Walking Sticks

**Big Mikey** · 1st November 08, 02:18 PM

Check this page in this thread.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/w...24/index3.html

**Bugbear** · 4th November 08, 07:20 PM

Yep, need to get myself a proper walking stick.

**svc40bt** · 10th November 08, 10:35 AM

Here are a couple pics of my simple walking staff. Collected it from the property line at my parents' place in western PA. Not sure exactly what variety of thorny tree it is. They were formerly used as growing fences, but are now considered nuisance plants. Make excellent staves though, light but strong. This one is mostly an 1" or less in diameter, but can easily support my not inconsiderable full weight.

On a short hike at Gambrill State Park near Frederick, MD (couldn't get the camera to sit level)

Shot of the staff

Closeup of the top (left side)

Closeup of the top (right side)

**Streetcar** · 30th November 08, 12:35 PM

I also picked up a blackthorn from Lollysmith about a week ago:

Here's a better view of the detail:

It's a sturdy stick - nice and knobby. It did have a few rough spikes I still had to cut off - real handshredders. Certainly not as nice as some of the other sticks on this thread, but then again that's why these are called "Pug Ugly Sticks."

**The Thing** · 5th August 09, 04:14 PM

I present Sea Gulls snout, some beautiful sticks on this thread.

**Mael Coluim** · 6th August 09, 03:57 AM

Robert, Ancienne Alliance whittles these walking sticks from his past Christmas trees that were selected from the woods near his home on the French Alps. Let tell you these are indispensable in hiking there! Robert was kind enough to make this one a gift to me that I've taken home to Virginia.

This shepherd's crook I picked up along the Ness on my 2004 visit to Scotland. That's a belted plaid in the St. Columba tartan.

Although this walking cane is my wife's won at a raffle Rabbie Burns Night, she allows me to use it. Yep there is a sword in there!

**MacMillan of Rathdown** · 9th August 09, 06:50 AM

Originally Posted by Mael Coluim

Although this walking cane is my wife's won at a raffle Rabbie Burns Night, she allows me to use it. Yep there is a sword in there!

I seem to recall that sword sticks, while lawful to possess, are illegal to carry in most jurisdictions. Be careful...

**Sir William** · 9th August 09, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by Mael Coluim

Robert, Ancienne Alliance whittles these walking sticks from his past Christmas trees that were selected from the woods near his home on the French Alps. Let tell you these are indispensable in hiking there! Robert was kind enough to make this one a gift to me that I've taken home to Virginia.

Mael,

Any problems getting it on the plane on your return trip? In the past I'd seen anything longer than a cane refused, to included collapsed hiking poles, and I wasn't confident that it could be safely packaged for the cargo hold.

We had a craftsman at the Elliot Gathering who was making some very beautiful sticks and I would have liked to have gotten one, but I wasn't sure how to get it back.

**DWFII** · 8th August 09, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by Streetcar

I also picked up a blackthorn from Lollysmith about a week ago:
It's a sturdy stick - nice and knobby. It did have a few rough spikes I still had to cut off - real handshredders.

It's my understanding that the spike (thorns) are left on for a reason...the thorns are poisonous and if you got into a row with a hooligan or a highwayman, and he grabbed your stick, you could rip it out of his hands and it would do nearly as much damage to him (either shredding or poisoning) as if you'd hit him with the rootball end.

The guys that still harvest these sticks build up an immunity to the poison, but it's there...and that's one reason there are fewer and fewer every year.

**Streetcar** · 8th August 09, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by DWFII

It's my understanding that the spike (thorns) are left on for a reason...the thorns are poisonous and if you got into a row with a hooligan or a highwayman, and he grabbed your stick, you could rip it out of his hands and it would do nearly as much damage to him (either shredding or poisoning) as if you'd hit him with the rootball end.

The guys that still harvest these sticks build up an immunity to the poison, but it's there...and that's one reason there are fewer and fewer every year.

That might very well be, but for the stick play I've worked with, I need something to slide in my hand just a bit. It still has the knobs, but the ragged edges of the thorns have been pulled off.