Walking Staff

[MacKenzie]

When walking through the woods, use you imagination, learn to look at the way the trees and bushes grow. Walking sticks tend to grow upside done, with the best part for the top of the stick being low, and the main portion of the stick growing upward. Your material needn't be perfectly straight.

I'm always on the lookout for a good stick. Once the candidate is harvested I leave it outside, bark on, for six months to a year. Once I think it's ready I shave the bark and generally smooth it up. A couple of weeks after it gets two coats of flat polyurethane and it's done.

In the picture: The one on the left is maple. It’s 42” and weighs 13 oz. It's been with me seven or eight years. Browsing around here it became apparent that a "staff" was a basic kilt accoutrement. I knew I didn't want a hook/crook so I fashioned the one on the right out of elm. Its 52” and weighs 19 oz.

[Chas]

Also checkout Walking Sticks by Edward Hart and Walking and Working Sticks by Theo Fossel.

Way back in the mid-70s, I once took a four day Stick-Making course taught by Theo Fossel (paid for by the RAF). One of the most interesting and informed individuals that it has been my privilege to meet. This is the stick I produced at the end of the four days.



It was such a constant companion that five years ago, I had to attach a ferrule and spike, to make up for the 1 1/2" that had worn away!

[OC Richard]

Interesting that cromach isn't in my Gaelic dictionary. (I love linguistic stuff.)

What there is is:

crom, v. bend, stoop, decline; descend, bow
crom, n. m. a circle; ridge
cromachas, n. f. bandy-leg
cromadh, n. m. roof; act of bending, stooping, bowing; a measure of length equal to the full length of the middle finger
cromag, n. f. anything bent; a peg or catch, a tache, a hook to hang on, a fish-hook
cromaichean, n. pl. the aged

Based on this alone, I would guess that the Gaelic might be cromag (a bent thing). It is sort of like a big fish-hook after all.

A very large number of vintage photos show what appears to be an ordinary cane



This is the only early photo I have showing a taller cane, though not very cromach-like



A couple seen in The Highlanders of Scotland (one at a very oblique angle)



A later photo showing quite a few



Here's a mix of canes and cromaich (pl ?) (cromaig?)



And nowadays



The Renaissance Faire around here always has at least one walking stick maker with a large variety of things, some of them rather Scottish-looking.

[Nathan]

Richard, I believe cromack or cromach is the Scottish English word which derives etymologically form the Gaelic cromag. A 'g' at the end of a word is pronounced like a 'k' so cromag is pronounced cromack.

I'm still looking for the quintessential ram's horn cromach, but I haven't found a source for the raw horns. I am a bit of an amateur stick maker though and used some antler generously provided by Crash to fashion a few sticks.



Here I am using one of them in the wild.





I found this wooden one in a local kilt shop and it was the only one they had. It has served me well so far.



I found this short walking stick/cane at a thrift shop for $5 but it has a distinctly cromach-like head on it and I'm fond of it. Sadly, it is a tad short for me, even as a cane. I might add a spike to it, so it will be up to a comfortable size.





McMurdo's gorgeous cromach (cromag) is in the U.S.A. at the moment, so he borrowed my short walking stick last weekend and I think it still works nicely with Highland attire. There is a precedent for this style as OCRichard's old pics demonstrate.

[Tobus]

Thanks for all the wonderful and creative ideas. I'm leaning towards a straight, natural hazel staff, possibly with a straight, or forked thumb-style antler top. Right now I use a natural blackthorn Irish walking stick, but as mentioned, it is only cane height.

Ah, OK. That makes it pretty simple, then. You should be able to find those all over the place, and at a very low price. Assuming you don't want to go to the trouble of making your own, and would rather just purchase one that's ready to go, I would second the recommendation of Mikilt in post #4. I have purchased from Brazos Walking Sticks in the past, and have been very pleased with their prices and selection. They offer a nice range of "extras" or custom options for their sticks, too.

When I'm backpacking in serious hills I use trekking poles, but for casual hiking and backpacking, I use a plain old hickory staff from Brazos Walking Sticks. I like the combi-spike option for the tip. And I added a leather wrap for extra grip where I hold it.

[Orionson]

Loving the gaiters, Tobus. May I ask where you found them?

