To carve a walking stick

[THOaken]

I'm looking to take a break from utensils, and I've always liked the idea of carving my own walking stick. Is it as simple as picking a piece of hazel, for example, with a Y thumb-stick end so that I can carve my own patterns and symbols on? I'll probably do a bit of kolrosing on it and sand it too. I don't have any antler, but I think I could get hold of some leather and use that in some way.

Care to impart any tips on how to carve a walking stick?

I apologize if there is already a thread that covers this subject.

Thanks.

Edit: Does it need to be seasoned wood?

 

[John Fenna]

Hazel for walking sticks is best cut when the sap is down - like now
Chose you wood and then carve your designs on it green or let it season with or without bark on it.
Leave Kolrosing until it is seasoned.
Have fun!

 

[THOaken]

Hazel for walking sticks is best cut when the sap is down - like now
Chose you wood and then carve your designs on it green or let it season with or without bark on it.
Leave Kolrosing until it is seasoned.
Have fun!

Thanks, John. Perfect timing then.

So harvest a nice piece of straight Hazel with a good Y fork, carve designs green and let it season. Sand and kolrose when seasoned?

The thing about seasoning though... It takes a long time, so I won't really be able to use it for months?

 

[Andy T]

Cut it as soon as you see the stick you want. I had my eye on a lovely ash thumbstick, i had been cutting off any side growth to get the stick to grow taller and it was getting there. Nice and straight lovely fork on the top. It must have been ok it caught someone elses eye as well. They cut it and had it away.

Only difference is it will take longer to dry if you cut it in either spring or summer. I find that summer cut sticks are easier to straighten. Hazel is nice but in my opinion ash is better. When it's dry it can be sanded really smooth and almost white. Very nice to work with and easy to draw any designs on.

Drying time will depend a lot on whether you take the bark off or not.

Try and cut the stick you want at least a foot longer and 50% thicker. The extra length is there so you can cut off any splits and the thickness to allow for shrinkage as it drys. If it's too thick for what you want you can always carve some off, you cant put it on.

 

[John Fenna]

Thanks, John. Perfect timing then.

So harvest a nice piece of straight Hazel with a good Y fork, carve designs green and let it season. Sand and kolrose when seasoned?

The thing about seasoning though... It takes a long time, so I won't really be able to use it for months?

With "bark on" hazel I tend to leave it about a year - I love the look of bark on Hazel and once oiled it cannot be beaten in my eyes.
Mind you Ash, or Holley with the bark off look great too and really show off any Kolrosing!

 

[THOaken]

With "bark on" hazel I tend to leave it about a year - I love the look of bark on Hazel and once oiled it cannot be beaten in my eyes.
Mind you Ash, or Holley with the bark off look great too and really show off any Kolrosing!

How long will it take to dry with bark off? Silly question, but can the walking stick be used when green? After all, it'll always be drying and it's not like it can be damaged in anyway. It seems a bit of downer to have to put the project away for months.

 

[John Fenna]

How long will it take to dry with bark off? Silly question, but can the walking stick be used when green? After all, it'll always be drying and it's not like it can be damaged in anyway. It seems a bit of downer to have to put the project away for months.

Sorry - I have not done this so just do not know

 

[Andy T]

Yes it could be used i suppose but don't forget if you oil it that will prevent or at least delay it drying out.

I don't dry mine for months. I cut them and debark and start to straighten them on the way home. I used to leave them with the bark on for a couple of weeks but not now. Then i put the stick in the shed for approximately a month, then hang it up in the garden for another month, obviously not leaving it out in the rain, and then i dry mine by lying them along the top of a radiator. I don't rush the first few weeks of drying and i don't have any problems. The heat from the radiator also helps soften the stick a little making it easier to straighten.

With regards to using holly, yes it's a lovely wood with a nice light grain, but, it is also quite a hard dense wood and takes an age to dry. So by all means cut yourself a nice piece of holly if you can find one, but also cut a few others, ash, hazel, silver birch to work on sooner.

Or you could always look for nice piece of dead standing and work on it almost right away.

 

[shaggystu]

....Silly question, but can the walking stick be used when green?....

