[Jean Thibodeau]

Another new stick: This time it is more cane like with a handle and for me cane versus stick means somewhat shorter and a different way of using/gripping it when walking.

When held by a handle the elbow should be just a little bit flexed for good support and to not become tiring to use.

With sticks and staffs one holds the piece on the shaft regardless of the handle shape or style: Although one can put a cane handle on a very long cane/stick it produces an awkward feel as the cane head tend to want to rotate in the hand as bit feeling like an axe held sideways as the closest comparison.

In very hilly terrain an over long stick with a cane head can be useful when going down hill, but then a regular long stick is very versatile as one can shift one's grip up and down on it fluidly.

I initially made this new one with a long shaft ( 42" ) but after a few days of city street use found it annoying and shortened it back down to cane length of 37" that seems to be the right length for me. ( Taller people = Taller cane and the reverse being true for shorter people ).

This one is lighter than my other sticks in not being as long or using Ebony which is very heavy in itself and not using a substantial brass or steel head: Weight 2 lbs 1.5 oz.

The handle is 6 1/4" long and 1 3/4" at it's thickest point.

White oak shaft, handle is a lamination of 1/4" Purpleheart in the centre with 1/4" Yellowheart on the next layer with the grain direction varied to maximize strength and also create a plywood reinforcement effect.

The outer sides are 1/2" thick Purpleheart. The whole thing glued using Titebond III and clamped together for 24 hours before being shaped with rasps, draw knife, abrasives and spokeshave like my previous sticks.

There is also a 1/4" threaded steel rod through the cane head and deep into the White Oak shaft. My usual use of a Windlass Butt Cap purchased from Kult of Athena.

One of the pics shows my preferred way to hold a cane handle which is reversed from the usual way one uses a cane: I just like this better and works with the wrist strap. ( Pic in next post )

I have some ideas for many different shapes for cane handles or stick " pommel like " tops using laminated woods in varying patterns that when carved should be interesting.

[Jean Thibodeau]

More pics: Note that the wood grain looks even better than in the pics as it's hard to see the almost holographic effect of the oiled wood showing depth in the grain and almost an iridescent sheen.

The oil finish is only at it's early stages and Purpleheart will turn a bit darker and redder with light exposure ( A bit like an apple oxidizing )

[David Lewis Smith]

I really like that jean, it is functional and art at the same time

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jean Thibodeau]

I've been busy making another new Stick.

I had a bit of help from Kenneth Speed who volunteered to make me some laminated tapering octagonal Hickory shafts.

In the pics you can see another blank piece of Hickory before being given a glass smooth polish and oiled with hand rubbed boiled linseed oil.

The finish is still at the early stage where the first few applications of oil haven't yet fully dried and hardened.

The finish will become more glossy when the finish matures over many more applications but as it is now as just semi gloss it is actually easier to photograph without getting too much reflections from the flash.

Total length: 43"
Shaft diameter near head: 1 1/4"
Shaft diameter at tip where it goes into the steel ferule ( Spear butt spike ): 3/4"
Weight: 1 lbs 3 oz.

The head is made from Grenadilla ( African Blackwood ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalbergia_melanoxylon

This was a nice piece with yellow heart wood almost being half the width of the piece so that after carving there is still about 1/3 of the mass of the head being the lighter shade of wood. ( Often there is only a sliver of this heart wood that gets wasted since carving the wood often takes away all of this nice heart wood, I got lucky to find a piece with a lot of heart wood. )

The stick was decorated by using a wood burning tool and it was touch and go there as I wasn't sure if it was a bad decision when I started to burn in a design ...... the next day adding more lines to make the pattern denser and doing some selective shading improved the look of surface drawing.

I also like the look of an undecorated shaft: Hard to see in the pics but the Hickory has some subtle tiger stripping and a nice figured grain that isn't apparent until the wood is oiled and burnished.

The shaft made by Kenneth is two pieces of Hickory glued and laminated back to back to maximize strength and shock resistance.

We are sort of sharing ideas and Kenneth might be making some walking staffs himself soon.

[Jean Thibodeau]

More pics of different sides of the stick and angled pics of my holding it.

Will add my usual wrist strap as seen in previous sticks.

[Jean Thibodeau]

And another Stick: This one made for Ken Speed who kindly made some Hickory shafts for me.

This one has a Purpleheart head of octagonal section at the top with a smaller rounded section, a copper spacer and tip, the shaft being White Oak.

As my usual practice, where it makes good design sense, there is a 1/4" pin approximately 6" long reinforcing the joining of head and shaft and also reduced diameter sections of head and shaft meeting mid-way inside the copper collar.

The whole thing epoxied together.

Ken wanted me to sign the stick so I burned into it " Made by JEAN THIBODEAU for KEN SPEED, 2012 ".

It seems that Ken is going to make some more shafts for me maybe using Ash and/or White Oak so I wanted to give him a finished Stick as he generously made shafts for me just because he wanted to.

[Jean Thibodeau]

A few more pics ot the stick..

[Jean Thibodeau]

A new Walking Staff and a new Walking stick with a cane handle.


Here are pics of the Staff using a longer 48" Hickory shaft and pics of a cane handled Stick using one of the shorter shafts Ken made for me.

