Walking Stick
January 1, 2012
As a child, I had a walking stick. I thought my uncle, or maybe a great uncle had made it for me. I uncovered it recently, and brought it to my father, suggesting that I add a peg to it so that it’d be sized correctly for my new height. He gave me a funny look, and said, “And deface a family heirloom?” I stared at him. “But…?” He had it when he was a child, and like me, thought it was pretty neat. He says that it might have belonged to his grandfather, or maybe an uncle.
I’m going to guess it’s age at greater than 75 years.
The stick itself is an unknown hardwood with an unknown finish. The finish might be oil, or it might be age. We’re not sure. It has a snake curling up around the body, and two cut off and polished nails for eyes.
Here’s a picture of the snake.
The first thing was to drill a hole in the end of the walking stick. There is no good way to determine where the center of something that is decidedly not round, nor straight. Dad and I eyeballed it, and drilled the hole. The wood on the inside is a lot lighter, but still reddish.
I made the first peg out of white nylon stock. I turned it to the approximate diameter of the end of the stick, shaped it to fit better, and made a cavity in one end for a cork pad and a hole in the other for an aluminum peg that fits into the hole in the stick. Epoxy the aluminum to the nylon, wait, insert.
It looked horrible- all white and round and modern and not at all hand carved. I carved it down to match the looks better, and tried to paint it a little like wood. I did a terrible job of it, and the paint chipped if you looked at it funny.
Terrible, no?
The second peg was made on the same idea, but out of wood. The stockpile had a pine broomhandle in it, so I cut a section about two inches, made it round and shaped it a little on the lathe, and put the hole in it for the aluminum peg. Epoxied the aluminum in, fit it to the stick, and carved it down fit exactly against the end of the stick in both shape and size. Even though it’s a radically different color, and doesn’t have the patina of the rest of the stick, it looks much better. It also doesn’t have the cork that the other one had.
Prettier, yes?
I may put a finish of oil on it to preserve it, or try to stain it to match. I do not know, and it really depends on how much time I give myself before I leave to college again.
