how to carve walking sticks in progress

Here is a work in progress wood walking stick and hiking staff. Once you learn how to create great looking walking and hiking sticks most people start to carve.  It's great to learn how to make your own walking stick using staining,  rope working, wood burning images and other techniques to make great wood walking and hiking sticks staffs. However, when you start to learn how to carve them you gave the ability to bring all the techniques together to make truly make unique walking staffs, sticks and even wizard staffs.

The above image is in the stage of removing excess wood away from the actual images being carved.  You see part of the wood carved hiking sticks salmon and the rocks below.  Once the excess wood is removed the next process of carving the image details is started. On this project I will start carving the rocks on the river bed on this walking sticks. 

Once all the details are carved then wood will be prepaid for staining or painting. Learning the steps in how to make unique walking sticks but hand is important to prevent frustration with this hobby. How to make walking sticks and staffs guides is a great A to Z from collecting the wood, sanding, curing wood, staining, wood burning images, carving and much more.  Getting back to the above carving: I plan to use train modeling paint that works well on all types of  wood and comes in many many colors. I will not apply a clear coat first o the wood. I want the colors to run/mix together to give a more natural look on the salmon. Look for the finished wood salmon walking stick project images in the future to get more help with yourmakning walking and hiking sticks by hand yourself.

How to make walking stick and staffs handles to give a custom look

Walking making stick handle weave

Learning how to make complete walking sticks, hiking staffs and wizard staffs by hand just takes a bit of practice and help in learning the techniques. The image to the left is a weaved hand holding area of the walking stick or staff that serves as two uses.

First, wood is porous and the coatings you place on the wood (shellac or varnish) to protect the wood are damaged by hand oils and sweat. By placing a weave rope hand hold area it protects the wood from damage. Yes, the rope will over time collect the dirt and sweat. However, once you learn how to weave rope when you make a hiking stick or staff you will be able to make a new hiking stick or staff hand hold area quickly. Its part of the how to make walking sticks learning process as explained in the guides. It is easier to replace the rope than to sand down the wood, re-stain it to make the rest of the stick and re-coat with a clear shellac or varnish.

Second the rope can be used in emergencies if needed. If you use the correct type of rope as detailed int he how to make unique walking sticks and high staffs guides then you can unwind it and use it for emergency litter making, climbing and other 100 uses for rope in a survival situation. You never know when a piece of rope can save your life when in the woods hiking and camping. Store bought hiking sticks do not compare to the customizations you can do when making your own hiking stick.

How to make walking sticks, hiking staff or wizard staffs wood spirits carving

How to make your own walking stick wood spirit.

Hand carving your own walking stick, wizard staff or hiking staff jsut takes a bit of practice and patience for a beginner. the image to the left is starting to show the shape of the face. when designing your wood spirit face do not worry about if it looks just like the one you are trying to copy.  Many people who learn how to make your own walking sticks are in too big of a rush to go from not ever carving anything to right to hand caving a face or similar carving.
 
You need a bit of experience on simpler wood carvings and how to use wood carving techniques.  If you go straight to carving a walking stick wood spirit then expect to ruin some of your sticks collected or producing a less than satisfactory result. Learn the basics first including all aspect of how to hand make unique walking and hiking sticks.

  The wood spirit to the left is a simple design about 20% completed done an a piece of Aspen wood about 2.5" in diameter. 2.5:" diameter means you are working on a carving area about 1.5" wide. That is a very small area to put great details of a complete face. If you are just learning how to wood carve walking sticks keep the design simple at first. Remember, many of the images you see in books and on the web are faces that are several inches across don by master carvers.

Just think how easy is it to make a pencil drawing of a wood spirit. If you are not artistically include your pencil images are not that great. Now try doing it on wood. its easier to use a pencil than a wood carving tool. However, with the right training just able anyone can make a good looking walking stick wood spirit. Just the how to make great unique walking and hiking sticks staffs by hand guides for step by step easy to follow directions. Remember this is a hobby and even a possible a side income opportunity. Enjoy it and take your time to learn the how to make quality unique hiking sticks and wizdard staffs  by hand.

