Quote Originally Posted by Streetcar View Post
I also picked up a blackthorn from Lollysmith about a week ago:
It's a sturdy stick - nice and knobby. It did have a few rough spikes I still had to cut off - real handshredders.
It's my understanding that the spike (thorns) are left on for a reason...the thorns are poisonous and if you got into a row with a hooligan or a highwayman, and he grabbed your stick, you could rip it out of his hands and it would do nearly as much damage to him (either shredding or poisoning) as if you'd hit him with the rootball end.

The guys that still harvest these sticks build up an immunity to the poison, but it's there...and that's one reason there are fewer and fewer every year.