Walking Sticks

I have finally had the time to start my focus on wood carving. I have an interest in carving and making walking sticks. A couple years ago, I cut a small hickory tree and a small pine tree to make an attempt at a couple walking sticks.

The trees were cut down with a hand saw and then I used a pocket knife to strip the bark off of the tree. After some large blisters and a lot of sweat, I had the walking sticks roughed out. Then I used sand paper to smooth out the sticks, until I felt happy with the resulting texture of the stick. I stained the hickory stick with two coats of stain and then applied a couple coats of polyurethane. The finished hickory walking stick was a successful project and I take pride in having made it all from hand.

Hickory Walking Stick

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The Pine Walking Stick was cut down and roughed out the same way. I applied a couple coats of stain, but have not used any polyurethane yet.

Pine Walking Stick

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I found a nice piece of wood, that was cut down from around the edge of a pond bank. I'm not sure exactly what type of wood it is, but under the bark is a very nice white wood that was fairly easy to carve. I decided to put together some of the things that I have been working on in my carvings and try my hand at carving a face in the stick.

The face came out decent and I gave it the look of a sleepy man with his eyes closed. I then used a piece of scotch tape as a template for an even ring around the stick in various spots. With the tape template, I used my knife to cut around the stick above and below the tape line. Then with a gouge, I started removing the bark down to the white wood. After roughing out the rings, I then went back with the gouge and gave the rings a textured look, by running the gouge, up and down the ring area. It also made a nice looking decorative teeth around the edges of the rings.

After about 6 or 7 coats of polyurethane, I now have my first completed stick that has actual carving done on it.

Sleepy Old Man Stick Sleepy Old Man Stick 2 Sleepy Old Man Stick 3 Sleepy Old Man Stick 4

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I've just started on a dogwood walking stick and another hickory walking stick. I used the same hand crafting, except I'm using a power hand sander to get the sanding done quicker. I also have gone to a small hatchet to help remove the bark. Here are a couple pictures of the new sticks in mid process.

Dogwood Walking Stick Hickory Walking Stick

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After working on several walking sticks and other carving projects, I have finally put together some photos of trimming and preparing walking sticks, as well as some pictures of the carvings that I have been doing on the sticks. Below are a few random pictures of the process of getting my walking sticks from nature, all the way up to actually carving faces and other objects in them.

Adam trimming stick Adam trimming another stick Adam trimming stick Adam trimming stick Adam carrying sticks Adam preparing stick Faces on Walking Stick Dogwood Walking Stick 1 Dogwood Walking Stick 3 Hillbilly Walking Stick Snarling Face on Walking Stick Snarling Face on Walking Stick 2 Face on Walking Stick 3 Walking Stick Face 4 Deer Tracks Carved in Walking Stick Arrow Head Carved in Walking Stick Cross Carved in Walking Stick Hunting Symbols in Walking Stick Hunting Symbols in Walking Stick 2 Hunting Symbols in Walking Stick 3

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