051 - I think you'll agree this thumbstick is really something rather special.
Some while back, a gamekeeper friend showed me a munjac deer's skull that he'd found in the woods. "I don't suppose this would be any good to you?" he said. "Hmm...thanks, Dave, I'll take it and have a good long think about it", I said. That was six months ago and it's been sitting on my workbench ever since.
I toyed with the idea of leaving the stubby little antlers attached to the skull and mounting all or part of it on a big staff, but really wanted to do something more practical and elegant with it. Eventually I decided to cut the antlers off and use them as the "fingers" of a thumbstick.
I mounted them on a block of
burr elm using steel rods and fashioned the whole thing into a thumbstick head.
I selected a long, slim, straight willow shank and stripped off the bark to reveal the satin-like pale cream and buff wood underneath.
The head was married to the shank via a narrow spacer made from green-black-green layers of recycled plastic. (I have no qualms about using modern materials where this is appropriate. There's plenty of junk plastic lying around and putting it to good use seems a suitably "green" thing to do.)
This stick is very light, elegant, well balanced and comfortable in either hand. But it's not the most robust stick I've made; it's definitely one to keep for "Sunday best" and treat with care and respect. Not for chucking in the back of the Landrover with all the junk , nor for clearing a way through an overgrown footpath, but nonetheless something to be used as well as admired.
I'm reluctant to part with it because it's a potential show-winner, and anyway I'm rather attached to it. However, it's now been...
SOLD