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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
And Then We Have Sticks...
- Thread starter mtngunr
- Start date
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- Aug 26, 2010
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- 7,751
I guess there's a fine line between a knobkerie, mace and a walking stick?
Century plants are good because they are light but not good if you want to bop someone on the head. I used to have a walking stick made from a ganga plant but was afraid to use it for the obvious. Most wouldnt know it from any other stick but it had a certain coolness to it. No I dont have it anymore and no I aint tellin
Century plants are good because they are light but not good if you want to bop someone on the head. I used to have a walking stick made from a ganga plant but was afraid to use it for the obvious. Most wouldnt know it from any other stick but it had a certain coolness to it. No I dont have it anymore and no I aint tellin
My lower spine is toasted from too many years of aircraft maint., and a stick is nice for support and whatnot....but still have good days, for now, where it not a necessity....the older i get, the fewer those will be, and that is a fact...
But what gets me are all the folk who carry all manner of knives, including myself, and who consider them the first thing they would go for if a firearm not handy...
When the truth is it should be firearm, looong blunt object, longish sharp object, and then short sharp object, as for what is most useful....and in the USA, cane or stick carry by anyone not obviously in need of support or assist is getting rarer rather than more popular.....when all the folk carrying those wicked little knives are far less prepared than a stick or staff wielder in virtually every circumstance.....not very well thought out preparedness, in my opinion...the ones really needing a knife for defense are the very folk who would fall if the cane were employed in defense, and only because they must use a knife over a cane....
Took a parish member to Savannah yesterday, a 67 yr old hulking giant with handlebar and goatee and shaved head gent who is a natty dresser for 100 yrs ago with waistcoats and vests and ascots and stickpins...and he is also a self advertised example of what Agent Orange can do to you and needs a cane badly, his is a labrador head in sterling on his cane and he advises troublemakers his dog bites...
We made quite the pair as i saw him off at the train station as he was headed to PA to buy a truck....and the canes were nice to have at that lovely place tucked back in an industrial area adjacent to a really bad neighborhood and most folk there not catching a train at all....
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I had thought the plant looked a little reedy but then, again, so is blackthorn and bamboo, and one does not wish to be whipped or stabbed upside the head with either....
Often a badge of rank and also a weapon and also for keeping troops in line, my favorite stick story still remains that of D-Day where on the British beaches a tracked troop carrier stalled and blocked the lane out of the killing fields, and would not start no matter what tried....an officer of the guard came up and remarked something along the lines of his grandmother saying that for things mechanical, what they needed was a good bash.....and he promptly bashed the engine compartment with his shillelagh and told the driver to try it now, and the engine roared to life, and off it went to the amazement of all....
I prefer no knob but a knob looks so cool and yet menacing...while obviously top notch for hand comfort in support....but if a knob, would much prefer integral with the shaft, always worried of security or its securing weakening the shaft.....
As for tipping, the oaken stick of mine has a steel ferrule i installed but no easy off on the hard rubber over it....the blackthorn is tipped as well and the cane tread tip still quite hard where it counts with a heavy steel washer cast into base...(i just realized the stick is laying upon a dead leaf which makes the bark appear as split....only the leaf)
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They are a little reedy but if you get them just after the flowers fall off and dry them inside they can be pretty hard. They do have a knot on the end but you almost have to pull the whole plant out of the ground to get to the knob. Then you peel all the leaves off. They rot really fast outside and the pith is really spongy on the larger ones. They make good didgerydoos too.
That mechanical thing is ironic but true. If I leave my laptop on too long the screen will develop a bunch of horizontal lines across it which is very annoying. I finally wrote it off as bad and slapped the heck out of it one day and the lines went away. Ive since figured out where to slap it and how hard. Its gotta be just hard enough to not break the screen on the bottom left corner. Works evey time. Oh and with a soft stick. Im waiting for my hard drive to crash from all the beatings but so far so good.
That mechanical thing is ironic but true. If I leave my laptop on too long the screen will develop a bunch of horizontal lines across it which is very annoying. I finally wrote it off as bad and slapped the heck out of it one day and the lines went away. Ive since figured out where to slap it and how hard. Its gotta be just hard enough to not break the screen on the bottom left corner. Works evey time. Oh and with a soft stick
. Im waiting for my hard drive to crash from all the beatings but so far so good.
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One day i shall own a dress cane....with silver prices as they are just now, a good time to cast the head....
