And Then We Have Sticks...

Gonna have to check out Granville soon, maybe next weekend. Done some camping in Mt Washington State Forest, it's real nice out there. Good friend lives in the NW corner of CT, always good to take him out in the woods with some khuks and have some fun.

Definitely post more pics. All this is bringing back childhood memories. In my neighborhood, my friends and I used to make wooden swords out of green branches and fight each other. None of us had any real martial arts training, but it was still funny to see another kid come up and challenge one of us, only to have their rear ends handed back to them on a platter.

mtngunr, you must keep in mind that around here, you can frighten the "natives" by rolling up a leaf and holding it in a menacing fashion. Just imagine the fear any stick longer than 6" would incur
 
Beautiful pictures. A good reminder to me that there is something east of the Mississippi (never been further east myself) besides asphalt, concrete, politicians and tall buildings.
 
You will see plenty such as that from north of a Birmingham/Atlanta line running all the way up to his photos....if you saw the movie Last Of The Mohicans, it was filmed mostly in the Smokies....beautiful country....still poor as poor can be off the beaten tourista trail....small poor towns and houses and vegetable gardens lining flat areas near streams winding through the mountains....

Despite everyone having a staff or stick, and generally afoot unless church or hauling something or trip to town and stores and AC when i was a child, the sword fights with canes, and an old guide up in the Smokies who knew every plant and bit of nature and indian lore to be known always had a staff and i wanted to be like him when i grew up....

The old oaken stick from '73 was one i made inspired by him, an oak tree growing where not wanted and destined for bush hogging, cut in '71 and ends sealed with beeswax to prevent cracks, bark left on and seasoned in kitchen corner for two years, then skinned with grand daddy's draw shave knife and my pocket knife, soaked in linseed for weeks, and annointed with everything and anything handy ranging from shoe polish to motor oil since then...



It has broken up knife fights and a few other part of fighters, walked the mountains and beaches, been dropped out of a car and run over by same, run over by a semi truck and is an old and trusted pal....

Lotta history in 12" of wood....to right at top of shaft are pavement scars from being run over by rear wheels of a truck at 60 mph and beating tar out of undercarriage, about midpoint are some knife scars, and far left top a little flat spotting and brown stain from head whomping of said knife owner/s....

 
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Bash Bish is both on my radar and my Short list. I was gonna do it last time I was out that way, just ran outta time.

I second that about MA being a state of extremes. You go from city, to yuppie towns, to backwoods and back in no time flat.
 
Write a book of what?....much of it i am deeply ashamed.....other parts mainly growing up hard scrabble, with a lot of time wasting thrown in...accepted to Ivy League but turned it down as i knew i would be alone....worked tramp freighters in the Carribean instead for year as well as jumping ship a few places, then honors college and then getting bored and dropping out after enough classes for a phD, but no degree, partied, joined the Army, then left after being deployed to burnout ranging from Panama through Desert Storm and bit after, then worked aviation civilian and government, and too many odd jobs in between to count, whether a shrimp boat or offshore supply boat or working a horse stable, spoonfeeding an ocean of nursery plants, tending bar and others even more humiliating than that....somewhere along there i actually learned a little humility, but not enough...if i wrote a book it would be titled Don't Do This....kinda grew up along the way and mainly enjoy helping others nowadays....probably where most income goes....what am i going to do with it otherwise, another toy?....
 
The promised great-granddad's shillaleigh pics:

I remembered it being kinda creaky, but it's actually still pretty solid. Going to give it some linseed while I'm here-it probably dates to 1905 or so.
 
That's gorgeous. What a wonderful keepsake.

Another Spyder with a zip tie. I kind of feel like I missed the 60's or something, never seen that before and now it seems everybody does it. I got tons of zip ties, along with bailing wire and duct tape, (I drive a Ford) all's I need is a Spyder and I can fix it up proper in two shakes of a mules tail.
 
Oooh I like that a lot! Beautiful piece of wood you got there.

I tried the ziptie with my Para2, it works, but it's not great, especially compared to an Emerson or waved collab. And looks definitely suffer. Do like my knives purrty and all :)

Bawanna, I think all the signs are saying to grab a little Spydie. I do think you'd like any of the small ones or really any of them.

Anyone have anymore sticks to show? I don't, but I sure do enjoy pressing my nose up to the glass!
 
I've near pushed the button more than once in the last couple days on a Lady Bug or the smaller version.

I then got a notice from the A folding knife is a broken knife foundation telling me I'd be automatically expelled if I did so.

What a quandary I find myself in once again.

They did say if HI ever made one they were exempt and it would be allowed. That must me be the silver lining of the fog bank everyone always talks about huh?
 
Bawanna said:
I've near pushed the button more than once in the last couple days on a Lady Bug or the smaller version.

I then got a notice from the A folding knife is a broken knife foundation telling me I'd be automatically expelled if I did so.

What a quandary I find myself in once again.

They did say if HI ever made one they were exempt and it would be allowed. That must me be the silver lining of the fog bank everyone always talks about huh?
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Get a Dragonfly-they're small enough that they do not encourage bad decisions, they weigh nothing, and can be pressed into an interpersonal crisis management role if need be (I taight a two hour silat bladework class with a poly dragonfly trainer)...
 
My only stick is a bit too short for walking. It's a Korean short rope stick, or Dan Bong. Twelve inches long, one inch diameter. I bought it when I had a downstairs neighbor who was behaving inappropriately around the girls in the house next door. It was something I hoped never to need, and I never did. It's not something pretty like wood, though one person did at one point think it might be really dark ironwood, but a lot of that was the poor lighting. Really it's just polypropylene. I don't have it looped properly around my hand in the picture. I figured out later that it's best to hold the rope by the thumb and loop the rope up and over the knuckles and then up into the palm.

 
that reminds me of my kabutowari (helmet breaker). carried by samurai as a left hand parrying tool as well as an impact weapon
kabutowari.jpg

and jutte, a police/govt. official's truncheon & the japanese police/official's badge of rank.
jitte.JPG

both steel tho, not sticks. ther hook near the grip on both is a sword catcher.

i also have an unmentioned 4.5 ft. almost pure white almost straight knobbly holly stick that goes from fat oval into a natural flat oval blade shape over the last foot or so that is a favourite, it's a heavy dense and strong wood, not much grain.
holly.jpg
 
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That helmet breaker is really cool. Never seen one before. The jutte is kind of unique too. Very cool.
 
mtngunr said:
Write a book of what?....much of it i am deeply ashamed.....other parts mainly growing up hard scrabble, with a lot of time wasting thrown in...accepted to Ivy League but turned it down as i knew i would be alone....worked tramp freighters in the Carribean instead for year as well as jumping ship a few places, then honors college and then getting bored and dropping out after enough classes for a phD, but no degree, partied, joined the Army, then left after being deployed to burnout ranging from Panama through Desert Storm and bit after, then worked aviation civilian and government, and too many odd jobs in between to count, whether a shrimp boat or offshore supply boat or working a horse stable, spoonfeeding an ocean of nursery plants, tending bar and others even more humiliating than that....somewhere along there i actually learned a little humility, but not enough...if i wrote a book it would be titled Don't Do This....kinda grew up along the way and mainly enjoy helping others nowadays....probably where most income goes....what am i going to do with it otherwise, another toy?....
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I'd buy a book like that. Sounds fascinating.
 
To the tune of Dundee...Thats not a stick!

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dare ya to swing that more than a few times. might be OK for castle defense to occasionally bop summun onna head as they climb over the crenelations, but unless you can order a squaddy or two to carry it for you on patrol...
 
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