| The Handle or Topper can be carved out
of most of your favorite carving woods. Basswood, Butternut, and Black Walnut are
wonderful carving woods for this purpose, also try Black Cherry, English Walnut, and Soft
Maple. When choosing what to carve your topper from remember that softer woods will allow
you more detailed work and harder woods will give your more strength and durability.
The staff needs a strong hard wood. The strength of your cane is totally
dependent of the strength of it's staff. I personally prefer milled lumber for my staffs
as Ash, Oak, and Hard Maple. My personal preference comes from my own impatience to
complete the project, I find it very difficult to wait several years for a particular cut
stick to properly season to use. It is not because milled lumber is in any way
better that cutting your own sticks.
Many carvers do cut their own wild sticks for creating canes with spectacular
results. Some favorite cut stick woods for staff use are Ash, Apple, Hickory, Black
Cherry, Dogwood, Crab Apple and Oak. Woods to avoid for wild stick staffs are Maple,
Popular, Sycamore, Black Walnut, and Willow. It may seem odd to list Maple and Black
Walnut here, but neither of these branches are strong enough in the second and third year
growth for cane use.
Wild sticks are usually cut during the late fall and early winter. The
sap has settled by this time and the leaves have fallen to allow the cutter to see the
true shape of the branch. Wild hedge rows are wonderful places to find cane sticks
and keep a careful eye open for small trees with honeysuckle wraps. Orchards are fantastic
sources for cane cutting.
Cut the sticks extra long to allow for checking, splitting, and to accomidate
your final decision on the cane length. Trim any side branches to about one half
inch. Now bundle the branches into groups of about six to ten sticks each.
These bundles should be hung outdoors in an area that is protected from rain
and direct sunshine. Hang them root side up. Now walk away for about six to nine
months. By next fall you can move the sticks into an unheated area as a shed or barn to
complete the drying process. For drying the rule of thumb is to allow one year for
every one inch of thickness. Since your staffs will be approximately 1 1/2"
inches thick to 1 3/4" your cuttings will need about two years before they are ready
for use.
If you want to learn more about cutting and creating your own walking sticks I
highly recommend "Walking and Working Sticks" by Theo Fossel, published in Great
Britain, 1986, by The Apostle Press.
A very fanciful cane staff can be made out of a specialty garden plant called
Walking Stick Cabbage, it's botanical name is Brassica oleracea longata. This
particular plant has extremely large evenly spaced leaves and grows to about six foot high
in one season, up to twelve feet high if wintered over to a second growing year.
Once the leaves drop in fall you discover a wonderful texture at the leave node along the
stem. Walking Stick Cabbage is easy to grow from seed and can be obtained from
specialty garden seed catalogs as Territorial Seed Company.
Never ... Never, never, never ... (did I say NEVER !!!)
... underestimate the use your carved cane will receive.
In my personal experience once you begin carving canes everyone you have ever
known or ever will know will want you to create one just for them. Unlike other
types of carvings we create the cane and walking stick is the one piece of our art that
will be treasured and passed down through the family. Fun caricatures and figurines, wall
plaques and even carved jewelry boxes will eventually find themselves stored in the attic
or closet.
Canes, however, are carefully kept leaning against the front door, readily
within reach at any moment for any member of the household. Your cane will hold that
honored place forever! It will be used by many generations. And one day someone is
going to depend of the strength of your cane to prevent a slip or fall.
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