Despite this, it has a very neat appearance and the whole length of the shank is covered in a series of bas-relief carvings of animals engaged in various activities.
The comfortably-sized knob is the natural root-ball from which the stem grew. There were a few worm-holes around the top of the stick, but nothing serious and the occupants were long gone, so I just sealed them with epoxy resin.
The carvings depict: an eagle(?) catching a fish (carp?); a monkey catching a fly (or some flying insect), while another monkey below looks on; two rats; and, finally, a bat in flight.
Put them all together and what have we got? I don't know, but it seems to illustrate a story of some kind.
There was no ferrule on the tip, which had taken some wear as a result. I filled the bottom few inches of the hollow cane with resin, adding further strength and allowing me to make and fit a tip of smoky slate-grey buffalo horn. This is secured with a length of threaded stainless steed rod running right to the bottom. This will protect the horn from excessive wear and should last for many years.
I very carefully scraped down the surface of the bamboo between the carvings and re-finished the whole thing with linseed oil. This readily polished up to a fine gloss finish and really perked-up the stick's appearance.
Meanwhile, I had a customer waiting, so this one bypasses the "For Sale" page!
SOLD