Walking Staff

[BBNC]

Where can I get a Scottish walking staff? I have several walking sticks but they are normal cane height.

[Chas]

I would be very surprised, if you could not get one at a Highland Games. An email to all the organisers of Games in your State, asking if any vendors are going might help.

[Calgacus]

Such a stick is known as a 'cromach' and if you Google it you might find vendors. otherwise, a Highland Games is a good bet.

[Mikilt]

How about this?

http://www.brazos-walking-sticks.com...walking-stick/

[McMurdo]

I see you are in Western North Carolina, have you been to the Scottish Tartan Museum in Franklin NC? The last time I was there they did have some. Below is the website for the museum.

http://www.scottishtartans.org/

[Nathan]

You can also send a PM to our own ThomasH as he makes very fine cromachs and is a registered hobbyist here at xmarks. Check out this thread.
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...76#post1226476

[BBNC]

I see you are in Western North Carolina, have you been to the Scottish Tartan Museum in Franklin NC? The last time I was there they did have some. Below is the website for the museum.

http://www.scottishtartans.org/

Now why didn't I think of that...I'll give Ronan a call. They're only about an hour and half away.

[Panache]

Where can I get a Scottish walking staff? I have several walking sticks but they are normal cane height.

If you don't have a local shop nearby and if you have some basic woodworking tools it isn't difficult to make your own market stick or cromach. Just go down to your local discount sporting goods store and the odds are that they sell inexpensive hardwood walking sticks that are not only the right height, but also finished and probably have a metal spike / ferrule as well as a rubber tip for under $20.

Then all you need to do is fashion a crook head like this and attached it.





All in all, my market stick came to about $25 in materials and an afternoon's time to fashion, stain, and attach the crook head.

One thing about the staffs with a separate (decorative) head is that they are going to be a lot more delicate than a cromach made of one piece of wood. (Case in point: my lovely Flame-Haired Celtic Amazon Goddess and my son were "helping" me unload the car one day and managed between the two of them to hurl my market stick to the sidewalk where the original head shattered. )

I made a new head for the original stick and gave it to my wife and using a new sporting goods store walking stick managed to reuse the top part of the crook to fashion a new market stick. In general I use it only for highland games





For actual hiking I prefer my one-piece ash wood cromach I bought at William Glen and Son in San Francisco because it is sturdier and I am not worried about damaging it




And it works for the Games as well



There is something nice about using something you made (not to mention saving a significant deal of $$$$$)

Cheers

Jamie

[Benning Boy]

I make my own. The authoritative book on the subject is Stickmaking Handbook, by Andrew Jones and Clive George. They explain how to make one with a wooden crook that won't break. Those made with sawn crooks are inherently weak -- thinking of ring porous hardwoods, although elm doesn't like to break so much. Also checkout Walking Sticks by Edward Hart and Walking and Working Sticks by Theo Fossel.


When walking through the woods, use you imagination, learn to look at the way the trees and bushes grow. Walking sticks tend to grow upside done, with the best part for the top of the stick being low, and the main portion of the stick growing upward. Your material needn't be perfectly straight. Gentle curves in a stick can be straightened. Sharp bends have to be worked around. Many woods can easily be curved into a full crook.

Here is another place to by shepherds crooks.

http://www.walking-canes.net/hickory...dsstaff59.aspx

I haven't looked today, but a few nights ago I did a search to see if hazel wood crooks might be available, and sure enough found several places. My hazel stick got chewed up by the dog. Hickory is heavy. Hazel fairly light in comparison.

A different kind of shepherds stick is called a cleek. You might search using that word.

Almost forgot this one: http://www.highlandhorn.com/

[MacKenzie]

When walking through the woods, use you imagination, learn to look at the way the trees and bushes grow. Walking sticks tend to grow upside done, with the best part for the top of the stick being low, and the main portion of the stick growing upward. Your material needn't be perfectly straight.

I'm always on the lookout for a good stick. Once the candidate is harvested I leave it outside, bark on, for six months to a year. Once I think it's ready I shave the bark and generally smooth it up. A couple of weeks after it gets two coats of flat polyurethane and it's done.

In the picture: The one on the left is maple. It’s 42” and weighs 13 oz. It's been with me seven or eight years. Browsing around here it became apparent that a "staff" was a basic kilt accoutrement. I knew I didn't want a hook/crook so I fashioned the one on the right out of elm. Its 52” and weighs 19 oz.