One of the coolest walking sticks that I have seen, has a spiral design incorporated down the walking stick. You can look long and hard and still not find a good way to lay out the spiral so that it is uniform all the way down the walking stick. After much trial and error, and some tips from other experienced walking stick carvers, I have come to the conclusion that tape is the answer.
Here is a great way to create a spiral template. Use electrical or masking tape and start at the top of the walking stick. As you move down the walking stick, wrap the tape around the walking stick, leaving your desired width between lines. By using tape, you have the freedom of moving the tape around slightly to make the spirals precise and the tape will also stay in place fairly well.
After the tape is stuck in a spiral pattern that you like, you are ready to use a pencil or marker and mark the spiral pattern that is created by the voids of the tape. Now, you can remove the tape and your area to carve out is uniformly marked. If you need a different width, you can double up the tape or use a different width of tape.
Now you can use a power tool or hand tools to remove the bark and as much wood as you like from the marked areas. A neat addition to the spiral pattern, is to add in a few small faces or symbols between the areas that you have removed.