Make a stick!

[Nice65]

Whereabouts are you Haggis ? roughly ?
I have a seasoned hazel rod, some willow ones that were cut seven months ago, and I think there's an apple one in the shed too.
Blackthorn makes a really good stick, but it's inclined to be heavy-ish.
I know where there's hazel growing that has honeysuckle growing around it tightly enough that it's forming twisted 'magical' staffs Just three or four twists up the length. If you're in the west side of the central belt you could go and cut one for your daughter.

We used to do that on purpose years ago, wrap the Hazel and Chestnut stems with Old Mans Beard, a type of Clematis. The other thing, to make a true thumb stick and not just a fork, was to remove the leading bud and stem back to the fork a few inches below on Ash and Chesnut saplings and leave them to grow a natural “U” shape rather than an uncomfortable “V”.

6 yr olds Gandalf Staff needs to be fairly light wood. The recommendations of Willow and Hazel are good. chestnut is light and strong, most of our sticks were 3yr old Chestnut cut for the NHS walking sticks.

 

[VaughnT]

As a little one, the dimensions need to account for her size, strength and comfort. I wouldn't go with anything more than an inch in diameter and a foot taller than she is.

She'll grow out of it, but even as she gets bigger, it can still be used. When it's finally too small for her, it can be made into a treasured heirloom to remind her of trips with her old man.

Something I would consider, aside from carving her name in it, would be to carve other details like you'd do for a "try stick". Diamonds, spheres, pass-throughs.... then turn the stick from "some random branch" to something Dad spent hours on to make really special for his girl. You wouldn't have to do much, and you'd not want them below the handhold where they might weaken the staff, but I think it would look awesome if you carved a diamond finial with a sphere right below it. Then a separate band for her name and some nice marlinspike seamanship for a comfortable handle......

 

[awarner]

I still love my buddleia staff and use it every day but it needs to be old and seasoned well.
What about making a hazel thumbstick?

 

[Emjay]

There are stick makers (guild?) in the UK that carve the finest toppers that I've ever seen.
Dogs and the most realistic birds. Google could chase them down.

Birch, because it's a local native species, is the only hardwood that I carve. Very nice.

Stew: Might you post the ISBN ## for that stick book by T. Fossel? Please and thanks.

There are stick makers (guild?) in the UK that carve the finest toppers that I've ever seen.
Dogs and the most realistic birds. Google could chase them down.

Birch, because it's a local native species, is the only hardwood that I carve. Very nice.

Stew: Might you post the ISBN ## for that stick book by T. Fossel? Please and thanks.

Hi Robson, in case yo haven't got it yet,
The book is--Walking and Working Sticks by Theo Fossel. ISBN1 869988 00 0-hardback
ISBN1 869988 01 9-paperback. Hope this helps.

Emjay

 

[Robson Valley]

Thank you, Emjay. I like to have books which provide a body of work for inspiration.

I use a Diamond Willow cane, made locally, custom length for me.
The diamond pattern is a growth defect caused by some sort of fungus attacking the stumps of dead branches.
The topper is flat and 2" wide to spread the load when I need to lean on it.
How a topper might feel under the hand is always the first thing that I look at.
Quite frankly, some of them should really hurt.