Walking Staff

[McMurdo]

You never know what you'll find at a local highland games. I picked up mine at the Fergus Highland Games for a really great price.

[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/

[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.

[BBNC]

Thanks for all the wonderful and creative ideas. I'm leaning towards a straight, natural hazel staff, possibly with a straight, or forked thumb-style antler top. Right now I use a natural blackthorn Irish walking stick, but as mentioned, it is only cane height.

[KSmedic]

Thanks for all the wonderful and creative ideas. I'm leaning towards a straight, natural hazel staff, possibly with a straight, or forked thumb-style antler top. Right now I use a natural blackthorn Irish walking stick, but as mentioned, it is only cane height.

My stick is a straight staff, made of cedar and heavily polyurethaned. I believe I paid a whole $30 for it at the Ren Fest. It's got a rubber cane/crutch tip, not brass, and is roughly cheekbone height with a leather grip area at about chest level. I bought it at a time I was under the influence of Colin Fletcher's "Complete Walker" books (Absolutely worth the read if you like to go walkies in unpaved places.), so I was looking more for a third leg than anything else. Were I to make the purchase today, I'd probably opt for a crooked stick, primarily because it assists in the management of unruly children. I say that if you find a stick you like, go for it, and don't argue with results.

[Benning Boy]

That reminds me, a beautiful stick can be made of eastern red cedar, but it takes a lot of work. Start with a stave somewhat larger than the diameter of your desired walking stick, then carefully cut away the white sapwood, using a scraper as you get closer to the heartwood, and you'll windup with a beautiful reddish-purple stick that can be nicely finished. Cedar isn't real strong, stronger in compression than tension, but strong enough for a hiking stick. Top it with a cast resin crook, it would be gorgeous.

[KSmedic]

That reminds me, a beautiful stick can be made of eastern red cedar, but it takes a lot of work. Start with a stave somewhat larger than the diameter of your desired walking stick, then carefully cut away the white sapwood, using a scraper as you get closer to the heartwood, and you'll windup with a beautiful reddish-purple stick that can be nicely finished. Cedar isn't real strong, stronger in compression than tension, but strong enough for a hiking stick. Top it with a cast resin crook, it would be gorgeous.

Mine is about half and half. Very nice contrast between sapwood and heartwood.

[HootinHoller]

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.

Cromach, Market Stick, Walking Stick...

Ok, please elaborate for me.

As to making one, some woods can be steamed and bent (white oak is probably best) and others like fruit trees (cherry, apple) can be harvested in winter before the sap starts running if you want the bark to remain or summer if you want to strip the bark entirely.

If you have a few years, you can actually bend a sapling and tie it letting it grow for a few years until it's thick enough and the cellular structure will retain the curved shape. Saplings growing in banks often have a nice curve at the base.

The main thing to retain strength in the finished staff is to have the grain running the full length of the staff. As Benning Boy pointed out, short grain is weak.

[Panache]

Cromach, Market Stick, Walking Stick...

Ok, please elaborate for me.

Cromach's are taller than market sticks and have a curved crook while market sticks are flat across the top. There are also thumb sticks that have a "U" shaped top of antler (or a natural fork in the wood) that are shorter than market sticks that are used for hunting.

Cheers

Jamie