blues tend to soak in and bleed.  Sharpies hold up well to polyurethane as well.

I use a shilellagh with a knob on the top, I also use a flat topped cane.  I prefer the shilellagh knob to the cane's handle as it has a great "swing" when walking.  Your stick looks rather bulky and heavy - is it?  I wonder how well it "swings".  That swing is important for comfort while walking.

[BrokenArts]

 No, its not a bulky stick.  Its rather short, about 36" tall.  The diameter is not that wide either, maybe an inch and a half.  Of course I need to accurately measure it.  With all the sanding, taking down of the bark on the knots, etc.  It makes it look smaller still, more refined too.  Its getting there.  Thanks for looking, and the added info!  I'll upload some updated shots of it someday soon.

[rogheff]

Good luck with it, I'd love to see it upon completion!

[BrokenArts]

I took a look at your site rogheff.  Very interesting.  I enjoyed looking at your various sticks and staffs, and learning more about Diamond Willow.  It is a lovely looking wood.  I love the patterns, knots the wood can get.  The variation in that particular wood reminded me a little of my walking stick. 

As of now, the stick sits on my shelf, waiting for me to pick it up, and work on it again.  Working on Halloween stuff right now.  You mentioned letting the wood age, would that be said for all woods?  Let it dry, better for the wood? 

[rogheff]

When I harvest a stick, I let it age for about a year.  If you strip the bark when it's green, you'll have an easier time, but the wood will crack as it's drying and that applies to most woods.  Keep the bark on and the moisture escapes through the bark and dries slowly.

Dry wood is also much easier to carve.  The wood chips and flakes easily.

Let it dry - better for the wood project.

[Grov]

That last topic on drying struck home for me.  Been working on a gift from hurricane Gustav.  He knocked over an old arizona ash (I am told) tree in my yard.  I cut about 5 staff length peices and a shorter one for a walking stick.  They vary in width from @5 in diameter to nearly a foot across.
     I started on the width short walking stick peice by chainsawing the bark off then used a chisel to start thinning it down.  I am impressed at the density of ash.  The chisel will shave hair but it takes a few good whacks to remove a small shaving.  After a few days of not working it I noticed that it was developing cracks.  I can only assume this is due to it drying.  I was hoping to finish it for TRF in a couple weeks.  Do any of you experienced woodworkers think that it would be possible to whittle beyond the cracks and then dry it afterwards to be a servicable walking stick?  Or should I just keep practicing on this one but don't expect it to work out because I started when it was very fresh?
    So far I am using a chisel but I did locate an old drawknife at a local hardware store.  The owner thinks his father must have bought it ages ago and it's been just on the shelf for years and years.  I imagine once I get closer to the thickness I want, I'll switch to the knife for smaller smoother whittling then switch to sanding for the finalization.  Staining, dying, and end cap haven't entered my mind yet because I don't know what it will give me when I get deep enough.  It's still too big for me to get my hand around even but it does have a nice angle at the top that I would like to preserve for the handle secction.
     This is my first attempt at wood carving so any and all advice is welcome.

[BrokenArts]

Glad to see this thread keeps going and going.    Lot of useful information.  Good to know too about the drying time.  My stick, I think had been dead on the tree for awhile.  Eventually it just fell off the tree.  It doesn't look green, inspecting on the bottom, it looks aged.  No signs of green at all on it.  But, that is good to know about the drying time.  Keep this going people!  I love all the info on it.  Good for all to learn more.  Thank you. 

[rogheff]

Grov:
Why are you going to the extreme and carving down a stick from a much larger section of the tree?  That's a huge amount of work!  Why not just take a smaller branch?  If the tree came down, a smaller branch must be available. 

I usually hunt for small saplings (2" caliper +/-).  I'm also constantly looking for young trees and branches further up with good shapes (twists, dips) for canes.

I've never seen a crack in a walking stick stop, it usually keeps going to the center of the branch.

Cracks can be great though.  One of my favorite sticks was a Hickory Shilellagh.  I harvested it and stripped the bark, then it started cracking.  I got lucky because it cracked below the handle.  I decided to keep that stick natural and the crack gave it personality.  The Grizzly Bear claw and bone beads helped the effect too.



