Where to get wood for a cane?

[Balog]

So I've been wanting a good walking staff, but I'd rather make it than buy it. Does anyone know where I could buy a suitable length of hard wood? I'm looking for something tough like ironwood or blackthorn (European spiny plum).

Any suggestions on what type of wood to use, or tips on carving it?

 

[stdlrf11]

I made some walking sticks for my parents out of crate mertyl branches. We took down a tree next to the house, so I decided to play with some of the branches. That wood is VERY tough, durable and straight. I used spray spar urethane to seal it and a regular knife to whittle it. They turned out pretty nice.

Hope this helps,
stdlrf11

 

[pete f]

http://www.hearnehardwoods.com/ or else ask a local tree trimmer to bring you some black locust trimmings nothing better.

 

[Oldnamvet]

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780887404412&itm=2

If you want to really get into it.

 

[Balog]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Just ask a tree trimmer.... how did I not think of that? I'm still wondering about what kind to use, but I suppose I can always try a few different types and see which work out the best. I must admit I've never even heard of black locust before; I wonder what else I might be ignorant of? Maybe ask the tree trimmer what he has the most problems cutting.

 

[Kingcreek]

I've used black locust for dozens of sticks. It grows wild and can be a nuisance. I've got atleast 300 saplings and trees in the corner of an old pasture here on the farm. It does make real nice walking staffs. I usually embellish mine with pieces of antler, copper, and/or brass. Ash, cedar, and hawthorn make good staffs also.
ironwood is beautiful but very heavy and if you found one piece big enough for a staff it would be very very expensive.
try a local sawmill if there are any in your area, as well as talking to a tree trimmer. don't go by which is just harder to cut. (That would be osage orange aka "hedge")
Black locust can be cut and cured in small tight bundles to help keep it straight. minor bends can be straightened out with a heatgun and a little simple leverage while it cools.
Good luck!
PS. If you want to come cut a truckload of Illinois black locust, let me know. I also have about 3/4 miles of hedge- enough to wear out a good chainsaw.

 

[tellner]

The very best wood for scientifically measured impact strength, bar none, is impact-grade hickory. Osage orange is a distant second. Nothing else, including locust or black hawthorne (the material of the traditional shillelagh) even comes close.

You can get excellent hickory canes and staves at the local feed store for under ten bucks as stock canes and shepherd's sticks. They are plain but easy to decorate. You might want to saw the crook off the shepherd's stick.

If you'd like to go with the shillelagh check out The Shillelagh Maker's Handbook. Lots of good advice.

 

[tellner]

Kingcreek, if memory serves real Sonoran ironwood (Olneya tesota) is endangered and now protected by law. Lignum vitae is nice, but it is terribly brittle. I've had pieces shatter.

 

[Kingcreek]

I don't think ironwood is a practical choice. some is protected (Arizona) but some is still available (Mexico). My comment was related to his original post but I probably wasn't clear about that.Thanks.
I agree hickory would be great but I haven't personally used it. as far as "impact resistance", I can impact the living snot out of almost anything with one of my black locust staffs. I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of the impacts from that distant second seasoned wood staff. wood grain architecture has alot to do with strength also. I use saplings (ie full rounds) with the sapwood shaved or turned down rather than mill-cut quarters, etc.
also, one of my favorite staffs was tulipwood.

 

[tellner]

Ah, tulipwood. Tough and absolutely gorgeous. Too bad the pieces I've seen are so expensive.

When you make your pieces do you do what the SMH recommends and use heat, grease and time to replace the water in the wood with oil? I've wanted to try it but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[Kingcreek]

I have, in the past, used boiled linseed oil and finished with BLO + beeswax then buffed with old burlap. More recently I just use a good polyurathane after handsanding and 4-o steel wool between coats. I use heat to straighten and hold pressure till it cools and takes the set before starting any finishing. These are fun winter projects for me. I can putter with them out in the heated shop, usually while intermittently tending the smoker full of deer jerky or sausage.

 

[Sunray]

"...ask a tree trimmer..." Yeah, but you'll have to be there at just the right time. Most cuttings get shoved into a chipper at or near the end of the day. You can keep an eye out for a neighbour or just a guy trimming his own trees and bushes in his yard too. He's less likely to have a chipper. This time of year is a good time to be driving around looking for people pruning trees.
Walking sticks cry out for a careful sanding then several coats of tung oil. BLO will do but it doesn't give as nice a finish as tung oil. Leave the polyurethane for cheap furniture.

 

[1911JMB]

South american blood wood is expensive, as will be the shipping, but its very very heavy and equally strong. Plus its not endangered, its plentiful in south america, its just expensive to import. A google search will yield numerous places that sell it.

