091 - Antler and blackthorn hiking stick
Maximum overall length 48 inches / 122 cm
I made this stick from a blackthorn stem with an attached piece of a side branch. It struck me that if I added a stag antler staff-type handle and retained a short hook on the top of the shank, the result would combine the attributes of two types of stick.
A short staff is fine for those strenuous country walks over varying terrain, but a market stick provides a tool that can be hooked around branches and roots to help you up a steep scramble, open gates (avoiding the usual muddy puddle), rescue your rucksack when it rolls into the river, clear brambles out of your path, or simply provide a means to hang your stick up out of the way when you reach the pub. With such a tool built into a short staff, we can have the best of both worlds.
The handle is designed to be grasped like this. The top of the hook helps to locate and support the hand.
The blackthorn shank has been stripped of bark and the knots sanded down to give a smooth surface. The antler handle has been left in its original sate, rather than applying my brass-filled resin technique. This leaves the natural ridges in the surface to provide a firm grip. The joint is made with a spacer consisting of two layers of black buffalo horn with a thin layer of brass-filled epoxy resin between them.
On the right is a close-up of the joint with the buffalo-horn-and-brass spacer.
The little thorn-knots are still quite distinctive despite the smooth surface. In time, the colour will darken quite a bit as the blackthorn wood weathers.
The image on the right shows one of a couple of places where the bark had split or been worn away while the wood was growing. Typically, the wood underneath turned a much darker colour as moisture penetrated the growing scar tissue. I filled these scars with clear epoxy resin to present a smooth surface. The dark colour is that of the wood underneath.
Note this does not adversely affect the strength of the stick - if anything the darker wood is harder than normal.
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