How to make Wood Carved walking sticks eagle

Carving a eagle head on your walking sticks can be as detail or simplistic as you desire. Do not get discourage if your eagle does not come out like you see to the left or in books. Start with a simple designed and as you learn how to wood carve you hiking sticks and walking staffs add details.  The walking stick eagle carving to the left is about 75% completed. it will receive some more details around the eyes and further back to give it a look of an slim lined eagle head as if its diving on to prey.

Some people get caught up into putting to much details in their carvings. Remember when learning how to make making your walking sticks, hiking staffs and Wizard staffs start simple and then build as you learn how to better carve wood. In fact, we do not recommend carving wood until you learn how to developer other skills including wood burning images, staining techniques to create shadows images, making your own tips, handles and other parts of your hiking sticks and staffs.

When this eagle wood carve hiking stick is completed it will have a two tones: natural wood color on the beak area and then a darker wood stain from the part on. Then I think beyond the eagle part the wood will be left natural . When you learn how to making your own walking and hiking sticks you will gain ideas and learn techniques to give you many different options on how to finish your hiking stick making project.

Walking sticks ad on how to make projects hiking sticks and canes

Recent review of website has yield a great number of add-on's to walking sticks. However the add-on usually very costly such as add a compass for $16 or a bell on the stick for $12. Bells are great to make bears know you are around but $12 for a small bell that costs $14 in a dollar store? So it has leather attached to it. If you are making your won walking sticks and hiking staffs you can give your wood hand made walkgin stick the custom add-on's for next to nothing.


Making your own walking sticks is a great hobby. Why spend a ton of money on simple walking stick making customization items when you can do it for 85% less?  Look at the previous inlay of a stone. Instead of a stone put in a compass!  When you create your ropes handle slide on a bell!  Learn how to make you own custom walking sick and staff tips for the bottom of your own hand made walking hiking stick or if you prefer rubber go to your local hardware store and look for chair/table leg floor protecting rubber ends. Why pay $5 to $10 for these when they cost less than $1 each?


Many people want a holistic walking stick so in-lay a magnet and use copper wire wrapping techniques explained in the how to make unique walking and hiking stick guides. Use the rope weaving techniques and attached a stone or beads to the handle of the walking stick.  Or better yet wood burn images images or make a wizard stick with wood burned symbols and inserted crystals. There are no limits to the customizations you can add when making walking and hiking sticks by your own hands.

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.

walkgin Stick Septor staff and wand making project

How to Make Magic Wand walking Stick septors

Earlier I posted the start of how to make walking sticks and magic wands with inlaid crystals. Here are four finished pre-shellac finished wands. Three of them have quartz crystals and one magic wnds has a tourmaline crystal (its a gem) securely inlaid on the ends using techniques described in the how to hand make wood walking sticks and staffs guides.

One of the most important steps is the method of securing the stones to the wood. Just gluing them doe not work. Its a simple process of wood carving, a bit of rock grinding, and other steps detained in how to make walking sticks guides. NO the wire does not hold in the crystals on the end magic wand.

In addition,. three wands have copper wire wrapping with the ends of the wires hidden from view.  The how to make walking sticks, hiking and wizard staffs goes through A to Z starting from how to collect walking sticks wood, sanding, staining, carving, stone inlay, wire wrapping and best f all wood carving great sticks.

The wood uses in the magic wand making project above is willow collected in Utah a couple years ago. The wood was too thin for a wood walking stick staff so I cut it into 5 pieces to make wizard magic wands for friends who are we into the Harry Potter movies and books. The magic wands with the large quartz crystal and the tourmaline (dark crystal) crystals were kept in my collection of walking sticks for reference for how to make walking sticks, wizard staffs rock inlays.

I added the complete project to the how to make wood walking sticks and staffs guides as a bonus project. this is the second project recently added but not advertised on the website. To do this walking stick making project you will need to know  how to wire wrap, a bit of simple wood carving, sanding, inlay stones, staining and  other techniques in walking stick and staff making. If you want to make wizard sticks the process and techniques are the same. In fact, the wands are miniature wizard staffs.