But really need to prioritise....such as perhaps buying a suit of some sort...at least one....fairly sure i have a tie or two.....somewhere.......i think......
As for things mechanical, i have tried that but it does not work....generally because i have too much fun, i fear.....or perhaps just a wee bit of anger....or maybe just a touch of both....alas, things generally are slightly worse off by the time i am so tired i cannot lift my arms.....will figure out what i am doing wrong some day...
But really need to prioritise....such as perhaps buying a suit of some sort...at least one....fairly sure i have a tie or two.....somewhere.......i think......
As for things mechanical, i have tried that but it does not work....generally because i have too much fun, i fear.....or perhaps just a wee bit of anger....or maybe just a touch of both....alas, things generally are slightly worse off by the time i am so tired i cannot lift my arms.....will figure out what i am doing wrong some day...
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On the difference between fashion accessory, needed support, or war mace, i was rather stuck in that hinterland as well....
Somesuch as the oaken stick simply not appropriate for a church nave....but i have a deep suspicion of thinner polished shafts....likewise inappropriate would be a Gandalf Special with grapefruit sized knob atop a 59"/1.5m staff....
So i went the blackthorn route which this particular example being straight enough and thin enough it appears a normal polished or metal cane from a distance, the "medical appliance" look enhanced by the outstandingly functional and easily replaceable Ingrid tips....and a knob just small enough to be completely hid in hand while using the thing...
My own compromise in order to carry trustworthy pal and weapon...
I always liked the utter realism of this book cover.....fencing is fine but this is normally what happens...
If anyone is interested in such but gets ill at blackthorn finished cane prices, i know of a harvester/vendor in the UK who has done everything except shape a knob (if desired), ferrule install, and spray lacquer.....it is cut, cleaned, insect treated, ends sealed, seasoned 4 yrs, steamed and straightened, for maybe £18 for a longest 59"/1.5m and less for suchlike 39"/1m sticks....as you can see from mine, things can turn out quite well.....my next will be simply a stouter 59" metal tipped at both ends....
Somesuch as the oaken stick simply not appropriate for a church nave....but i have a deep suspicion of thinner polished shafts....likewise inappropriate would be a Gandalf Special with grapefruit sized knob atop a 59"/1.5m staff....
So i went the blackthorn route which this particular example being straight enough and thin enough it appears a normal polished or metal cane from a distance, the "medical appliance" look enhanced by the outstandingly functional and easily replaceable Ingrid tips....and a knob just small enough to be completely hid in hand while using the thing...
My own compromise in order to carry trustworthy pal and weapon...
I always liked the utter realism of this book cover.....fencing is fine but this is normally what happens...
If anyone is interested in such but gets ill at blackthorn finished cane prices, i know of a harvester/vendor in the UK who has done everything except shape a knob (if desired), ferrule install, and spray lacquer.....it is cut, cleaned, insect treated, ends sealed, seasoned 4 yrs, steamed and straightened, for maybe £18 for a longest 59"/1.5m and less for suchlike 39"/1m sticks....as you can see from mine, things can turn out quite well.....my next will be simply a stouter 59" metal tipped at both ends....
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Thank you muchly...i do, too....every single one posted and thanks to those who did......although i have a local rep in classic firearms and formerly ran with some big dogs in the shooting world, and know my way around knives as well, to know the small end of both is the one to point towards enemy, my first love was always a good stick.....
Probably because unlike the others, i could ALWAYS have one with me....and knowing if trained up enough, a far better friend than a knife in most any difficulty while even better at close range vs a firearm....
or as i told a friend, if some nut cut loose and i had no gun, which would i rather charge with, a Randall 1-8 pulled from a bag or a 39" club?.....
Probably because unlike the others, i could ALWAYS have one with me....and knowing if trained up enough, a far better friend than a knife in most any difficulty while even better at close range vs a firearm....
or as i told a friend, if some nut cut loose and i had no gun, which would i rather charge with, a Randall 1-8 pulled from a bag or a 39" club?.....
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Those look great! I sense another project in my near future.
I do too.....i particularly love blackthorn as it is light, rock hard, strong and flexible....you kin commence to whompin' with one and it not splinter nor break.
Downside is cost....a finished 7/8ths"-1 1/8th" cane with knob imported to the USA will run $175 by the time even stateside shipping from an importer is paid for such overlong objects....
I am in negotiation (ha!) on importing a couple more unfinished cured etc sticks....3ea approx 7/8ths" 39" with enough root for a knob about the same as what i have, and a 1"-1 1/8th" 59" straight staff to metal tip both ends and rubber over one end...total will run £60 and i will be lucky to get away with another £60 shipping, especially considering the staff....
