Touch of Flair

I was looking at a way to make the standard derby handle a little more exciting without disrupting its functionality in any way.  I came up with the idea of some light relief carving across the top of the handle.  Raven carved and painted the vines into this one and I really like how it has turned out.

Hiker

I think i am going to call this new design "the hiker" because i think it will work very well for hiking. It can be held either way around with equal comfort depending on personal preference and walking style.  Here it is with a collar and attached to a maple shank, i have not used many maple shanks before but i am starting to like them, they are not overly heavy but quite stiff, perfect for this purpose.  I have wet the wood here so you can see the nice grain pattern.  It should take about a week to finish the sanding and finishing. I think in future versions i will have the extension slope at a slightly steeper angle but overall i am pleased with the design.

A New Design

Most of the time I work from a set of standard designs, a derby style, a standard crook, a ball head, etc.  I now do a lot of what i call the gentlemans cane, a design i borrowed from my friend George MacDonald that can work well as a cane, a crook or a walking stick.  That being said perhaps the most exciting time for me is when i come up with something new, usually its a wrinkle or variation of one of my base designs (like the carvings of dogs head etc on the ends of derby sticks and gentlemans canes) but every once in a while is a whole new concept.  I have been thinking a lot recently about sticks for walkers, not for support but to help set your stride, your pace, your tempo.  Nowadays many people use what are basically ski poles for this purpose but i find them inelegant. Late last night I had an idea for a hiking stick design that could be functional, elegant and leave room for personal expression in the form of carvings of this that or the other.  So here it is the simple version of the concept.  It takes its design concept from some antler walking sticks i made that were very popular. basically it has a handle coming back from the shank at a downward angle such that when you hold it and reach out and plant your stick your hand is at a natural angle.  It needs a bit of refinement yet, the angle needs to change a bit and it should probably be a bit longer in the handle area but its not bad for a first prototype.  As far as more elaborate version are concerned all i need to do is extend it out in the other direction form the handle beyond the shank to leave a space for some nice carvings without interfering with the utility of the stick, it may improve the balance as well.

Ready to Ship

Well the dog head market stick is ready to ship.  The client left the head unpainted and went for the black horn foot, which were the choices i would have made.  I am very pleased with this stick, it involves several things that i have not done before, a stripped hazel shank (more work than i expected) and a carving on what i like to call the forehead of the stick.  I really like carvings in this spot because i think they stand out and they don't interfere with the utility of the stick.
I know when i have done a really nice job on a stick like this, a custom stick or one with some interesting features, because i don't want to let them go.  This falls into that category, i would be more than happy to keep this stick for myself, just like the wolf head stick from before Christmas.  In the UK many of the traditional stickmakers would sell very few of their sticks.  Instead they would give them as gifts and trade them with other stickmakers.  By the time a nice stick is finished you have put so much of yourself into it that its like selling a friend.  So if anyone out there would like to pay my mortgage and other bills i would be happy to make sticks purely for the love of the work :).  Now its time to get to work on rebuilding my inventory as i am down to about a dozen sticks on hand and that just wont do if i am going to take them to shows this summer.

Back to Work

Well i have been very remiss in keeping up with this blog, what can i say, i got holiday fever.  Anyway i'm back to work now ( have been for a while actually) and i have just about finished the other stick i was working on before Christmas.  Here are several views of it.  There are a couple of issues to resolve with the client, should the dog head be painted or left natural like it is now? and should the foot on the bottom be a standard brass foot or a black horn foot to match the black horn collar? So i would like to hear from those of you reading this what your opinions are on these two issues, then ill tell you what was decided and what my choices would have been.