This is a willow stick collected in a manner to create an unusual shape at top. Willow is great to collect and make into walking sticks do to their tendency to grow great long straight branches.

You will notice that I cut the hiking stick above the "Y" of the branch. This was done to give me several options in finishing the stick. The bend makes a great place to carve an eagle head and the twig can be tail feathers. Another option is to use the twigg as an elephants' long trunk in a carving. In addition, I can use the curve as a mount for a brass hand.

The point is that when you self collect walking sticks look at the branches in various ways to get an idea of what to create. You can use rope to weave patterns on the stick (great way to store energency line), use a wood burning tool to draw an image on the walking stick and even carve teh wood walking sticks.

Have a great week!

The flanboyant limbs collected last week were completely striped. The wood if fibrous and it will need some extra time when sanded. After a week the wood is still heavy so I expect it to take 4..5 weeks to cure (dry out) before working on the limbs. In the meantime I started to work on the Willow walking sticks and aspens hiking staffs again.

I failed to stripe the willows right away so the bark/skin would not come off easily. I ended up soaking the limbs in my pool for two days to soften up the bark. What a difference. The water soaking works and the bark was off the two stick within 45 minutes.

Trick: Soaking wood already dried is a great way to software the wood to get bark off. If you have a pool test a portion of the limb fist the make sure the chemicals cause no harm. Then just drop them in and wait 1..2 days. The other method is using a tub to float the sticks. The wood ends need time to soak up the wood and saturate the bark to make it soft. There are many other tricks that make you life easier when making hiking sticks and walking staffs.

Back to the hiking sticks. I plan to use the willow as a wood burning hiking stick project. I believe I will wood burn willow leaves onto the staffs upper portion and then inlay a stone at the base of each leaf on the walking stick. I believe in true inlay where the end item is almost flush with the surface of the wood instead of sticking out of the wood as I've seen on some commercial sticks. When they are flush they are less likely to fall out of the stick.

Any way. If you have any photos of stick you make please fell free to add them to this blog.

Have a great weekend.

I just finished a walk/jog with my dog and I came across a pile of tree trimmings a few blocks away.

In south Florida trees are trimmed just about all year around due to our climate. I usually see ficus, oak, palms, umbrella trees, fruit, citrus and other tropicaltrees. However, this time I noticed something different.

We are home to some great tropical trees. Many of the popular tropicals were once imported from the caribbean and Central America. Some are great for stick making and others due very poor. One tree that has always been hard to collect because nobody wants to trim them areflanboyant rees. These are fantastic very large canopy trees that put on a show every year with thousands of 4" red flowers. The bigger they are the more brilliant the bloom.

We have sections of streets, many blocks long covered, with these trees and people from all around the world spending good money to take tours to see Flamboyants with they are in full bloom.

Anyway, this is the first time I saw trimmings form the Flamboyant tree with lengths of limbs in the right shape that would be great for walking sick, hiking staffs and even even wizard staffs.

I have never work this wood for hiking sticks yet. Now I will get a chance to see if it works well and proved great material for making a walking stick. I collected 2 limbs about 13 feet long (two trips). Tomorrow I will go back from some more if the pile is still there.

The first image is of the tree in bloom (yes they are blooming now). The tree in the image is just a young one about 30 feet high and a canopy of about 50 feet round. It is not the one that was trimmed. The one that was trimmed was about the same height but three times the size around (still not full grow) and the limbs I plan to use for a walking stick ranged 11' to 15' feet long with a 1" to 3" girth (thickness of the limb).

I plan to strip of the bark and start to let them cure tomorrow. I will let you know how it turns out!

Aspens are Great

Wow, I just started to create a unique hiking sticks from the Aspens collected last month in Colorado. This is the second time I work on this type of wood. The color of the wood is white with some yellow and light brown streaks. It is used by carvers and turners.

I actuall y stripped the aspen before I left Colorado and place the sticks in a fishing pole bag for transport home (checked-in luggage). I forgot my ski bag so I was limited to collecting one 9 walking sticks wood while on my trips (5 Aspen, 3 Willows and one Fir)

While in Steamboat I picked up a turned vase about 20" in height and 8" round with an area that had area with a dressed look along one side. After looking at the vase I decided to search the area for saplings (I took a 7 mile hike). The saplings were dense in the 8,000 to 9,000 feet range. there were some higher stands too.

I collected 5 saplings of various lengths. Most were straight but I was able to collect a couple snow pressed ones where the root ball will make a great handle.

The current stick of Aspen has a natural "Y" as the top. I plain to wood burn on the walking staff image. Afterwards to make it a trail walking sticks I will put a brass collar and spike on the bottom. I usually use metal for collars/spike for trail sticks and rubber for one used to walk on pavement. I create the spike it using a copper or brass brass end cap that fits the diameter of the end of the stick. Then I use shaped bolt to create the spike for the walking stick.

Then I use a electric grinder to shape the bolt into a point. I use two or three pins to connect the end cap to the stick (sometimes I harden the wood first). This is a great way to make custom walking stick ends.

I will post the final stick once completed.