Pictures of the newly finished walking stick.

[Diomedes Industries]

Well - some 12 years ago I was hiking with my wife when I found an area that had some trees hacked up by some local kids trying to make a BMX track. There was about 4 Oak trees about 15 years old and stock straight. I fixed the ones I could but one had had it. So I cut it down, stripped the branches, and vowed that I would make good use of it some day.

Well that day came. It cured for over 8 years in my garage. I cut the split ends off and took off the bark (dear God that took time) with my SAK. In fact, I cleaned up the entire knife with the SAK. I drilled out the parts where there were branches, and drilled out the top for a FB 1605 Pyser Compass. I set that in two part epoxy and painted around to clean that portion up. I stained it with ebony stain (4 coats) and then put 5 coats of marine grade polyurethane varnish on it. I let that dry for six months or so.

I then wrapped the handle in over twenty feet of Mil Spec 550 cord (O.D.) and pulled the ends under to keep the wrap tight. I used it this weekend and took some (fairly poor) pics of it. It was excellent. A little heavy - but I am a big guy (6 - 5") so that was no problem for me. The compass is pretty accurate and given its original purpose should have no problem keeping up with the punishment it will get on the trail. The bottom was no worse for the wear when I was done hiking (about 20 miles in two days) and looked great.

Here are the pics:

Enjoy.

TF

 

[kgd]

Looks good. Does the cord wrap feel good? It seems that the wood would be a little warmer....

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Oddly it is comfortable. I wrapped it VERY tight and nearly overlapping. It provides a VERY positive grip. I was going to tool some leather for it and top (and bottom) it with some Turksheads knots - but I realized I wanted serviceable for this one - not pretty. I think I got a little of both.

The pictures stink - it is VERY warm in person. It turned out a beautiful almost golden oak...

TF

 

[DOC-CANADA]

A little heavy - but I am a big guy (6 - 5")

You really are a Talfuchre, aren't you?

The stick looks great, and the inlaid compass a good idea. How long is the stick? I'm guessing the top would just be a little over waist high?

I prefer a much longer stick, something like a shepherd's crook only without the hook. Actually, the hook would be a really good idea. One day, I either want to buy one or make one. For what, you say?

Well, -for reaching up and pulling that branch down with ripe cherries
-for pulling that sapling down when setting lifting pole snares
- for hooking up on a branch and tying your pack, coat, camera
etc. to when you stop and want to free up your hands to do friction
fire, gather some wild edibles, whatever, and you don't want your
stuff sitting on the wet ground, snow, mud, etc.
-for using as a monopod for your camera
-to help steady your binoculars when looking at a distance
-for catching sheep
These are a few reasons. I'm sure there are more.

Doc

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Doc - I AM tall. That stick is actually just over 5 feet. It comes just under my arm pit. I am like you - I like a longer stick so that I can use them to go up and down hill easily.

TF

 

[Pritch]

You really are a Talfuchre, aren't you?

The stick looks great, and the inlaid compass a good idea. How long is the stick? I'm guessing the top would just be a little over waist high?

I prefer a much longer stick, something like a shepherd's crook only without the hook. Actually, the hook would be a really good idea. One day, I either want to buy one or make one. For what, you say?

Well, -for reaching up and pulling that branch down with ripe cherries
-for pulling that sapling down when setting lifting pole snares
- for hooking up on a branch and tying your pack, coat, camera
etc. to when you stop and want to free up your hands to do friction
fire, gather some wild edibles, whatever, and you don't want your
stuff sitting on the wet ground, snow, mud, etc.
-for using as a monopod for your camera
-to help steady your binoculars when looking at a distance
-for catching sheep
These are a few reasons. I'm sure there are more.

Doc

Doc, you forgot "pulling no-talent performers off stage!"

-- FLIX

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Doc, you forgot "pulling no-talent performers off stage!"

-- FLIX

Actually, FLIX, I thought about it but decided it didn't have that wilderness aspect.

BTW, I'm not kidding about the hook.
One really important capability is when you're climbing a steep dirt hill and you keep sliding backwards, you can hook saplings and bushes and help pull yourself up.

