Have you ever used a DIGGING STICK?

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Plainsman

Joined
Apr 5, 1999
Messages
1,047
I've used my walking staff as a digging/prying stick before, but I've never actually 'made' an actual digging stick for that purpose. I've seen a couple of designs and my walking stick is pointed from where like one of them.

Has anybody built/used one? I'm wondering how much of a difference it makes adjusting the style of the point makes. I've thought that if you found a piece of wood that flared slightly at one end, it wood be better that a single width stick.

Comments!



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
I have not used one in a considerable amount of time, when I was a kid we used them all the time. The way we used them was similar to a pick, you had a sharpened point and jabbed and worked the eather , then cleaned it out of the hole with your hands. It worked quite well and is still a viable alternative.

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Lee

LIfe is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde
 
As you said, Karen and I also use our walking stick as digging sticks. The difference is we install stainless steel tips on the sticks.

We take SS tubing with @ 1/16 wall thickness and compress the end to make a flat digging tip. The tube should not quite fit the shaft... it should be a bit too tight. Then we heat the ss to a light cherry and press it onto the wooden shaft. As soon as it's steated tightly we shove it into dry sand to cool.

We drill the tube in a couple of places and throw in some screws to add additional strength to the assembly.

On the squeezed end we drill a small hole, just large enough to allow a piece of 550 cord to pass through.

When we want to string a bear line we just push the cord through the hole and use the stick as a spear to get the cord high in a tree... works great.

ROn

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All the early classes I took said we had to have a combo throwing/digging stick so I made one. Ten years later I still have it but use it only occasionally for digging and very little for throwing. Its a heavy 30 inch long piece of hickory sharpened to a chisel point on the small end. Once in a while I do manage to kill something with it, but I don't think I'll give up trapping just yet. I like the idea of a digging/walking combo better.

[This message has been edited by Leef (edited 20 December 1999).]
 
RON: Thanks for describing your walking stick end! That sounds like a great idea! I'll have to give it a try!

Thanks!



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
Hi all,

I don't use a walking stick and don't carry a digging stick. When I need one...I either find one that will work from the immediate area...or make one (improvising...it only takes a minute). When I am done with it...I toss it. Just another way of doing things.

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
i havent made a genuine digging stick before, but ive used sticks to dig(im not real sure if there is much of a difference)
earlier this summer, me and my girlfriend were on a dirt road, and she got the car kinda lodged up on a dirt ledge, not real high, but enough so the front wheels wouldnt catch.
she was real annoyed with me cause it was my idea to go down this road, and while she walked off to calm down, i chopped down a couple of saplings and used them to remove some dirt from underneath the car, and kinda pile it up under the wheels.
did that for a while, so with me pushing and her driving, we managed to get the car out of there about 1/2 hour after it happened.
kinda dumb that it happened in the first place, but i figure those sticks saved us about a half hour walk and a tow truck.


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AKTI member #A000911

 
I alwys make one when I need a fire pit or what ever. Sure not going to ruin my knife edge digging a hole when a stick works just as good. I try to pick a stick about 2" across and make kind of a triangle tip on it.
 
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