Bob's Stickmaking Pages - Juniper and Willow Staff #066

066 - A willow staff with a freestyle juniper head, finished with yew capping, karanda wood spacer and brass resin inlay.

There is a story behind this stick.

Shortly after we moved into our present house back in 1970, I planted a little juniper plant ( Juniperus pfizeriana , for any gardeners out there) outside our kitchen window. The intention was that it would spread out and hide an unsightly drain inspection cover.

It was also right next to the place we kept our dustbin. Every week, the dustmen would trample over it and drop the dustbin lid on it. Soon it was just a couple of broken, twisted twigs.

Then its luck changed. The local council decreed that we now all had to put our dustbins out on the footpath for collection. The juniper started to recover.

Many years later, the inspection cover had completely disappeared under the spreading branches which were now obscuring the kitchen window, and it was becoming difficult to get into the back garden at all. The juniper was taking over. Something Had To Be Done.

Now you're not supposed to prune juniper. It doesn't like it, and it takes many years to regenerate. That's what the books say. But what the heck, this called for desperate measures. I pruned it carefully. It grew back again. I pruned it harder. It grew back again. I hacked small branches off it. It grew back again. Three years ago I cut some bigger bits off it and kept the pieces. Last year we had some block paving laid and the inspection cover replaced. This necessitated some more serious surgery. I kept the pieces.

Already, it's growing back again. The first cuttings are now ready to use for the odd stick handle or two.

So here is the first stick made using a piece of my home-grown juniper, all gnarly and knobbly and twisted. Fittingly, I used the juniper plant as the background for all these photos.

This is a long staff (60 inches/152.5cm overall). That's me holding it, by the way (having finally figured out how to use the self-timer). The kitchen window has all but disappeared behind the juniper again!

The head is made from a natural fork of the juniper wood. I restrained my initial impulse to carve this into a funny face because the shape of the wood had already done most of the work for me. Better, I thought, just to let the wood speak for itself. I did give it just a little help with a file here and there, but strictly no carving.
I topped it off with a complementary piece of yew, which again, I just filed into the rough shape of a fez or nightcap, following the grain of the wood and leaving it to the imagination to fill in the details.

The grain in this piece of juniper is quite mind-boggling, running every which way and full of whorls and wobbles.
Here you can see the right-hand side of the face with the eye and mouth provided by knots in the wood.

I used a piece of dark karanda wood as a spacer between the head and shank, then added the dogs-tooth decoration by inlaying brass-filled epoxy resin into the surface of the shank.

The shank itself is quite a remarkable piece of willow.
Immediately underneath the bark I found these strange patterns. This is rather like the effect one can obtain by sanding through different layers of the wood - but in this case, the work had already been done for me.
My guess is the willow was affected by some sort of pathology which affected the distribution of the various outer layers of wood beneath the bark.

The shank is of medium thickness, tapering from about 7/8 inch/23mm at the top to 11/16 inch/18mm at the bottom.
Willow is very light in weight and the stick is well-balanced. Contrary to popular belief, its strength and stiffness can equal that of hazel. However, there is no getting away from the fact that the surface of the wood is rather soft, and it will dent and mark quite easily. I have given this shank many coats of thin yacht varnish to toughen it up as much as possible, but this is not a stick for rough usage and it needs to be treated with respect.

Price:
50 GBP

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This is a long staff (60 inches/152.5cm overall). That's me holding it, by the way (having finally figured out how to use the self-timer). The kitchen window has all but disappeared behind the juniper again!
	The head is made from a natural fork of the juniper wood. I restrained my initial impulse to carve this into a funny face because the shape of the wood had already done most of the work for me. Better, I thought, just to let the wood speak for itself. I did give it just a little help with a file here and there, but strictly no carving. I topped it off with a complementary piece of yew, which again, I just filed into the rough shape of a fez or nightcap, following the grain of the wood and leaving it to the imagination to fill in the details.

	The grain in this piece of juniper is quite mind-boggling, running every which way and full of whorls and wobbles. Here you can see the right-hand side of the face with the eye and mouth provided by knots in the wood.
	I used a piece of dark karanda wood as a spacer between the head and shank, then added the dogs-tooth decoration by inlaying brass-filled epoxy resin into the surface of the shank.
The shank itself is quite a remarkable piece of willow. Immediately underneath the bark I found these strange patterns. This is rather like the effect one can obtain by sanding through different layers of the wood - but in this case, the work had already been done for me. My guess is the willow was affected by some sort of pathology which affected the distribution of the various outer layers of wood beneath the bark.
The shank is of medium thickness, tapering from about 7/8 inch/23mm at the top to 11/16 inch/18mm at the bottom. Willow is very light in weight and the stick is well-balanced. Contrary to popular belief, its strength and stiffness can equal that of hazel. However, there is no getting away from the fact that the surface of the wood is rather soft, and it will dent and mark quite easily. I have given this shank many coats of thin yacht varnish to toughen it up as much as possible, but this is not a stick for rough usage and it needs to be treated with respect. Price: 50 GBP