In this vein, I have been experimenting, and yes, I know this is kind of off the wall. OK, maybe really off the wall, but if you don't try different things.........

What I did was take a hardwood sapling and drill 3 holes in it. In the bottom hole, I can put a piece of 1/4" X 20 threaded rod, about maybe 9"-10" long (can't measure it - it's in the van and I'm not. ), a washer on each side and held in place with a wing nut (no, not me, other ones) on each side. In the other 2 holes, I can put eyebolts with 1/4-20 wing nuts on the other side.

With this, I can invert the walking stick and reach up and position the rod through a fork in a sapling and then pull the sapling down. (for gathering fruit, accessing a sapling for a lifting pole snare engine, or in the winter, for example, if I want to remove my pack, camera, etc., I can hang the walking stick up in the fork and hang my gear from the eye bolt thus keeping it out of the snow.

The rod can also be used to hook things on the ground out of reach, or out of the water, etc., or to 'grab' a sapling when climbing up a mud bank.

The 2 eyebolts can be used to tie a piece of 550 to, so the staff can be carried on the back, the cord and staff crosswise on the body.

The idea is that the 2 eyelets and the longer rod with wing nuts can be carried in a pocket or pack and pulled out when you need them. Alternatively, you can lash cross sticks to the staff. Actually, this is how I started out, but found that using the bolts made it quicker to change about.

Hey, never did I say I was completely sane .

Anyway, let's hear your comments.

Doc

 

[stingray4540]

That looks very nice. I am working on one myself right now, and am planning to do the same 550 cord wrap.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

I checked in my hard drive and I had these benefits listed for a walking stick:

- protection
- push aside brush
- lift up underbrush
- pry up logs and rocks
- handy balance aid when crossing log bridges
- sprained-ankle-saver
- Marked with a measuring scale (zero at the bottom), it is useful for
measuring water depth and the size of specimens
- a reaching aid-for pulling down branches to pick fruit, etc.
- It will support you if you fall through ice.
- lifting hot pots off the fire
- Record keeping is one of the oldest uses for a staff. The ancient Norse
used a notched stick called a skor to keep track of numerical
information, and the word stuck around to become today's "score"
- Ojibway bird trap
- coat hanger

Doc

 

[Khalnath]

Intriguing. I hadn't taken them seriously before. The OP's stick is attractive and looks very functional. I'm not sure what to think about your design, Doc, but you sure put a lot of ingenuity into it!

What would I need to know to make one of these myself? Obviously wood selection is important.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Khalnath,

I would say very little. The trick is to find the right stick. I don't think the wood type is that important - I just think it needs to be semi hard to hard.

I simply attempt the finger nail crush test when selecting walking sticks (I have made about 5 - this is the first one I made for myself). I attempt to push my thumb nail into the wood and if it crushes in very easily it is too soft. If it leaves a little dent it is about right.

Cut it too long for what you need as when it cures the ends tend to split. Cut those off at the length you want after a full curing (if it is green - I suggest quite some time - maybe 6 months) and then begin to whittle away. If you can get the bark loose while it is green - do it then. Whittling the bark later sucks. Some wood gives up its bark easily while still green.

Use a knife that is very sharp as dull knives tend to pull at the wood instead of cutting it cleanly. When you get ready to stain - this is very easy. Simply pick what color you think will look cool - test it on the left over lengths of wood to be sure it is your color, and then simply slather it on. Wait about 15 minutes and wipe it off with an old rag. Do this until it is dark enough. Let it cure overnight between coats.

Then get some marine grade poly. I used a spray type that I got a Home Depot. Spray on as many coats as you think is proper. I used about 5 coats simply because that is what was in the can. I am SURE that is overkill. About 2 or 3 would be just fine. Let those coats cure overnight between coats too.

Others may have better blade selections (draw knives and the like) but I simply used a VERY sharp SAK. I am now using a CASE SeaHorse Whittler - which I would recommend as it is VERY comfortable and has a few different blades to choose from.

DONE!

TF

 

[Bumppo]

go to home depot and buy a hardwood staff, play with it for length, wrappings, tips, etc. and eventually you will find a "wild" staff the right length and character for you.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

That is a VERY good suggestion. Then you know length and the like without cutting down multiple live trees or trying to find freshly dead things.

