Rainbow eucalyptus Make walking stick

     Making a walking stick from exotic wood such as the rainbow eucalyptus collected after the hurricane.  Hopefully, the hurricanes are done for the year and new we can get back to our businesses, families and hobbies.  Presently, in SE Florida there are piles of broken trees, limbs and other wood waiting to be picked up. It could take months to pick everything up which means I have time to collect wood for walking stick making.

   South Florida is a place to find many exotic woods and plants for walking stick making not seen in any other part of the USA due to our Tropical climate.  One exotic species is rainbow eucalyptus with its multi-colored outer stick that sheds its outer skin in layers.  The leaves of the eucalyptus can be crushed to use as insect repellent or the wood pulped for paper.  The colorful out skin of the wood is only a few layers deep and its these layers that at shows green, browns, reds and other colors. Its a beautiful wood and I recommend to leave as much of the outer layer alone when making your hiking stick if you are lucky enough to get a hold of this exotic wood!

    I was able to collect about  6 branches. A couple of the branches are thicker than I would normally use but its an exotic wood so I will take what I can get.  Presently, the wood is curing before I work with to make some hiking staffs. I did spray them with a thin coat of clear shellac to help preserve the color and prevent any further skin peeling. You need to do a bit of research when collecting exotic wood for hiking stick making projects. The wood is very light but strong and carves well.

   I collected other wood too while walking my urban jungle. I hope you do not have a hurricane in your area but if you have a storm it may be a great time to collect wood for walking stick making.

Make walking stick update and hilking stick making ideas

Yes we are back up in Miami after the Hurricane. Walking stick making material has been abundant in the streets due to down trees. I collected may exotic tropical wood while helping friends and family clean up after the storm. last year we collected fall leaves in New York and this past few weeks prior tot he storm we made some walking and hiking sticks with the leaves.

 

Fall leaf project walking stick making- New way!

Making walking sticks is great hobby for all ages.  This fall leaf hiking stick making project is great for beginners. The leafs were collected then dried between paper for 6 months prior to working on walking stick making project.  The hiking staff stick wood was prep by taking off the bark on part of the stick and sanded smooth.  Look in the hiking stick making guides for more details on types of wood, wood preparation and additional projects.

Walking stick making fall project

We purchased a jar of Mod Podge and put a thin coat on the wood. Once it was dry we selected our leaves and used more Mod Podge to adhere them to the walking stick wood. We did not adhere the whole leaf at one time. We did half and once it was semi-attached we glued the rest to the walking stick making project.

 The leafs are brittle so you need to take care when gluing. Do not rush it or they will break. Next season we are going to try the project with fresh non-dried leaves to see if they retain the color better over time. 

Fall leaves will lose some of their color when dried. I already have two walking sticks ready to make with fresh leaves which we will collect in Northern Georgia next month. We will not let the leafs dry and we will see how it turns out in a couple months.

The image to the left shows the material I used to create this Fall walking stick.  This project, along with a previous fall leaf project (carving leave) with more images will be added to the walking stick making guides as a special bonus. 

This project would make a get scout hiking stick project. It does not require any special skills and you can even obtain fall leaves online on eBay if you do haev any in your area.  When collecting you leaves for this hiking stick making project remember to get plenty of small leaves. Most hiking sticks are 2" to 4" around so a large leaf will not look good.  Glue them on in sets of three.  Have a great end of summer@