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.