Walking Sticks

[DWFII]

I also picked up a blackthorn from Lollysmith about a week ago:
It's a sturdy stick - nice and knobby. It did have a few rough spikes I still had to cut off - real handshredders.

It's my understanding that the spike (thorns) are left on for a reason...the thorns are poisonous and if you got into a row with a hooligan or a highwayman, and he grabbed your stick, you could rip it out of his hands and it would do nearly as much damage to him (either shredding or poisoning) as if you'd hit him with the rootball end.

The guys that still harvest these sticks build up an immunity to the poison, but it's there...and that's one reason there are fewer and fewer every year.

[Streetcar]

It's my understanding that the spike (thorns) are left on for a reason...the thorns are poisonous and if you got into a row with a hooligan or a highwayman, and he grabbed your stick, you could rip it out of his hands and it would do nearly as much damage to him (either shredding or poisoning) as if you'd hit him with the rootball end.

The guys that still harvest these sticks build up an immunity to the poison, but it's there...and that's one reason there are fewer and fewer every year.

That might very well be, but for the stick play I've worked with, I need something to slide in my hand just a bit. It still has the knobs, but the ragged edges of the thorns have been pulled off.