It depends on what kind of stick you're going for and what you want to use it for. Are you thinking of a staff for crossing rivers and fending off wild animals (or at least the local hooligans), or are you thinking of something with a 'orses 'ed 'andle to help you balance on a twisted ankle, or maybe something nice and long and light that you can use a tracking stick or a fishing pole, will you be using it to support a tarp, hanging a kettle over a fire, or as a shooters thumbstick to help steady a rifle or a heavy camera, or do you just want it for striding purposefully up hill and down dale?

I've owned, and used, sticks for all of those purposes, some of which I'd be perfectly happy to use green, others I'd want to be very well seasoned first, and some that will do one job perfectly well when green but wouldn't when seasoned, and vice versa.

What's your idea of a walking stick THOaken?

 

[Mesquite]

It seems a bit of downer to have to put the project away for months.

That's the way of things when you're using natural materials.

It takes time to season naturally but it can be forced. Strip the bark off the wood then plonk it in the airing cupboard or on a radiator for a couple weeks.

If it's got a slight bend on it you can tie it to a straight, seasoned former (read 2x2) with some spacers to force the bend straight then leave it to dry. You may actually have to bend the wood slightly further than straight so when it springs back when untied it hopefully ends up straight.

 

[ship]

listen to AndyT m8, he knows what he,s talking about,
this is mine, beautiful, and a gent to deal with
oak top, leather n copper spacers with celtic knot on ash shaft

 

[THOaken]

That is a real work of art there, Ship. Congratulations. Great design and craftsmanship in general.

 

[Tomcoles]

That's stunning


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ship]

Believe me the photos don,t do it justice
ship

 

[Macaroon]

THOaken, what you need to do is follow most of the advice above, see how they turn out and follow the avenues that work best for you. When you go to cut a stick there's not much difference between coming home with one or coming home with twelve; they're easy to carry so you may just as well get as many as you can manage to carry. I promise you, when you go into a wood to find a good stick you'll find a great many.

First off, why don't you get a simple but nice piece of hazel and trim it to size and neaten it a little, do all that in a few minutes in situ, and then carry that as it is for your first stick; it will season as you use it and you can carve, elaborate or decorate it anytime in the future, but it'll get you used to walking with a stick and give you a feel for what kind of length you like, also things like the weight of different woods make a fair bit of difference to the feel and hence the comfort of a stick. I've made many hundreds of sticks over the years and some of my all-time favourites are those which I've seen and trimmed up on the spot; some of my regular users are over 40 yrs old!

There's an old saying amongst stick dressers: "The correct time to cut a stick is as soon as you see it", and the story in the post above tells why this is so.

Another thing to be aware of; sticks will be used and dropped, and however well looked after they are a working tool. It can be heartbreaking to drop a lovely carved handle on a stony path and watch a nose fly off one way while an ear flies the other, after all that carving.

When you get a bit further along this way and need a piece of antler, drop me a PM with an idea of what you need and I'll get a bit to you........Enjoy the journey!

 

[ship]

you could buy an atready seasoned shaft and take it from there for a quicker end product,

ship

 

[crosslandkelly]

wrong thread

 

[crosslandkelly]

THOaken, please don't take this the wrong way, but just get out there and cut your staves, spend 10 minutes looking at them, and see what design is there. As i said before, carving is more intuitive than cerebral. Just let the wood guide design, there will be many failiures on the way. but the successes will be all the more enjoyable.
All the best with your future carvings.

Ps Don't forget to keep your tools sharpened.

 

[Snooky]

How do you straighten the cut wood?

 

[Andy T]

Heat or steam usually. I've got a 6 foot piece of scaffold board with lots of 25mm holes drilled in it and some oak pegs i turned on my lathe. I put the stick in there, slightly overbent, it will spring back a bit when it's taken out. I leave it in there for a few days, when i take it out if it's not straight it goes back in. The time it's in there depends alot on time of year it was cut, thickness and the weather. This suits me because i've normally got a few on the go at the same time.

If you can't make one of these, as Mesquite said, you can tie it back to piece of wood, but depending on the diameter of the stick i'd suggest something a little thicker than 2x2.

I've started cutting slightly thicker sticks now, the disadvantage is they take longer to dry, but, it does give me more wood to work with and i can straighten a stick quite alot by carving more off one side than the other. One benefit from this is that as i'm carving wood off i go through a years growth into the year before. After i've sanded, stained and oiled the stick the grain really comes through and looks really good. The more it's oiled the better it looks.