Cutting Walking Sticks, Questions

[Bugbear]

Hmmm, perhaps I am waiting way too long before I consider them dry. Jock told me to wait a year or two.

Mesquite grow very quickly, assuming they are watered, so it's not really a matter of waiting several generations to produce a stick.

It's probably better for the mesquite trees to cut them when the sap is up, don't know for the sticks, though.

[Bugbear]

Timber for ships and roofs used to be grown to the right shape and size in English woodland - it was very valuable.

My father's father was a barber, and one of the sidelines for most barbers was making walking sticks. They had a steamer out the back of the shop and would soften the materials so as to be able to shape the tops and straighten out unwanted bends.

One rather strange material used was cabbage stalks - presumably from plants used for seed, or which had 'bolted'. I have a vague recollection that they were imported from the Channel Islands.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

What were they using the cabbages for, Pleater?

[Old Hippie]

One rather strange material used was cabbage stalks - presumably from plants used for seed, or which had 'bolted'. I have a vague recollection that they were imported from the Channel Islands.

When I harvested a test plot of amaranth last fall, I cut a couple of the heavier stalks and put them in the woodshed to dry. Depending on what they turn out to be, I may make a stick out of one and see what happens. They were a beautiful red colour when I cut them, but that's gone to brown.

:ootd:

[Bugbear]

They were making walking sticks out of bolted cabbage? I never thought of that...

Anyway, I finnished cutting the first stick; taking all of the side branches off and sealing the ends.

It was a sour orange branch which is not the hardest wood in the world, but I have read that the Cubans sometimes use it for baseball bats.

[Pleater]

I checked - it was actually a form of giant cabbage - they were grown over a period of about a year - seeds planted in August and then the lower leaves were cut off as it grew, leaving a 'top knot'. The plant eventually grew several yards high.

Some were grown with the handle preformed by turning the plant pot on its side before planting out, so the shoot turned and grew at right angles to the root.

The process was labour intensive and the giant cabbage is now only seen in a few gardens - mostly for feeding to rabbits.

The plants would originally have been used as fodder for sheep - though it could also have gone to beef cattle - not to dairy as for most people cabbage flavoured milk is a novelty too far, I think.

The results, when the stalk had been dried and laquered looked a lot like bamboo, and my granddad used to bring the one he had out to puzzle people. I think it had been deliberately made to look as much like bamboo as possible, but the basic structure of a hollow tube with rings did lend itself to the error being made.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Lallans]

The process was labour intensive and the giant cabbage is now only seen in a few gardens - mostly for feeding to rabbits.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Were-rabbits, I assume? [This will be understood only by fans of Wallace and Grommit.]

[Bugbear]

I understand now, Pleater, thanks for explaining.

I don't grow any bamboo, but I do have a few Dracaena house plants growing in a jar of water.

I'll have to look around my property to see if there are any plants that might be used as sticks. Rosemary maybe? A young palm tree? A dried down branch of cacti, the spines removed of course?

I have used palm fronds and stems for all kinds of building materiels.

[piperdbh]

I'll have to look around my property to see if there are any plants that might be used as sticks. Rosemary maybe?

Do you know how long it would take to grow rosemary big enough to make a walking stick?

[Bugbear]

Do you know how long it would take to grow rosemary big enough to make a walking stick?

Ya, guess it would take a long time. I've grown some giant roesmaries though. Perhaps the top part of a walking stick.

[Bugbear]

All right, Pleater, I found a horticulture book at the library on Brassicas. I'll read up on cabbages and the like.

They also had a philosophy book on Led Zeppelin, surely there's something about cabbage in there.