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 custom hiking sticks and canes

Hand made hiking sticks and canes s a great project  for all ages. Boy scouts have been making sticks and earning badges fro many many years. They use their hiking sticks to show their abilities to carve, paint and work wood.  Medallions are added/inlay on to the walking sticks to show where people have traveled.

Making your own walking stick for extra point of stability while hiking provides a great way to spend time with young adults and even a life long hobby. .Many hiking stick makers create great custom hand carved and accented wood walking staffs for themselves and friends. Yes, you can buy a hiking stick but what is the fun in doing that when you can do it all starting with collecting the wood on your next hiking/camping trip?

When making a walking stick add you own special touches. Start with simple sticks and then start adding details and you learn new methods that are simple to do with the making walking and hiking stick guides.  No you do not need fancy tools and gadgets to make your own walking and hiking sticks. Just the wood, whittling knife and some time. Thousands of people make their own walking and hiking sticks from self collected wood - why not you?