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.