Make Your Own Walking Sticks: How to Craft Canes and Staffs from Rustic to Fancy

(Paperback)

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Description

Features step-by-step projects for a variety of sticks, staffs and canes. Includes a history of walking sticks, reasons to make your own, full-color gallery, and information on how to market your work. Carvers, turners and woodworkers of all skill levels will discover 15 fun projects and patterns for crafting canes. Includes 25 original carving patterns from renowned artist Lora S. Irish.

Reviews

Large, clear photos are linked to excellent explanatory text in this beautiful book on walking sticks, canes and staffs. Fifteen individual projects are described step by step, from a simple pine branch to flat walking sticks to carved patterns from Lora S. Irish. Directions are also given for a laminated, bent-handled cane. Self describes sevral different kinds of screw fasteners for joining canes and staffs made in sections, and covers what hardware is available, from screw-on handles to hame knobs. He even suggests decorative hardware from found items such as upholstery tacks or brass jacket buttons. Many of the canes represented are lathe-turned, but others are made from sticks with bark remaining, or root pieces selected for bent handles. The author goes into detail about tools needed for shaping and sanding, and is careful to discuss tools, adhesives, and safety-related issues. One section is devoted to sample color swatches of forty different hardwoods with their range of availability, relative cost, and workability. It would be nice to know you can acquire a wood locally, look it up in Mr. Self's list to see its grain and color patterns, then read about its durability and how well is stands up to drying and carving. A great feature of this book is a gallery presentation of the cane collection of Albert LeCoff, founder of The Woodturning Center in Philadelphia. The canes were gifts from accomplished woodturners, in appreciation of Mr. LeCoff's contribution to the field. Many are quite imaginative, and an inspiration to lead into the various projects.
Large, clear photos are linked to excellent explanatory text in this beautiful book on walking sticks, canes and staffs.
by Charles Self includes step-by-step instructions for making 15 different walking sticks. These projects range from a simple pine branch cane to a brass-handled and stylishly turned two-piece cane. The book includes info on what woods to use, the tools and hardware needed, and construction and finishing techniques. Also included is an inspirational section exhibiting the canes in the private collection of Albert LeCoff, the executive director of the Wood Turning Center in Philadelphia.

Author Bio

Charles Self is the director of the National Association of Home and Workshop Writers. His articles have been featured in numerous publications, including Popular Woodworking, Remodeling News and Woodworker's Journal. He is the author of Cabinets and Countertops, The Insider's Guide to Buying Tools, and Making Fancy Birdhouse Feeders.