Walking Stick Z - Part 2

Saplings stored in the rafters to dry.

I'm back from my travels and trying to get back on track.  A couple of blog posts ago I started to blog
about selecting a stick to use as a walking stick.  To recap, it is better to have a sapling than a branch, and it is better to have a hard wood than to use a soft wood such as pine.  I had a beautiful stick someone had gifted me made out of pine.  It broke and was glued back together twice.  When it broke the third time that was the end of it. Every time I let someone borrow that stick, it came back to me broken.  The wood was too soft to take the treatment it was given.

Note the crack on the stripped sapling.

My father had a friend that made walking sticks.   They had faces painted on them in a very primitive
style.  His other friends all thought they could make a better stick and set out to do so.  Every one of them failed.  When I said that I was going to start making walking sticks my father just told me not to even try.  I would never be able to do it.  I was really surprised.  He was usually not so negative about my creative endeavors.  The gist of the problem was that everyone of his friends that had tried to make a walking stick had a crack develop on the stick.  They really had no understanding of working with wood.  By not knowing the techniques of working with the material they kept running into the same problem.  To be fair, there was no internet at the time, libraries may or may not have had books that they needed, and if they did not know what information they were looking for, it was harder to figure out what was going wrong.  I did know the solution though and thus began my walking stick art.

The problem is that most people think that you just pick up a stick and start carving, painting, or wood burning.  That is incorrect.  Walking stick making is a craft that requires a lot of long term thinking and planning.  Long term in that if you want to make a walking stick today, you needed to start working on it three or four years ago.  Why?  Because freshly cut wood is green wood filled with sap.  If you cut down a sapling and strip the bark off of it right away, the sudden loss of moisture causes the sapling to crack.  Even after two years the ring underneath the outer bark can still be green and will crack when stripped.  Years after you have selected a sapling it has dried enough to be ready to carve.

But, first things first.  I use Locust saplings.  They are a hard wood.  As they dry and age they become dense and are very durable.  If you don't have Locust trees, choose another hardwood variety.  Choose saplings that are several years old and slightly taller than seven feet.  This will give you a thick stick that will support your weight (or won't break if you are using it as a fighting stick).  Cut it to a length of seven feet.  Then it is time to let it dry.

If you leave the bark on the saplings while they are drying, some cracks may develop at the each end.  By initially cutting the saplings longer than your finished length you have allowed for the cracks and can cut them off and still have a decently sized stick.  Here is another problem.  If you want to strip the bark off the sapling so that it is smooth and ready for carving or wood burning, it is easier to do it while the wood is green.  However, if you take the bark off while the sapling is green, the wood is likely to develop a long crack down a good percentage of the stick.  Precautions have to be taken to keep the stick from cracking.  As you strip the bark, wrap the stick in plastic wrap as you go along, leaving the ends slightly exposed.  Don't wait until you have completely stripped the stick to start wrapping.  It does not take long for a crack to develop.

If you leave the bark on the sapling while it is drying, it helps prevent cracks from developing especially in the middle of the stick, but it is the dickens to get the bark off once the sapling is dry.  I have sometimes resorted to power tools to grind off some of the more difficult spots.  It is a lot more work, but I think it is worth it if it helps preserve the stick.  If you don't want the extra work, I recommend the stripping and wrapping method.  I really suggest that you try both methods and find which method appeals to you most.

The saplings need to dry in a well ventilated place.  I dry my saplings in the rafters of our shed.  This barn has a lot of circulation so the saplings have air moving around them twenty-four hours a day.
After three or four years, they are ready for becoming my next walking stick project.

Even if a crack develops, it may not be the end of the world.  The walking stick may still be useable if the crack is only cosmetic rather than structural.  I have used copper wire or leather to wrap a stick to hide a small crack.  If all else fails, call it an art project and have fun decorating it or use it to practice your carving and wood burning skills, or cut it up and use it for kindling.  There are a lot of things that can be done with a stick.  Just ask any kid.

Check back Thursday for the next blog post.