The Staff uses the smaller left over piece of African Blackwood with the lighter sap wood from an earlier stick, 4 pieces of 1/4" Pau Amerello rotated 45 degrees between layers and a narrow 1/8" layer of Macassar Ebony.

The whole head and spacers are octagonal and transition directly from the octagonal Hickory shaft. ( Steel pin reinforcement joining the head assembly to the shaft ).

The Cane/Stick has a handle made of a sandwich of two pieces of Macassar Ebony with an in between checkerboard pattern made of small rectangles of Pau Amerello ( Yellow wood ) alternating with equally sized pieces of Jatoba ( Reddish wood ). In all of these pieces of the handle the grain runs lengthways.

This handle has a third piece of Macassar Ebony running vertically with the grain of the wood also vertically. This section is octagonal like the Hickory shaft. The copper spacer is obviously round. There is also a 1/4" steel pin joining the head to shaft about 5" long.

Cane weight: 1 lbs 8oz. to me very light and it's very comfortable in the hand when walking.

Both Staff and Cane use the same type of steel butt spike.

[Jean Thibodeau]

A few more pics of the Walking Staff and cane/Stick.

[Ken Speed]

A bit of information about the walking stick Jean made for me: the shaft is Asian white oak which is often used for Asian staff weapons and the Purpleheart head has almost the diameter of a cue ball. Jean said, in what I thought was a very understated manner, that the stick also had martial potential.

While Jean provided a crutch tip for the stick I didn't want to cover up the copper end cap so I bought a small bottle of contact cement and adhered a thin piece of rubber to the bottom of the cap.

The photos don't do the stick justice; Jean did an outstanding job on it especially the purpleheart head.

[Gordon Frye]

Jean;

Great job, as usual!

BTW, as a proud owner of one of Jean's "Mace-handled" walking sticks, I can honestly say that I feel absolutely confident of being able to handle just about any sort of situation which may arise while carrying it! I take long walks in the woods, and I know that I am quite safe from harm from any four-legged creatures I may come across, and most two-legged ones as well. Besides this, it's a VERY comfortable stick to use, and helps greatly with "pacing" my walk. It also helps when crossing downed trees, limbs and any large rocks which may present themselves in my path. It has become my constant companion, and I am grateful to Jean for constructing it for me.

And besides all of that, it's cool.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Jean Thibodeau]

And, again, a new stick and a simple " Jo " stick enhanced with copper end caps and a rubber tip and wrist strap that I can remove easily to practice light staff work in a nearby Park, and put these back on as a walking staff.


Usual construction using a Purpleheart centre, next Jatoba layer with upper section with grain running parallel ( Horizontal ) to floor when the stick is vertical. All other layers are in line with the shaft/vertical.

Zebrano on the outside layer and used because of it's dramatic grain contrast colours.

Someone I showed it to mentioned that in profile the head sort of reminds one of a Toucan parrot: This wasn't planned but I agree it reminds me of a Toucan.

The handle is fairly short and intended more as a decorative head than as a cane handle, so I consider this one more a stick than a cane and it's also longer, 44", than what would be ideal for a cane as it is held in the hand below the stainless steel collar using the wrist strap.

The head would function very well as a hook for Bartitsu or French cane work for joint locking.

With the grain running in different directions in critical places this head shouldn't be very easy to break considering that Purpleheart, Jatoba and the Zebrano are all much harder than Oak or Hickory.

Jatoba can easily split if pressure is applied to a narrow section of cross grain but is otherwise incredibly strong along the grain, the Zebrano seem more resistant to splitting but not as hard as Jatoba and Purpleheart is strong and tough also: Any weaknesses are compensated for by creating a plywood effect where one wood is weak it is reinforced by the other's grain running at 90 degrees to the other anywhere where the cross section is narrow and vulnerable to breakage.

Last two pics ( On the next post ) show the " JO " stick with copper caps and wrist strap.
By the way, I used rubber tips made for furniture legs and I like these better than crutch tips as they are smaller in outer dimensions and don't look " clunky ", they also seem as durable or even more than the crutch tips that seem to wear down rather quickly when used outdoors. ( Time will confirm or contradict this after I've used these furniture tips for a while ).

[Jean Thibodeau]

More pics + pics of the " JO " stick next to the Zebrano handled stick, 51" long by 3/4' diameter.

[D. S. Smith]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Einar Drønnesund]

Its been a while since I checked this thread, and man, Jean, you've been busy. Great work. You really have a good eye (and hand) for this.

[Jean Thibodeau]

This one has a Grenadillo ( A.K A. African Blackwood ) head on a White Oak shaft.

Made this one for a friend who works at my gym and he wanted his initials on it and the playing card suit of Spades.

Carved the Spades on top of the handle and wood burned in the initials on the White Oak shaft.

I have a few in progress pics on this one showing the head assembly when roughly carved and the 1/4" diameter threaded steel pin holding things together in addition to the Titebond III adhesive.

The head is made of two parts with a vertical and an horizontal section glued together as blocks of wood and carved together after being glued and pinned together.

The first pics are of the early stages of the carving when the general shape was established, followed by pics after the carving was refined a bit and the Spade carved in and finally by the mounted and finished stick.

[Jean Thibodeau]

One more pic after the Spade was carved on top of the handle + the finished and assembled stick.

[Jean Thibodeau]

And some more pics of the finished stick.