Walking canes, and hiking staffs – Great Christmas gifts

I wrote of my stick making days here some three months back and no one should question that making a cane for someone, buying a hand made cane for someone, carries with it a sense of care and love for craftwork that goes beyond what might otherwise be an Asian import of standard equipment for steadying us into our older years. I wanted to pass on the way I made my first cane to you and others who might want to make a beautiful and personal gift in time to make them as Christmas presents for family members and those close to you. Today we are filming the whole process, but to get you started, these next couple of days I will be dedicating my blog to make a cane and some staffs that I designed and made and still make today from time to time. The process is quite simple and you might decide to take it further when you see that the whole process can be adapted to making them by machine if that’s what you want to do.

First of all I will show you how to make the most basic of canes using oak. This make a very stout cane that will be strong enough for any person and can be thinned down to more delicate proportions for a person of light stature. From there we will go to creating the twisted stem using the Auriou rasps I spoke of before somewhere.<br />
To begin your first walking cane you need only two pieces of wood; the shaft and the handle. These measure 7/8″