Walking canes

[wyldathart]

Usually cromachs are made with the head shaped from a ram's horn, which requires boiling the horn and some other techniques unknown to me; but there are cromach's that are made entirely from wood, and I believe that these are often made by digging up a portion of the root and carving it into the head of the stick. There are also very simple ones made by bending the branch using heat and steam. Stick carving is an artform unto itself, and there are competitions in stick-making throughout the U.K.

I've used that method myself, I've found that maple is the easiest to carve from the root. I've used a steam box before but never on a walking stick. As far as horn goes, think of anything that makes your own fingernails soft. It's the same material but thicker and denser.
I have many folks around me that have herds of goats, I'm thinking of inquiring about procuring some goat horn for my own cromache. I don't how well it'll turn out but it might be fun to try

[piperdbh]

About bending saplings into curves...
That's a technique used by some rustic furniture makers, and probably used by a few walking-stick producers, as well. For furniture, where wide curves would be used, a sapling would be bent into the desired arc or curve, then tied so as to hold that shape. It would usually hold its shape after a year or two's growth.
Walking canes would need a much tighter arc, and so younger saplings would have to be used. That might be more trouble than it would be worth. That's probably why some enightened soul affixed a horn to the end of his cromach, then someone else saw it and said, "Why didn't I think of that?" and someone else started whittling to pass the time and now people charge several dollars/pounds/drachmas to produce works of art.

[Jock Scot]

A couple of pictures of my cromach that has been in almost daily use for nearly 50 years. It is about a foot shorter than when it started life due to wear and tear.

[gilmore]

delete

[thescot]

Oh, Jock. That is a glorious cromach! I have one that is all wood, but I don't have a photo available. I must correct that and post it.

It was carved by a fellow I met who--years ago--lived around Alpharietta, Georgia, near here, and I bought t from him at a very reasonable price, but I don't know where he may have gotten off to.

[wyldathart]

Well after some searching on my property and some treasure hunting, I've come up with the components for a nice Cromach. First I located an appropriate hickory sapling that was the right diameter and had nice straight stem. Then I found a whitetail antler castoff that I had stumbled across some weeks ago while burning off the tall grass around my property. It has a nice curve and decent thickness at the tip that I think I can carve a hook in the end. Once I start I'll post picks of ma progress