Cutting Walking Sticks, Questions

[llyd]

Speaking as a guy who owns a sawmill, and often cuts stranglewood saplings...leave the bark on, dip the cut ends in wax, put your branches up in top of the shed or something to dry for a few months...the bark wil transpire the moisture slowly from the wood, without checking in the grain,,the wax keeps the moisture from coming out of the cut ends, also causing checking..

[Tartan Hiker]

Speaking as a guy who owns a sawmill, and often cuts stranglewood saplings...leave the bark on, dip the cut ends in wax, put your branches up in top of the shed or something to dry for a few months...the bark wil transpire the moisture slowly from the wood, without checking in the grain,,the wax keeps the moisture from coming out of the cut ends, also causing checking..

***

[MacBean]

Those who built some of the Zen temples in Japan curved their wood on the tree, and sometimes over several generations to obtain exactly the 'natural' curves they wanted for porch pillars. I love the idea.

[Pleater]

Timber for ships and roofs used to be grown to the right shape and size in English woodland - it was very valuable.

My father's father was a barber, and one of the sidelines for most barbers was making walking sticks. They had a steamer out the back of the shop and would soften the materials so as to be able to shape the tops and straighten out unwanted bends.

One rather strange material used was cabbage stalks - presumably from plants used for seed, or which had 'bolted'. I have a vague recollection that they were imported from the Channel Islands.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Bugbear]

Timber for ships and roofs used to be grown to the right shape and size in English woodland - it was very valuable.

My father's father was a barber, and one of the sidelines for most barbers was making walking sticks. They had a steamer out the back of the shop and would soften the materials so as to be able to shape the tops and straighten out unwanted bends.

One rather strange material used was cabbage stalks - presumably from plants used for seed, or which had 'bolted'. I have a vague recollection that they were imported from the Channel Islands.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

What were they using the cabbages for, Pleater?

[Old Hippie]

One rather strange material used was cabbage stalks - presumably from plants used for seed, or which had 'bolted'. I have a vague recollection that they were imported from the Channel Islands.

When I harvested a test plot of amaranth last fall, I cut a couple of the heavier stalks and put them in the woodshed to dry. Depending on what they turn out to be, I may make a stick out of one and see what happens. They were a beautiful red colour when I cut them, but that's gone to brown.

:ootd:

[Lallans]

Shaping a living branch could work, but you would have to allow for the natural tendency of a tree to spring away from what it perceives as a heavy weight- I refer to the reason why it's necessary to brace a transplanted tree from more than one side. Take away the single support wire and boing! you find the tree leaning away from that point. So, I imagine that working with the tree in the way you propose will require some experimenting.

[piperdbh]

I tied some gum saplings into crooks, but then sold the house (and yard where they were growing) so now that's over.

I've never sealed any walking sticks, since i don;t care wheteher they crack or not. I do like to cut them in the spring or summer when the sap's up, since i think the stick stays springier after it dries. I don't know if that's true; I just think it is.