 

[p35]

Get a good field guide to trees and practice identifying which tree is which. I've gotten to the point that I can ID any native hardwood from the road and spot which might have good branches. I also keep a folding pruning saw in the truck. No one really cares if you take a branch off a bush/tree in a right of way that has to be brush-mowed every few years anyhow. Obviously, this is for rural areas- I'm not advocating taking branches off trees in someone's yard!

 

[El Tejon]

Kamagong.

 

[Ivy Mike]

Cottonwood is light and a bit soft for a hardwood, but it is quite strong. The grain is unremarkable, but it does get a kind of bluish-gray coloring in some spots.
I carved a knife handle from it and really liked the results. The only thing is that you've got to use sharp tools or it will fuzz and you'll either have to carefully sand it or sharpen your tool and cut again. It would make for a light cane and as it is a bit soft, glue adheres very well.

You'll need a wood conditioner to get a stain to apply well though. It can make the bluish-gray grain go splotchy. Paint isn't a problem though.

 

[Balog]

I had a cottonwood stick when I was a youth. It gave pretty good service, but I never really put it to the test.

 

[Geno]

I harvest my own.

I harvest my own limbs, regardless of how high I have to climb. Of greatest importance, since all of mine are handmade only for fellow certified Black belt instructors, each "walking stick" has to pass "the test". Each has to resist breaking (itself) when used to break through 5 inches of pine (5, 1" thick pieces of 12 X 12 pine, stacked upon eachother with no spaces). The strongest bone in the human body is 3 inches equivalent.

These are 100% hand-made. No electric sanders or saws of any sort. I saw them by hand. I strip them by use of a Leatherman Tool, and "smoothe them with the Leatherman. I finish them with olive oil to make the water resistent and natural. No chems. They are titled, "Healing Limbs", a refer to the fact that they are my "physical therapy" for my shoulders and arms following the accident that required to to undergo 33 surgeries. Each is also sent with an accompanying martial arts peom that describes the fellow instructor's "style" and inner "self". They are not for sale at any price. I have been offered hundreds of dollars for some, but no. They are not for sale at any price.

The only way you can get one of these is to be a fellow instructor. That price is very high indeed.

Doc2005

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Doc2005

 

[p35]

What kind of wood is that, Doc?

My brother gave me a "shaving horse" that he built himself along with a drawknife. Amazing how much easier those are than a pocketknife. Just an idea.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Chinese white waxwood maybe?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Back-Again-Chin...ff-8-foot_W0QQitemZ290024801610QQcmdZViewItem

lpl/nc

 

[pete f]

Hickory is strong and resilient but compared to black locust it is prone to splintering and splitting.

When I was young, I was helping an uncle who was a fisherman off the coast of Massachusetts replace the taftrail, or cockpit coaming on his scalloper, That piece of 2 inch thick Black Locust was original to boat and at least 15 years old at the time. Every time the trawls were pulled up, the lines, chain and chain link parts were drawn up over that rail. Figure all that wear, 5 to 10 times a day, many many days a year, and the board still came off in one piece tapered to a knife edge but still solid. His mooring bit was a 6 inch square piece of black locust that still looked new after being used all the time to moor the boat.

I have a 3 foot chunk of black locust that is left over from that replacement work. It just has a feel to it.

 

[Geno]

Various woods

Some of these sticks are Silver Maple, some are White Oak.

The name of the walking sticks "Healing Limbs" tells why the choice of using a Leatherman Tool. The Leatherman Tool added a degree of physical difficulty. And so, to tool these tree limbs by hand strengthened my limbs. I had to go through years of physical therapy. Each of these walking sticks takes (the large ones) bewteen 15 and 20 clock hours. It usually takes me a week to complete one.

My wife nags me everytime I start a new one about why I don't sell them, just without all of the carving and ornate additions. I guess she just doesn't get the whole sense of "becoming a Black Belt", not buying one. It's a lot of blood and sweet. Just like making these sticks.

I still have to upload the picture of my own. It's pretty cool.

Doc2005

 

[Biker]

Beautiful work, Doc.

Biker

 

[Geno]

Thanks

Thanks Biker. Greatly appreciated. I have my own personal walking stick is in my office. I'll have to snap a pic and up load it.

These are AWESOME for hunting and hiking. That is the second part of the test...the how does it work for prolonged use. I take each one hiking with my daughter before I will award it. If it can't withstand use, it's no good.

This is a very Korean phenomenon, a oneness with nature.

Thanks again all.

Doc2005

 

[tellner]

Not exactly a weapon, but part of personal security...

Has anyone here made an old-fashioned hawthorne fence, the kind where the live saplings are grafted together into a sort of basket weave? I've seen a couple, and they look like pretty formidable barriers to anyone who didn't have leather clothes and a machete. They were dense, springy, covered with vicious thorns and have really attractive flowers for a few weeks.

Anyone know what species are best for this sort of thing or how to do it right?