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?

How to collet walking stick making wood Make hiking stick

Do you plan to make your own walking stick from self-collected wood? Before you start your walking stick project you need to collect the wood. First determine the correct size of the stick you need before collecting wood from a forest for a neighbors tree cuttings.

We recommend that you collect the wood for your hiking stick making project longer than what you need by about 12” if possible. This gives you the ability to cut off bad ends or to adjust the height before you add the ferrules.

First, look for fallen wood or wood  cut form the trees.  Check to see if the wood is stiff and will support your weight. Do not collected wood that is protected or in a place where it is not permitted.  If you are in a desert look for fallen cactus with hard skeletons that make great walking and hiking stick making projects.  In the forest, know you wood because some wood is very difficult to carve if you plan to cave on your hiking or walking stick.

The how to make walking stick making guides is a great resource on what type of wood to collect, how to get the right length, how to carve your waling stick, how to add  weave para-cord onto your walking stick and other aspects of walking stick and hiking stick making.

 If you are taking wood that is alive from a tree or a sapling for your walking stick making project try to get it from an area that is overgrown with the same type of tree. Do not collect rare or protected trees even if not in a nation forest. If possible, when collecting a sapling try to leave a portion of the sample intact so it can regrow.   

How to prepare a freshly cut wood for walkin stick making

There are several tricks to keep a freshly cut wood limb for your hiking and walking stick making project. Depending upon the wood collected for your hiking staff you will either need to strip the bark off right away or leave it on to give a more rustic walking stick. If you are collecting a willow, aspen or similar thin bark wood branch we suggest that you strip to bark right away when the wood is still damp to prevent hassles in the future. When you strip the bark off the wood leave about 2 inches on the ends intact to help prevent the wood from cracking during the curing process.

    If you are collecting pine or fir for your hiking stick project then most likely you will leave the bark on the limb.  One way to prevent pines and firs from splitting is soaking the end in a wood glue solutions. As glue solutions dries it helps to cement the wood together and prevent the cracks as the wood dries. When you make a walking stick or hiking staff you need to let the wood cure before making you hiking stick. the amount of time it takes to cure the wood is different for different types and harnesses of woad collected to carve walking sticks.

One of the more interesting woods I recent used to make walking sticks is Malaluca .  In south Florida
Malaluca trees were introduced over 80 years ago as a way to drain the wetlands so people. South Florida  use to be on big swamp full of nasty critters and bugs. Along came the Europeans who brought with them Malaluca. The Malaluca trees soon because a good idea gone a muck! The tree started to take over everything and soon was considered something to destroy at all costs. Anyway, there are many areas of eucalyptus  trees and saplings ripe for walking stick making and hiking staff carving.  

The Malaluca saplings make great walking sticks and are easy to work. Plus, if you get the plants from South Florida you are doing the area a favor! The only hard part is peeling the paper like bark off the wood before carving. If you plan to wood carver walking sticks using the wood you need to wear a mask or haev very good wood carving air filtration system. The wood can cause irritation! 

If you pull a sapling to make you walking stick take some of the roots ball. Strip the roots and polish them to make interesting shapes for you hiking staff or stick making project. Its better to get a young tree or sapling for the walking stick project.  if you have an usual wood for your hiking stick making project or wood carving project let us know. If you want to trade wood let us know and we will post the request. Yes, we I will trade local hikgin stick making wood for wood from other areas. Let me know!

Basic how to make hiking walking sticks and canes

Basic wood carving and tools

Many experience woodcarvers work with almost any wood beginners should start with softer woods such as basswood, balsa, aspen and pine. Don’t start with hard woods such as walnut, cherry, mahogany and oak until you have a few detailed projects completed.  When selecting wood consider the grain of the wood and the direction of the grain which adds appeal to projects.

Carving Instruments

You can spend thousands of dollars on wood carving tools to make on hiking stick . However to start out a few basic stick carving tool will handle beginning to moderate experienced stick carving workers. The primary tools consist of very sharp knives of various sizes and metal angles. Many people use utility types knives and they never go beyond these tools. They consist of a couple handle that hold very sharp thin disposable blades.  

Project Ideas

     Beginner wood carving walking sticks consist of geometric designs on wood. Then as you gain experience in how wood works progress to simple eagle heads and then wood spirits. Do not go directly to wood spirits.  Try a few simple designs an extra wood before attempting more detailed your walking sticks projects to prevent mistakes that can destroy a good hiking staff. Remember to start simple.

Preserving the Finished Project

Preserving your walking stick is as simple as rubbing on some stain onto the wood and then coating with shellac. We recommend at least three coats of shellac on your walking stick project.