[Tobus]

Loving the gaiters, Tobus. May I ask where you found them?

They're WWII US Army surplus leggings. Discussed here, though the thread is now locked due to age. I wear them when hiking here in thorn/cactus country to protect my legs and hose. I also wear a shorter WWII US Marine version shown in this thread.

I'd love to find some vintage Scottish khaki spats (not putees), but haven't had any luck. I'd even buy white ones and blanco them with khaki blanco, but haven't had much luck finding khaki blanco either. Proper Scottish military spats seem to fit better over the shoe or boot, being more generous in coverage and more forgiving on boot/sole thickness, while the US leggings are very restrictive and require a pretty thin boot.

(We should probably start a new thread on this subject if anyone wishes to further discuss leggings/spats/gaiters, so as not to further hijack this thread.)

[Orionson]

Look out for a PM.

[creagdhubh]

I assume you're asking about a shepherd's crook or cromach, not just a plain staff?

Generally you will see two types being used. Either an all-wooden crook or one with a ram's horn crook attached to a wood staff. I prefer the latter. I searched for about 6 months, trying to find one that was inexpensive, but kept getting thwarted. You may be able to snag one on eBay, but the bidding can get pretty high (if you can find one at all).

I ended up buying mine from Tony Espley in Wales. He's a super nice guy and his sticks are top notch. Not cheap, but well worth the cost. Stick-making has become quite the boutique craft over in the UK, with artisans commanding big money for well-made sticks.

http://espleywalkingsticks.co.uk/

Photos of me with my Espley-made cromach are below.

When searching for a good cromach, you'll want to make sure that the height is correct for your body. The top should be about the height of your nipples. And you'll want a good steel or brass tip on it, not one of those big rubber feet like they put on canes. The shape of the crook is up to you, but it seems that the most traditional shape for a ram's horn crook is pretty much like mine below (with the curled end). Sometimes you will see a plain end, or one adorned with a thistle. There's a lot of variation here, and it's up for individual interpretation. Walking with a cromach can tend to be a bit pretentious to some, so you might not want to go overboard with the "bling" on a cromach.

A couple more sources I was shopping around at, but didn't buy from:
http://www.walkingandworkingsticks.c...ket-sticks.htm
http://www.thestickman.co.uk/horn.htm
http://www.shepherds-crook.co.uk/page/store
http://wilstonesticks.com/Shepherds-Crooks

Precisely right, Tobus. This is also where my cromach(s) come from and they are the finest I have ever owned. Tony Espley is truly an artist and a pleasure to do business with. I highly recommend his work.

Scottish Blackface Ramshorn cromach with a light coloured hazel shank, that has a lovely natural 'speckled' design, and brass ferrule. No collar where the crook meets the shank, since I particularly don't care for them.






Beech cromach with Scottish thistle design carved into the crook; dark hazel shank, and a brass ferrule.




An assortment of cromachs and walking/market sticks at my great-uncle's house in Kingussie, Inverness-shire, Scotland.


Fellow Macpherson cousins, William Macpherson of Seattle, Archie Macpherson of Dunkeld, and Sandy Macpherson of Edinburgh with their cromachs at the annual Clan Macpherson Gathering and Rally in Newtonmore, Inverness-shire, Scotland.




My Chief, Sir William Alan Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie, TD, and Sandy Macpherson with their beautiful cromachs.

[Benning Boy]

As OCRichard, I can find no precise definition of cromach, cromack, or cromak in Gaelic. The best is staff, stave or walking stick from http://en.glosbe.com/sco/en/.

Of the books I mentioned above, only Fossel specifically mentions a cromach, which he says is the Gaelic name for a crook.


Jones and George say basically a market stick is just a fancier version of a crook, being more for show than work. They say a working crook will ordinarily be about 52-inches long and a market stick 48. I find nothing, other than the brief remark above, that says a market stick handle is flat, compared to a cromach. If you examine on-line pictures of things specifically designated as market sticks the upper ends very greatly in design, from simple ones that might almost be useful for controlling sheep to the ornate, which are quite obviously useless for that.

I get the general impression that a cromach is something to be posed with more than anything else.


These threads should be revisited:


http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...75/index2.html


http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f103/cromach-35095/

Note this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD...&v=CV5mh4SbjWs