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.

How to make walking sticks inlay insert rocks, magnets adn crystals

Inlay cut stone or magnet in walking hiking sticks and staffs

Here is another inlay of a stone into a walking stick.  When making your own wood walking stick or hiking staff you can insert stones, crystals, magnets and add top handles will a few techniques. Are you learning how to make hiking sticks or staffs for Boy scouts? why settle for the ordinary hiking stick when you can make a unique personalized walking staff or stick by adding wire, rocks, rope, wood burning designs or staining.

It not hard to learn how to make unique walking sticks using simple instructions in the How to make unique walking and hikgin sticks by hand guides.

When collecting your walking stick wood look at the dimensions of the wood. The skinner the wood the harder it is to do things to it when making your hiking staff especially when carving walking sticks. The walking stick image with the inlayed  lagoona agate is approximately 2" x 3" in size. It tapers down to 1.5" inches. depending upon the wood selected you may need thicker wood. If you collect hardwood for your walking stick making project then it can be thinner. However, if you are working with pine, aspen, willow try to get ones that do not taper down to beyond .5" in diameter.

Making hiking sticks with magnets or compasses on the tops require the same though. Get the magnet or compass and then collect your wood to make a hiking stick or walking staff. guides to making walking staffs and hiking sticks out of wood using carving, wood burning, rope work, inlay objects, staining and other techniques is a great way to enjoy the hobby. Collecting hiking stick wood and then only to have it ruined makes for a frustrated hobbyist.  Just as in any hobby there are techniques and methods to working with the material and the surest way to prevent frustration with a new hobby is to get guidance. The inlayed stone above uses wood carving, staining and stone anchoring techniques. No the stone is not just glued to the wood (gluing stone to wood does not hold!). It uses simple techniques learning when making unique walking staffs and hiking sticks.