Traditional Blackthorn Sticks

**Downunder Kilt** · 1st February 12, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by Panache

I have a number of walking sticks and my blackthorn is my very favorite

I was lucky to come across a nice thick one, apparently they are getting harder to come by.

Cheers

Jamie

As far as I am concerned, your stick Jamie, has the most perfect dimensions for a blackthorn walking stick that I have ever seen. How does in feel in the hand? Too many that you see on various vendor sites appear too spindly to me.

**Panache** · 2nd February 12, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by Downunder Kilt

As far as I am concerned, your stick Jamie, has the most perfect dimensions for a blackthorn walking stick that I have ever seen. How does in feel in the hand? Too many that you see on various vendor sites appear too spindly to me.

I have some 20 odd walking sticks and staves. This one has just the right feel in my hand, neither too big or too small. It has a lovely substantial feel to it.
I have a long "birding" staff I made myself for serious hiking and a nice ash cromach I bought for highland games (I like the looks of the thinner cromachs with highland dress but they just aren't sturdy enough for my tastes on the trail). However for just out and about my blackthorn is my go to stick.

Cheers

Jamie

**dutchy kilted** · 2nd February 12, 11:13 AM

I can't afford a real blackthorn stick, but I got a poly one made by Cold Steel that looks good (from a distance). It is very substantial and you can usually find one on eBay for about $40 US. It looks good with a kilt, too.

**Brasilikilt** · 2nd February 12, 12:30 PM

I bought a Blackthorn stick at the local Irish shop...It's a nice stick for sure, but those of you who are real "stick junkies' would do well to get a copy of John Hurley's 'Shillelagh Makers Handbook"
It's well written and shows you step by step how to make your own sticks. I'm sure that there are maybe a few of you who are responding to this thread while mere yards away from where you sit, there's a lovely sapling just waiting to be cut, oiled and dried in the chimney.

**Dale Seago** · 2nd February 12, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by dutchy kilted

I can't afford a real blackthorn stick, but I got a poly one made by Cold Steel that looks good (from a distance). It is very substantial and you can usually find one on eBay for about $40 US. It looks good with a kilt, too.

I have one of those. Pretty much indestructible; only thing I really dislike is that the brown on the "root knob" part is just a microthin veneer that cracks and chips easily.

I once took one on a plane with me, from San Francisco to Houston, Texas and back teaching a martial art seminar. Not only got right on the plane with it, but also walked from end to end of each airport with it carried on my shoulder like a war-club. No one ever commented at all -- it is, after all, a medical assistive device.

Been jonesing for a real one, though. Liam tells me it should be here from Ireland in about a week.

**Lime** · 2nd February 12, 01:17 PM

This was my grandfather's (my little brother got my great-grandfather's having also inherited his height!)

**True Blue** · 2nd February 12, 01:19 PM

Years ago I bought one while traveling in Ireland with a group of friends. We took a taxi home from the airport. Since we had to squish into the taxi to fit all of us, I placed the Blackthorn in the truck with the luggage. The taxi driver picked it up and asked me what it was. Before I could reply my friend BadKen answered: "It's the ancestral war club of his people, it's used to beat people to death".

The driver kind of goggled at me, put it back slamming the trunk shut and jumped behind the wheel quicker then I ever seen anyone move.

And that's why we call him BadKen.....

**Foxgun Tom** · 2nd February 12, 03:38 PM

I've been making sticks for over 40 years now with all manner of woods, blackthorn, hazel, sycamore, beech, holly etc: At this time of the year when there's hard frost I'm out checking the hedgerows for for suitable shafts! I've been looking at a couple of sights over the last two season's where there's a good covering of Blackthorn and there's few nice shafts to be harvested over the next week or so ! I then leave them in my garden shed to dry out and season while turning them and bending them over my knee to ensure straightness!! Here's some of my personal collection in different woods eg: