Walking stick.

[penvisser]

While having a bad knife making day, I made this:





Birch, dried for 2 years in the workshop.

 

[Tankerwolf]

That is pretty darn cool. I couldn't resist carving a face into it though. Any plans for something like that?

 

[rural57]

Thats a good looking stick penvisser.

 

[Shotgun]

That is pretty darn cool. I couldn't resist carving a face into it though. Any plans for something like that?

I would recommend an alien face. It has the shape of it.

How long?

 

[leghog]

Shillelagh. Black birch?

Hate to be brained with that or a similar cudgel.

 

[Stray Round]

That looks great.

What wood is that?

 

[greenwoods]

Great job on the knob!
Birch is very nice.

Mark

 

[greenwoods]

Double post, sorry.

 

[300Six]

My 88 year old dear-old-dad put out a call for a sturdy cane over the summer and I did much like you and went off into the woods with a Swede saw and an axe. You chose a trunk burl whereas I went in the other direction and dug up the roots of a Blue Beech (Ironwood) tree in order to have a perfect and natural curve handle when the sapling came down and out of the ground. Lots of work but the end result is a 'one off' and something that follows the stock and does not at all try to conquer it.
My compliments to your effort.

 

[jackknife]

My 88 year old dear-old-dad put out a call for a sturdy cane over the summer and I did much like you and went off into the woods with a Swede saw and an axe. You chose a trunk burl whereas I went in the other direction and dug up the roots of a Blue Beech (Ironwood) tree in order to have a perfect and natural curve handle when the sapling came down and out of the ground. Lots of work but the end result is a 'one off' and something that follows the stock and does not at all try to conquer it.
My compliments to your effort.

That's the way I prefer to do it. I like to dig down around the root to find what looks like an interesting handle shape, and then cut off the root where I want a handle. I've used American hornbeam for walking sticks, and they are a tough stick. The one in the photo all the way on the left and all the way on the right are made from root balls of the hornbeam. With the one on the right, I wa lucky to find the root going off in a 90 degree angle, and after shaping with a wood rasp and finishing with 220 and 500 paper and 0000 steel wool, I used Helmsman spar urathane to seal and water proof the wood. A couple of cane ends from a medical supply store caps the bottom end for a non slip grip on a wide variety of surfaces.