Bobs Stickmaking Pages - A market stick with decorated ram's horn handle and a hand-rounded shank of mahogany-type wood #093


	093 - A stout market stick with decorated ram's horn handle and a hand-rounded shank of reclaimed mahogany-type wood.
This is the latest in a series of sticks I was commissioned to make for a collector in the USA. The specification called for a sturdy stick with a nose-out ram's horn handle and a smooth shank in a dark wood. The customer sent me a couple of items to be resin-embedded in the neck of the handle, a gold cross and a military badge, representing his mother and father respectively.

	I thought it might be interesting to make an angled joint between the handle and the spacer, combined with a straight joint between spacer and shank. I used a nice piece of burr elm for the main part of the spacer; below this is a piece of black acrylic and above is a thicker piece of white opal acrylic (both recaimed materials), which goes well with the translucent horn. The joints are embellished with brass resin filler. The shank was worked by hand from a piece of reclaimed mahogany-type wood.
	The cross and badge are mounted one above the other in a single piece of resin embedding work. An awkard little surface blemish was scooped out and replaced with a little charm in the shape of a flying dove.
	I ran into problems with a long narrow blood blister deep inside the horn, but some serious excavation, re-pressing and resin filling made it a bit more acceptable. Most horns have some imperfections like this and the stickmaker has to use his ingenuity to disguise them if they can't be removed altogether.
Sold (a commissioned work)

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