Hiking staff for a big fella.

[KenThis]

Hi all,
I'm recently doing a lot more walking due to a new puppy and have started feeling a weakness in my knee thanks to old injuries.
So I am on the lookout for a wooden hiking staff. I don't know much about the relative merits of different woods and was wondering if it's mostly aesthetic preference?
I'm 6,4" and still over 20 stone and am looking for something that will help take the weight off my knees for a bit of extra support, but not be too thick or heavy that it's a hindrance. I know there are lots of synthetic options but I'd much prefer wood.
Could anyone recommend me a type of wood that would suit?
A friend of mine has a small wood on his land but we failed to find anything straight enough.
I've been on the lookout whilst walking but I'm loathed to take any green wood without permission, also if possible I'd prefer if the stick was taken responsibly.
Anyhow if anyone has any information or can help, it would be appreciated.
Cheers muchly

 

[daveO]

Now's the time of year to get one cut. I'd cut a few if it was me. A nice hazel thumb stick to use now and some good blackthorn sticks for seasoning. Hazel will season nice and light but blackthorn would be my choice for durability. If you dont mind a bit of work straightening the wood then you dont have to worry about finding anything perfectly straight and you can add an antler top later rather than find a perfect thumb stick now.

Look for coppiced woodland for hazel and overgrown farm hedges for blackthorn.

This reminds me I need to get out and cut bean poles for next year too.

I dont know where you are in Cardiff but the Wenallt woods always had some good hazel near the edges where it met the fields. It's been a few years since I've been down that way though. My dog used to love it up there.

 

[Broch]

Hi all,
I'm recently doing a lot more walking due to a new puppy and have started feeling a weakness in my knee thanks to old injuries.
So I am on the lookout for a wooden hiking staff. I don't know much about the relative merits of different woods and was wondering if it's mostly aesthetic preference?
I'm 6,4" and still over 20 stone and am looking for something that will help take the weight off my knees for a bit of extra support, but not be too thick or heavy that it's a hindrance. I know there are lots of synthetic options but I'd much prefer wood.
Could anyone recommend me a type of wood that would suit?
A friend of mine has a small wood on his land but we failed to find anything straight enough.
I've been on the lookout whilst walking but I'm loathed to take any green wood without permission, also if possible I'd prefer if the stick was taken responsibly.
Anyhow if anyone has any information or can help, it would be appreciated.
Cheers muchly

If you're ever up in Mid Wales (Welshpool area) you are more than welcome to come and choose a stick from our wood - we have hazel, blackthorn, ash and holly - all make good sticks. My quarterstaff is a single ash sapling and there are plenty of those that need thinning and there's loads of hazel waiting to be coppiced.

Cheers,
Broch

 

[Nice65]

As said, Hazel is perfect. I prefer knob sticks to thumb sticks, but it's a personal thing. Google Hazel knobstick and you'll get a good idea.

 

[daveO]

As said, Hazel is perfect. I prefer knob sticks to thumb sticks, but it's a personal thing. Google Hazel knobstick and you'll get a good idea.

Thumb sticks make it easier to shake apples out of trees though. Your own trees obviously

 

[John Fenna]

Hazel is my preferred wood - and to avoid making my "golfers elbow" flare up I like a staff with a wrist loop (it gives a better angle for weight bearing). For use in town I have a hazel walking stick with an Antler handle (the crown and part of the shaft for the shaft of the stick, a right-angle 1st tine for the handle) as the staff can get in the way a bit...

 

[Macaroon]

Holly makes a very strong staff and seasons to a very light weight and small size for the strength it provides; it's also a lovely wood and has an excellent feel in the hand.

Be very wary of using a single stick or staff to bear weight, though, you'll cause all sorts of problems in your musculoskeletal system because of the imbalances caused and you won't necessarily be aware of it until it's too late. The only safe long term way is a pair of matched sticks, it was/is Pacer poles that helped me overcome knee and hip issues after a good few years of bad pain, much of which was self inflicted by using the one stick and thinking I was helping things. Diagnosed at the last minute by a very on-the-ball consultant and recommended the Pacer poles by him.

 

[Nice65]

Pacers are supposed to be brilliant, or dick-sticks as our man Beachlover likes to call them

His knees are shot and he's just done a huge charity walk in the Camino. I haven't gone the Pacer route yet, but have had one hip bone grafted and the other replaced so I started out with a Chestnut thumb stick. I didn't find the notch very comfortable so just used it as a staff. Not good in gloves at all.

Then a friend who buys at car boots had a stroke of luck and picked up 5 pairs of Leki Instructor poles, kindly donating a pair to me. Haven't looked back really. I love wood, love sticks, I've a grand and very lethal looking Blackthorn shillelagh in the hall, but the Lekis get all the use. I'll use one if I'm getting some jip and just on a standard dog walk, two for longer walks or rucksack walk-ins.

If it's any good to you, I have a couple of seasoned Hazel knobs in the garage, cut from a side branch that's thrown a straight shoot upwards. I can send pics and bung one your way for postage costs. You'll need to form the knob and prepare the stick as you want it.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Holly

K

 

[bobnewboy]

I know a lot of people think it should be left well alone due the dutch disease, and the subsequent scarcity, but in the past some of the best sticks I have made were from young elm trees. I used to use a tree that was about 1.5" in diameter at 3 feet from the ground, ideally from a ditch bank, and always pulled it out rather than cut it down. The root ball at just under the ground level almost always gave a nice spread of wood for a handle. The overall length can be decided later when it has dried out and been straightened, so be sure to leave plenty of wood. Elm is very tough when seasoned and can be easily carved while still green.

 

[Broch]

I know a lot of people think it should be left well alone due the dutch disease, and the subsequent scarcity, but in the past some of the best sticks I have made were from young elm trees. I used to use a tree that was about 1.5" in diameter at 3 feet from the ground, ideally from a ditch bank, and always pulled it out rather than cut it down. The root ball at just under the ground level almost always gave a nice spread of wood for a handle. The overall length can be decided later when it has dried out and been straightened, so be sure to leave plenty of wood. Elm is very tough when seasoned and can be easily carved while still green.

If the tree isn't where it can be left to grow I see no problem with that.
One of my favourite sticks is made from what I call tortured yew. Many years ago, after a storm, a number of Yews were blown over near Winchester. The roots on some of them were stretched to breaking point but still quite twisted. I wish I had collected a few but I've only got one. A very unique stick.

 

[Nice65]

The truth is, the Elms aren't being thinned or attended to so spring up en masse in hedgerows. Then they grow, provide enough food to create beetle population growth, and they die again. Dutch Elm Disease has been running this cycle since I was a kid, I see no harm in both thinning them or using the wood of one of our most beautiful natives.

Most spring from root suckers, so should hopefully have the DNA of the originals. I've read of some having tolerance to the disease already.