Walking stick help!

[woodmunky]

Ok, so i have a few sticks that i take out with me when doin bushy things (one at a time!) and most are all as was when discovered... i.e plai and sticky

but now i have a lovely Birch stick which i intend to e my main one... the 'but' is because i have stripped the bark and shaven it down to some hard wood, then added a single layer of linseed oil...

but i'm a bit stuck now! it's dawned on me i haven't really done this before (should have dawned this before i started lol) my question is, once the linseed oil coat dries, what is the best thing to apply to it to finish it off and weather proof it for many years of use??

I have some nice leather lace i will use to make the grip, but its the actual preperation and preservation of the stick itself that i want to get exactly right!

any help would be very much appreciated!

Thanks,
Steve

 

[davep90]

did you give it time to dry out before you stripped and sealed it

 

[Wolfie]

If the stick was properly seasoned you should just have to continue applying linseed oil at the following intervals -

"Once a day for a week,
Once a week for a month,
Once a month for a year,
Once a year for a lifetime."

The oil will help dry the wood out, harden it and protect it from the worst that the outdoors can throw at it.

If this seems like to much trouble you could use a yacht varnish although I don't think this gives as nice a finish.

 

[brancho]

If the stick was properly seasoned you should just have to continue applying linseed oil at the following intervals -

"Once a day for a week,
Once a week for a month,
Once a month for a year,
Once a year for a lifetime."

The oil will help dry the wood out, harden it and protect it from the worst that the outdoors can throw at it.

If this seems like to much trouble you could use a yacht varnish although I don't think this gives as nice a finish.

I agree with wolfie about the oiling.
Varnishing isnt the answer It will look plasticy after a while.

 

[woodmunky]

Excellent... it had plenty of time to dry prior to oiling so should be ok! I use wooden stik weapons when i do my JuJitsu training, which need linseed oiling all the time so it's no challenge for me but i've never hear this little saying before:

"Once a day for a week,
Once a week for a month,
Once a month for a year,
Once a year for a lifetime."

BRILLIANT!

Thank you for your help, i'm sure i will have many years use out of it!

 

[Thijzzz]

Hi guys,

I found some very nice sticks - standing dead wood, very dark bark, and underneath a very nice pattern in the wood.

Now there's 2 question marks left:

- Because the wood was already dead and dry, I am afraid it might be to brittle. Will applying veg oil help to make it a little more flexible again?

- Parts of the stick get greyish once exposed to the air. Should I sand it again and then, with everything nicely yellow, oil it directly? Or will the greyish color disapperar with oiling?

Thanks for any tips!

Matt
Here's the pic of the untreated stick:

 

[jojo]

Beautiful spalting. Looks likely the wood is too brittle for a walking stick. Those lovely black marks are a by product of the rotting process caused by decay fungi. You can get all sorts of beautifully spalted woods, which can be from easy to next to impossible to work as it is too punky. It's possible to saturate the punky areas with liquid hardeners like some superglues. But for a stick, that may be asking too much of the wood.

 

[Thijzzz]

Thanks Jojo. Lucky me, no punky bits. Just well dried wood, hope it'll last.

 

[weaver]

I make a mixture of 1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 marine varnish and 1/3 paint thinner. It works well for most furniture and tool use. I rub it into the wood just as you would the oil alone but it dries much faster and offers more lasting protection.

2 - 3 coats looks just like a good oil finish, 5-9 coats will give a high gloss varnish look but has more depth of grain like the oil does.