How big is your Pole, and can you send me a pic?

[Bimble]

Walking sticks are for old men, long live the staff.
In my opinion you want something you can vault over a stream with if needs be and as high as your shoulder.
I’ve just read a post about the best time to cut wood for sticks. I’d say the best time to cut a ‘staff’ is at the start of a walk/trip. Then at the end of it throw it away, after all it’s just a stick. My staffs are totally expendable, that way if I break it, burn it pot hanging or just leave it behind when having to negotiate rough terrain, I don’t lose my peace of mind.
That said, due to the reduced weight and increased stiffness of dry wood, I do have a succession of seasoning sticks in my porch much to the aesthetic affront of my wife’s domestic vision.

These tend to be sticks brought back from short walks because they are straighter than normal. Occasionally I may even peel the bark of a particularly good one, but I will not hesitate to use it to administer the last rights to a ‘mixy’ rabbit,
Come to think of it staffs are one of the most useful bits of kit I carry.

Here are some of the uses I put my staffs to:

Nettle whackers: Obvious but necessary in the summer

Fishing Gaff: I carry a mustad gaff hook when going ‘wild’ fishing, I just knock in the tang and whip it onto the shaft, Hey presto dinner landing implement.

Blackberry tool: used to whack a path into brambles and then hook down the best ones, yummo!

Digging tool: Used to get up spruce roots, dig pooh holes etc.

Pole vault: crossing streams and muddy bits.

Bog tester: is that patch of grass going to fill my boot with water?

Wading staff: crossing bigger rivers in your nicks.

Bludgeon: Trout, Pike, Rabbits(if your good), the dog humping your leg, etc.

Wood hook: Used to knock the vertical hanging dry wood from their snags in higher branches.

Tent pole: Used with my tarp when trees are nonexistent.

Spotting scope/camera steady: Used with another stick cross style and a bit of Paracord.

As there are some pretty inventive types out there, do you use your ‘sticks’ for anything else? Also how big is your pole if it’s not too personal a question and do you have any picks? Finally can a learned person out there enlighten me about just how big a historical quarter staff should be?

 

[launditch1]

Bimble.Check this out! http://www.quarterstaff.org/about/about2.html

 

[Shambling Shaman]

I’d say the best time to cut a ‘staff’ is at the start of a walk/trip.

Like it...

launditch1 - thanks for that link.... off in to the woods tomorrow..

 

[launditch1]

Cheers.My google-fu is strong!...

 

[jojo]

I have two. One with a Wood Spirit carving at the top, (I sold the peeled shorter one to a chap who needed a stick to keep his balance but was refusing to use a ordinary walking stick), my new other one is a peeled hazel stick, with moose leather wrapped at the top. One is 30mm diameter, the other 26mm, at the tops.

They are about 46", but I think they are a bit too short for me. One has a 2" long piece of 3/4" copper pipe hammered onto the end of it. The other one is getting an alpine spike shortly!

Pretty much same uses as you really!

If you know what you're doing you can mark feet and inches on the stick, and use it to measure, height of trees, width of rivers etc!!


For the scout's use of the staff. (well, maybe not anymore... )
See here.

And here.

 

[launditch1]

Some of my sticks are Stangs and they are for special purposes.Nice staffs there JoJo!

 

[Rothley Bill]

Hi JoJo we introduced our troop to staves last year at a camp, I was surprised how many uses the scouts came up with for them, we expected to have to lead them to the uses. All the scouts took them home and some still use them.

I am of the cut it if I need it mentality, but should I find a nice one I think it will be a keeper.

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Jojo, nice carving did you do that your self??

 

[firestarter31]

Fantastic carving ,very envious!

 

[firestarter31]

Oh by the way Bimble , very misleading title , I was wondering where this was going!

 

[jojo]

Hi JoJo we introduced our troop to staves last year at a camp, I was surprised how many uses the scouts came up with for them, we expected to have to lead them to the uses. All the scouts took them home and some still use them.

I am of the cut it if I need it mentality, but should I find a nice one I think it will be a keeper.

Actually, I am pleased to hear this. I was wondering if the Scout Staff had been sacrificed on the H&S altar!!!

Jojo, nice carving did you do that your self??

Yes, I did. I collected both of them in the Forest of Dean last year, and I thought they were right for a wood spirit each!

I have also bought some hazel wands for making some more sticks, but they really are a bit too small.

 

[jojo]

Oh by the way Bimble , very misleading title , I was wondering where this was going!