But when compared to $450-$500 for just three knobbed sticks for mom, and outdoor adventure wimmen sis and her daughter, they would appreciate mine own TLC involved even were costs identical as finished sticks whilst they would think me insane for that much purely for storebought...
Hopefully they will arrive and be done during relatively dry and cooler fall and be ready for Christmas visit.....
Downside is cost....a finished 7/8ths"-1 1/8th" cane with knob imported to the USA will run $175 by the time even stateside shipping from an importer is paid for such overlong objects....
I am in negotiation (ha!) on importing a couple more unfinished cured etc sticks....3ea approx 7/8ths" 39" with enough root for a knob about the same as what i have, and a 1"-1 1/8th" 59" straight staff to metal tip both ends and rubber over one end...total will run £60 and i will be lucky to get away with another £60 shipping, especially considering the staff....
But when compared to $450-$500 for just three knobbed sticks for mom, and outdoor adventure wimmen sis and her daughter, they would appreciate mine own TLC involved even were costs identical as finished sticks whilst they would think me insane for that much purely for storebought...
Hopefully they will arrive and be done during relatively dry and cooler fall and be ready for Christmas visit.....
The main reason i have always loved a good stick is simply because it has been made of a good piece of wood....long before i loved knives and guns, i loved a good piece of wood.....to this day, what rubbish might fall from trees into yards and cursed and burned by others is to me a rainbow Easter egg suprise to cut into with a sharp Morakniv and see what beauty lies within.....this particular old stick was quite a few years in the making going by the rings....and will be quite a few years in the family long after i am gone.....look upon it as portable fine furniture.....or, in this case, portable "rustic" furniture.....
If this thread inspires a rush to buy blackthorn finished cane, shop with care....most vendors use a generic photo and detailed reading of specs will show you will receive something smaller in diameter than this particular stick....and perhaps not nearly as straight....stick with a stick vendor who shows you the actual stick....and provides measurements....also large rounds of wood very hard or even impossible to cure without checks/cracks developing over the surface unless expertly done over a course of years....so expect a storebought to have small checks and some wood putty put to use....again, find a vendor with photos...which is why i am doing mine own....no suprises....
ET PHONE HOME
If this thread inspires a rush to buy blackthorn finished cane, shop with care....most vendors use a generic photo and detailed reading of specs will show you will receive something smaller in diameter than this particular stick....and perhaps not nearly as straight....stick with a stick vendor who shows you the actual stick....and provides measurements....also large rounds of wood very hard or even impossible to cure without checks/cracks developing over the surface unless expertly done over a course of years....so expect a storebought to have small checks and some wood putty put to use....again, find a vendor with photos...which is why i am doing mine own....no suprises....
ET PHONE HOME
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I am glad to see i am not the only strange one here....but, by all reports, Bawanna is the only normal one here....which, as with our modern society, makes the sane person the abnormal one, to be shunned, shamed, persecuted, and even jailed for the hate crime of not conforming....sigh.....and it has been SO nice knowing Bawanna.....but, rules are rules......GUARD!
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You're all awesome people here...easily the best online community I've ever been part of.
Bawanna
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- Dec 19, 2012
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Even me Mr. Moonw? Get back to me on this, I'm not sure if I should blush but I'm already tearing up just a bit. I might just grab a beach towel just in case.
If it helps my abnormal cause a bit I love you man......not in any mano mano way ya understand.
If it helps my abnormal cause a bit I love you man......not in any mano mano way ya understand.
Much of the later stick fighting techniques followed sword and then sabre and foil methods....led to some debate as to whether quarter-staffs (one-quarter of the tree) came about as a way to train for swords, but historians pretty much certain the stick/staff fighting techniques far antecede any swords....i do not know of a culture which has not used the stick/staff as primary weapon at some point in their history....it is the national weapon of England, i do believe...
And i would certainly hate to tangle with a fencing master with a stick as much as i would hate to tangle with a local Golden Glove contender....severe breakdown of victim selection process...
I had gathered Kron knew more than a thing or two as for his forearm parries remark....all our play as kids and adults and even my martial arts training way way back with a Bo was of a quite different style.....nothing savate or canne de combat about it at all.....about a 2.5 min video of the latter (sorta) is this link....how would you like to see a mugger select one of these gentlemen out for a walk as victim?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drCja5Pu8KY
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