Bob's Stickmaking Pages

116 - A rustic one-piece ash walking stick tipped with buffalo horn. The L-shaped handle is formed from the rootstock. Slim but strong, and full of character.

Maximum overall length approx. 34" / 86cm

Diameter of shank 1" / 25mm, tapering down to 5/8" / 16mm.

This gnarly old piece of ash came to light when a fellow stickmaker was clearing out his shed. He was about to discard it because the bark was all crusty and split, and it was a bit too short to make a regular-sized stick. I straightened it up and scraped off all the loose bark, leaving an attractive patchwork of sound under-bark and bare wood. I lengthened the shank with a 2.5" long buffalo horn tip, which adds a touch of class to the stick.

The rootstock that forms the handle is very hard and smooth, more like boxwood than normal ash. The knobbles fit the hand nicely, providing a very comfortable grip in either hand.

There are a few old wormholes here and there, but the occupants have long since moved on and the wood is good and solid.

To make quite sure of this, I gave the stick a good soaking with a woodworm and rot treatment. Next I ran wood hardener (a kind of volatile resin) into all the holes until no more would soak in. If there was any unseen internal damage, this would have consolidated any soft areas into a rock-hard composite. Then I plugged the holes with epoxy resin.

  

     
Towards the bottom end, the exposed wood is a very pale colour (and looks even paler in these flash pictures) but this will mellow over time. The horn tip is firmly fixed with a stainless steel rod through the centre. This will also help to protect the horn from wear or damage.

(Actually the steel rod is somewhat off-centre, but if you want perfection you'll need an engineer, not a stickmaker!)

SOLD

Return to One-Piece Sticks page

Return to Sticks For Sale page