Some people, honestly !!! Wonder how their minds work...

 

[jojo]

Another one I've got is a bamboo cane about 28/30 mm in diameter. It's quite light, but a bit short. I burned a spiral design on it, a used blowtorch, and varnished it. Can even use top part the inside to store a few bushy things!

 

[Oblio13]

Keeping mean dogs at bay.
Crutch.
Cross rivers by bracing downstream.
Test ice - and then have something to prevent you from going all the way through if it breaks anyway.
Probe in mud or water.
Pole a canoe in shallow water.
Harvest a gourmet dinner by adding a frog gig.
Hang a pot over a fire.
Replace your tent pole.
Prop up a sagging tarp.
Lift pots off a fire.
Steady a rifle, pistol or camera.
Mark the circle for building an igloo.
Poke a ventilation hole in the ceiling of the igloo.
Help yourself up if you fall while snowshoeing in deep powder.
Break "squaw wood" off pine trees.
Clear spider webs from your path.
Protect your face when plowing through thick brush.
Carry a bundle over your shoulder (Hobos weren't the only ones who did that - Roman legionaries did, too).
Measure (burn inch and/or centimeter ruler marks on it).
Test depth of streams.
Feel your way in the dark.
Build a shelter.

 

[Cobweb]

I like the idea of a quarterstaff and the knowledge to use it. Could come in handy when meeting the ill-intentioned out on walks

 

[paintballvern]

Blimy thats great jojo i'm off to the woods tom see what I can get and have a go at carving, can you reccomend any types of wood to use, and how do I tell whats what in the woods this time of year.

 

[jojo]

Blimy thats great jojo i'm off to the woods tom see what I can get and have a go at carving, can you reccomend any types of wood to use, and how do I tell whats what in the woods this time of year.

I used hazel, about 30 mm diameter at the top, one I peeled straight away and kept the bark on the other. Woods will bit drier at the moment as its winter, less sap. The peeled one dried much more quickly but I did not wait until they wee bone dry, carved them a couple of week later. They were easy to carve, although cutting into the wood produced a bit of fuzz. So i waited a bit longer to finish the carvings. As to what's in the woods? That'll depends which wood you're in at the time. If you find nice ash wands, that would also do nicely. I'll be your friend for ever if you find you've got too many of them and you can spare one I can't find much Ash around here. !Not much help there I'm afraid!

 

[helixpteron]

My personal preference is the Bo Pole, I selected mine from the entire stock of the supplier, as I really liked the grain pattern and handling qualities that this one possessed.

Nineteen years on, its still serving me well, on a daily basis.

The sole limitation of the Bo Pole, is one's imagination!

 

[BOD]

..., do you use your ‘sticks’ for anything else? Also how big is your pole if it’s not too personal a question and do you have any picks? ...

I think you and Oblio covered most of it.

All I can add is as a navigation tool when you are alone and need to box around an obstacle like a clump of bamboo, a small thicket etc. You push it through in the direction of travel and walk around and align your self with it again

It is especially useful at night if you have peeled the stick to reveal the light wood. It is visible as long as it is not a pitch black night. You do not need a torch except to photograph it.

Like you I cut the stick at the start of the walk but usually bring it home. I have it a few inches above the top of my head so I can use it on steeper slopes and on stream crossings

 

[Chinkapin]

I have cut and used many walking sticks in my time. I currently have three. One is Red Cedar and very straight and light. One is from a twisted Japanese Willow and is very interesting to look at and extremely light. My favorite is made from an Eastern Hornbeam (this is not the UK Hop-Hornbeam, but an entirely different tree.) The Hornbeam superficially resembles a young Beech tree. The bark is a smooth blue-grey and appears "muscular" with vertical ridges that look as though there is smooth muscle under the bark. It is extremely strong and quite heavy. You just can not break it under any ordinary usage. It will take tremendous abuse and would be my choice if I had to fend off any animal, four-legged or one of the two-legged class. I usually drill a hole in the center of the bottom end, then I pound in a nail of the appropriate size, cut off the head, and sharpen a new point. Now it will not slip in soil. If I am planing on walking on mostly rocky ground, I take a piece of rubber (round) and about 1/4 inch thick and screw it to the bottom of the stick. Just be sure that the screw counter-sinks into the rubber so the head of the screw is below the surface of the rubber and will not touch and slip on rock. I love my walking sticks, but I love your carving even more. I'm green with envy!