Collecting wood for walking stick making - it's time

It's been a busy season and the northern states have been hit hard. I looks like the worst is over and it is time to go out and collect wood for walking stick making.  The heavy snow has given you the opportunity to collect a variety of wood for walking stick carving due to snapped limbs. When collecting wood for your hiking stick making project make sure you have permission from the land owners and know your local laws. Some trees are protected including limbs that may have been broken due to heavy snow or ice.

It's always best to collect wood when it has recently fallen for your walking stick project because the rotting process have not started. Collect wood now to make walking sticks in the fall. Do not start standing or carving the wood when ti is green. You need to give the walking stick wood time to cure (release water) which can take several months. We recommend to collect wood now and remove the bark when the wood is still green.  Willow, aspen and similar wood is a easy peel job to remove the skin/bark while the limb is green.  Once it start drying it's much harder.  No you do not have to peel the bark now if you pan to leave most of the stick in it's natural state.

When collecting wood to make your hiking stick or walking staff think about the end result; are you planning to carve the wood, wood burn images or other?  Look at the shape of the limb and see if it interesting or has a natural area for carving. Many people collect saplings and use the root ball in the walking stick design. We usually use limbs only because it does not destroy the whole tree. However, some types of trees are fast growers and if there is an over abundance of a tree type in an area thinning do wonders to allow light in for other saplings.

How to make walking stick from unusual wood an material

Living in South Florida gives us the ability to make walking sticks and hiking canes using unusual tropical woods and unusual material. In south east Florida you an not go anywhere without see hundred of  palm trees of all different types. The palm wood is very soft and its not a candidate for making making sticks. However, the palm fronds are a different matter.

I have experimented with different large fronds form queen, silver and king palm trees. The one that seem the best suited fro walking stick making is the queen frond whihc gets over 8 feet long.  The fronds are not as frond as say maple or birch to make a custom hiking stick but they are great for short cane walking sticks.  You need to start with a large frond over 8 feet long and use the thick first 4..5 feet.

Once you select the frond to make your hiking stick strip all the leaves off. Then let the frond complete dry out before working it. the frond makes a very unusual walking stick and its a bit pliable when in use. I highly recommend that you put 3 to 4 coats of shellac on the frond before your self made walking using.

Yes the palm frond wood can be carved but make sure you have very shape knifes becasue its stringy.  it's not recommend that you make a hiking staff using the palm frond.  Its best for a short walking stick used in the woods.