TF

 

[Fjell]

A couple of weeks ago I was chopping wood with my Fiskars hatchet. I wasn't paying enough attention and hit my finger.

It bleeded like crazy and the top was almost loose. Given the fact that I wasn't in my own country I didn't want to go to the hospital.

I always carry multiple tubes of secondglue (I think it's called superglue in English indeed) in both my rucksack (psk) and car-medical-box. I cleaned the wound, and put a lot of that glue on it. Next week it hurted quite a lot (but that wasn't caused by the glue I think), but now it healed well.

So +1 for the superglue.

By the way, make sure it's glue based on Cyanoacrylate.

This glue was also used by medics on soldiers in the Vietnam War.

Wikipedia :

Medical uses

The use of cyanoacrylate glues in medicine was considered fairly early on. Eastman Kodak and Ethicon began studying whether the glues could be used to hold human tissue together after surgery. In 1964, Eastman submitted an application to use cyanoacrylate glues to seal wounds to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Soon afterward Dr. Harry Coover's glue did find use in Vietnam—reportedly in 1966, cyanoacrylates were tested on-site by a specially trained surgical team, with impressive results. In an interview with Dr. Coover by the Kingsport Times-News, Coover said that the compound demonstrated an excellent capacity to stop bleeding, and during the Vietnam War, he developed disposable cyanoacrylate sprays for use in the battlefield.
“ If somebody had a chest wound or open wound that was bleeding, the biggest problem they had was stopping the bleeding so they could get the patient back to the hospital. And the consequence was—many of them bled to death. So the medics used the spray, stopped the bleeding, and were able to get the wounded back to the base hospital. And many, many lives were saved. "

 

[CanDo]

Doc,

Good thinking. It sounds like the 9" piece would get in the way of normal use though. My proposal:

Have the hook as an L shaped piece on a pivot with a piece of cord to hold its shape. When not in use, it stays neatly wrapped up along the side of the staff, and to use, just undo a turn or two of paracord.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Interesting idea CanDo, but the threaded rod is not meant to stay in the walking stick - that's why there are wingnuts.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I took this picture when I was out hiking today.

This, while not a particularly good picture shows the walking stick suspended from a fork in the tree, by the 6" (not 9") threaded rod.

A closer look at the threaded rod, although it's difficult to see. It's inside the yellow box, of course.

Here I have a camera bag hanging from the walking staff. It is quite a ways from the ground. I don't have the eyebolts in this stick, so I tied the camera bag to a Prusik loop, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Doc

 

[imaginefj]

Very cool

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Doc- I totally agree with the need for a shepherds hook on a hiking stick. Mine was a lifesaver when I was in the wheelchair as it allowed me to extend my reach into cupboards and get things that fell on the floor. I had always wanted a Crawford survival staff and my better half helped me get one about 6 years ago. The hook was the best $50 addition I could have purchased. To my knowledge it is the only one that the Crawfords have made, but it helped save Juli when we were in the arctic. We were fishing on the Ocean and as we returned to shore the ice flows started separating. We had to jump from flow to flow across ever increasing gaps. One of the times I jumped with the other guy the flow the girls were on split in half and started floating away! I reached out with the staff and Juli grabbed the hook, allowing me to pull her in. The hook earned its SURVIVAL moniker that day. Here is the shortened version that was always on my wheelchair with me:

I use the full sized staff every time I leave the house now as I still need support but don't use crutches. I get a lot of looks from people, but hey I need the attention!

 

[CanDo]

Looks great Doc, thanks for clarifying the breakdown aspect. That actually gives me another idea/question - why not drill the hole at an angle so as to make more of a hook. This way, you wouldn't even need to screw on a wing nut, friction could hold the assembly in place (diagram coming shortly).

Cool story, Cuts like a Kris.

 

[CanDo]

Version on left, bar just drops through hole in staff. Version on right, bar slid in from bottom and secured with a ranger band (bicycle inner tube) or rubber band. No nuts, and you could actually hook onto things.

At this point, I don't think I'll be putting a hook on my staff, but it's a neat idea.