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| 107 - A Derby walker stick with spalted beech handle and partially-stripped and stained ash shank. Maximum overall length 40.5" / 103cm. |
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| This is a very sturdy stick, made to offer plenty of support. The big chunky
Derby, a traditional variant of the t-handle, was fashioned from a nice piece
of spalted beech. Despite giving it a good soaking in wood hardener, much of the shaping
had to be done using coarse abrasive paper; the erratic texture made it almost
impossible to use just about any other tool. Rasps, files, carving chisels and
knives, planes, scrapers - it wasn't happy with any of them! The shape of the handle makes it extremely comfortable in either hand and places the user's weight directly over the shank. | |||
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| The spacer between handle and shank is made from a good black piece of ebony. As often happens, this reached me by a circuitous route. I needed a small piece of ebony to effect a repair to an antique ebony stick (still awaiting restoration at the time of writing - it's not #C027, but has a rather similar shank). Eventually I made contact with a chap who restores antique furniture. He had acquired a job lot of ebony and rosewood blanks originally intended for making mandolin fingerboards, and had been meaning to use them to use them as super-de-luxe flooring. This unusual project never took off, so he was happy to let me have a piece. A fragment broke off one end in transit, so I ended up using this to make my spacer. |
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| The most obvious effect of the spalting can be seen in the black strands meandering through the wood. But the rest of the normally rather bland beech wood is also alive with splashes of colour. |
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| I selected a good strong ash shank and gave it my favourite treatment;
partially stripping off the dull grey bark, then applying a dark stain. The
stain interacts differently with each of the exposed layers, producing an
interesting "patchwork" effect. Altogether, this is a very attractive and unusual stick. | |||
| SOLD | |||