Broken Arts:
If a branch has fallen from a tree it may be too rotted to use.

One piece of advice that I give my Boy Scouts when they're carving sticks on a campout is this...Once you find a stick that you really like and want to keep and carve, whack it on the ground as hard as you can.  If it survives, carve away.  if it breaks, you've just saved yourself a lot of time and energy (and anger when it breaks later).

[BLAKDUKE]

I can make all of the basic staffs anyone could desire, but for the intricate carving I will leave to others that are more qualified.  Now with that point, to the story.  I was in the air force back in the early 60's.  Stationed in San Antonio Texas.  Somewhere, somewhen(the details escape me), I came accross this piece of blow down.  It was in a great state of condition and had the general shape of a cane.  I knew nothing at the time of drying etc.etc.  so I stripped the bark and let it dry for a while.  I had no need for it, so I wrapped it up and sent it home to my father.  Now fast forward to about 1983.  My folks are packing up, selling out etc, so as to move from New York to Georgia where they had purchased a mobile home.  My father packs all of the left over stuff that he wants to keep but cannot take with him right away and brings it to my house.  As we are unloading and putting stuff into the garage he brings out the still wrapped cane which he only looked at and never did anything with.  So I packed it up with the rest of the stuff.  Now fast forward again to the 21st century.  I have a friend who is with me a lot and highly involved in antique cars.  One day after a brief excursion to view some old relics we go back to my house to discuss the find over some cold ales and some how we get on the subject of wood carving and he tells me that he is a novice wood carver and is a member of some wood carving group up in Atlanta.  I had been cleaning and sanding the old cane for a couple of months and it was coming along nicely but I still had not come up with any meaningfull designs.  I showed him the cane and he offers to take it and he will do some carving because he sees some very interesting areas in the cane that will come out nicely.  That was about 5 years ago and I have not seen the cane since.  I talk to the guy all the time and make inquiries, but so far no joy.   He says he is making progress, but he too has schedule problems so I am sure that he only works on it when he has time.   So some day I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of it 'WHEN" I get it back.   Which triggers a thought.  I have a staff that I created from a blown down branch.  It is very unique and I call it 'OLIVER RUNESTAFF".  I will try to take some pictures of it over the weekend and get them posted.  I also developed a rather interesting story to go with the obtaining of the staff.  More on that later.

[BrokenArts]

rogheff, I gave the stick a few good whacks on the ground.  Nothing, its fine.  It hasn't changed.  Looks like it will be ok. 

[Grov]

Well, actually there weren't any salvageable staff/walking stick lengths of smaller diameter.  I started working on what I had.  What I didn't have was electricity or cable at the time, aside from the evenings when I ran the generator.  And it's my tree. It grew in my yard, fell in my yard, is being carved down in my hard.  I'm hoping the "heart" under all that wood has some great features.  Also, with the other larger diameter pieces, I am planning on having a friend with a commercial woodworking shop (spiral staircase builder) cut them down to a couple blanks each.

[Grov]

Here's a few shots of my stick.  I expect tons of sanding later.

[BrokenArts]

Jesus that thing is bigger than my arm.    Good luck with it.

[Grov]

Yes, thinking more and more about power tools, haha.  The chisel and drawknife don't chew it up like I need.

[rogheff]

Well, actually there weren't any salvageable staff/walking stick lengths of smaller diameter.  I started working on what I had.  What I didn't have was electricity or cable at the time, aside from the evenings when I ran the generator.  And it's my tree. It grew in my yard, fell in my yard, is being carved down in my hard.  I'm hoping the "heart" under all that wood has some great features.  Also, with the other larger diameter pieces, I am planning on having a friend with a commercial woodworking shop (spiral staircase builder) cut them down to a couple blanks each.

I understand that completely.  The best hand tool that I have for removing large quantities of wood fast is a really rough rasp.  Do you know anyone with a lathe?  That would be the easiest way to remove a lot of excess wood.