I'm in the habit of carrying a few knives when I hit the trail, too. I only post porch-appropriate knives here, but I'm usually packing 1) a traditional, 2) a light modern folder, and 3) a beefy fixed blade. It's overkill (until the day I actually need them!). At least I won't perish for want of a knife.
Frank, could we see a shot of your walking stick? Anybody else, too. Post yer stick pics!
I've been using trekking poles, but I think I'm going to switch to a walking stick for some of my shorter hikes. I'd like to see what folks are actually using.
Meet Walker, my Urban Hiking stick. Urban hiking is my term to describe walking the edges of civilization around town - fencelines, backstretches of city parks, along farm fields, or anything that gets me as close to nature as I can get without leaving town, and usually without needing to drive anywhere. I have other sticks - hiking staff length - for real hiking too, but this is my favorite for urban hiking. Some of my others can be seen at:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/walking-stick-hiking-stick-hiking-staff-what-do-you-use.1909490/, as well as some other really nice ones used by others.
My advice is to simply find a stick in the wild that looks like it will work, and take it for a walk. Listen to the stick, it will tell you whether you should hang on to it or not. It will also tell you what to do next if you become partners. Take your time and enjoy the journey.
Still in progress after nearly 40 years.
Pondside, with my Elk scaled Buck 112 Ranger.
On the trail. The lanyard is there simply because I get to daydreaming at times and have been known to lose my grip. Also, I'm a photographer, and I can just let the stick hang while I take photos. I don't need to lay it down.
Hoping to find the right chunk of antler or bone to replace the dowel slide this winter. Time will tell.
I didn't want to drill any holes in this stick simply because it was whittled totally by hand with my pocketknife before sanding, and I wanted to keep it as primitive as I could. It is an amazingly strong piece of unknown species of wood - maybe Maple, but I'm not sure.
Also shown is where I filled some of the character crevices over the years.
As a tip protector, this stuff wears like iron and has superb grip on all surfaces, including snow & ice.
Walker's story:
Walker - the Journey...
The year, it was 1986, the storm had passed through Berea, Kentucky a day or two earlier, and the fallen branches still lay in the city park when I arrived. I was just passing time, so I picked up a fallen branch and began cutting on it with my Buck Colt pocketknife. What a relaxing way to spend a summer day.
I don't remember if the branch was green, or if it was a deadfall, but it was there, I was there, and I had a three blade stock knife in hand. By the time I had it cut loose it was time to head home, and the short length of branch accompanied me. There, in the backyard, on the patio, and anywhere else I could find to make a pile of chips, I worked on the stick with my pocketknife until it was pretty much in the form it is today.
To quote Berea College, “Berea is the Folk Arts & Crafts Capital of Kentucky”. With that being said, I chose to blend with the community and mess around with this piece of wood strictly with my pocketknife, and see what I could come up with in my own primitive, Folk Art way. My thoughts at the time were that I might be using a walking stick someday, and wouldn’t it be neat to use one that I made. Note, I added no finish to it at that time.
Fast forward about twenty years or so… this stick had leaned up against the garage wall, basement wall, and workshop wall all of those years, collecting dust and cobwebs, when I noticed some cracking going on at the knots and down the shaft. Knowing that this was likely not the world coming to an end, I chose to fuss with my walking stick project a bit more over that winter. A little wood filler here, a little hand-sanding there, and a couple of coats of Spar Varnish later, and it was good as new. And still, nary a power tool was applied to this piece of nature. Still being healthy and fit, the stick went back into the corner of the workshop once more while I searched for an appropriate tip protector of some sort. Between the studs of a garage, or in the corner of more than one basement workshop, this stick would lean for nearly 20 years once again, collecting dust and cobwebs.
Enter fall of 2023. Wishing for some added stability while urban hiking off-road, I decided to add some Shoe Goo to the tip, a practice I had picked up in the months previous. That worked out very well for snow and ice, so I decided that a lanyard was in order. I didn’t wish to drill a hole in this walking stick, so I came up with the arrangement shown in the photos. I also added the slider, for those times I get to daydreamin’ and lose my grip. It also works quite well when I wish to use both hands to use my camera without putting the stick down. This stick, named “Walker” still isn’t finished, as I wish to have a slider made out of something besides the dowel that is there now. I just haven’t decided what I want to use. No worries, it will come to me sometime in the next twenty years or so.
Now to the point of this posting… You will note from the photos that the filled cracks, or as I prefer, the “character crevices”, are beginning to show once again. And although that is happening, this stick is as strong as it was in 1986, when its journey began. And honestly, I rather like the pattern the wood filler brings out. I don’t sell or show my sticks, so something less than perfection is quite acceptable to me. Don’t worry - Be happy.
