Another string to our bow

So, for the very first blog update, I thought I would share with you something a little different.

Sometime last year, my longtime friend/bandmate/drinking buddy Stewart asked me about having a walking stick made for his dad.  Now, Stewart is a man of exemplary taste, he knows what he likes and he knows that I know what he likes too!  He had a very generous budget for the project and wanted, above anything else, for this to be a very special gift.

We spoke at length about various materials including Sterling silver, Ebony, buffalo horn and red deer antler.  The brief was relatively simple: a hardwood shaft, Sterling silver collar with custom engraving, a traditional style handle and a length of 91cm total.

Having watched my dad John make many walking sticks when I was younger, I always marveled at how nice they looked and how sturdy and well made they felt. I knew roughly what had to be done but had never myself actually made a stick.  I knew I wasn’t going to be making this one myself… I had to bring in the big guns (again, John)! This one had to be PERFECT.

After a little back and forth on ideas and sharing quite a few photos with Stewart of some beautiful sticks as inspiration, we narrowed the field down to either Ebony, Bogwood Oak or Black Palmira for the shaft. I suggested a lovely crutch-style black buffalo horn handle which Stewart loved and we knew exactly which engraved collar we would go for. More on that later…

Things were starting to come together and a really nice stick was emerging from the near limitless possibilities.

Black Palmira was an obvious suggestion for me, it’s a lovely hardwood with loads of character and a very high level of durability. It is however quite ‘finicky’, with seemingly two entirely different types of wood which react quite differently to all forms of working, whether it be files, chisels or sandpaper.

Ebony was quite high on Stewarts list of possibilities for its gorgeously dark, almost black appearance. It makes for an almost glass-like finish with a minimal amount of sanding and polishing.  Ebony is also an incredibly hard, very dense wood. We’ve used it a few times in our sgian dubhs and it has always been a pleasure to work with in every way! The only problem with Ebony is that it is almost impossible to source in full shafts, unfortunately putting it out of the running for this stick. Shame.

Another wood we have used extensively in our sgian dubhs is Bogwood Oak, some of which has been in excess of 50,000 years old! Its a beautifully textured wood which is easy to work, has varying degrees of colour from deep caramel through to absolute black and can be finished many ways, from a high polish lustre to a lovely weathered matte. Bogwood Oak makes for such a nice stick in fact, that it would have easily doubled the cost of the stick, if not quite a bit more…

Black Palmira it is then!

So that was that. We knew the handle would be a black buffalo horn ‘crutch’ style and the shaft would be Black Palmira. Stewart had always wanted a Sterling Silver collar engraved with his family initials, and after looking at a few options we decided on a beaded collar with the initials about ¾” high which turned out to be perfectly balanced  for the size of stick.

The making of this stick went quite smoothly. As mentioned above, Black Palmira can be quite difficult to work with as the two different shades of the wood have quite different temperaments. As can be seen in the pictures this stick was made in the traditional way with a ‘peg’ of wood hand-carved from the top of the shaft which fits snugly inside the buffalo horn handle. This makes the stick much more durable, allowing the core of the shaft to retain all of its strength; however, this is a very exacting process which requires the ‘peg’ and receiving end to match perfectly. This is where this particular wood becomes a problem as the lighter areas of the wood, when exposed through the carving, can sometimes chip away more than you would hope for leaving too much of a gap and creating weakness. Luckily we noticed this attribute quite early on and were able to adjust once we got closer to the desired circumference.  The only other notable difference with this wood became apparent while polishing at the end. As this is a shaft turned on a lathe – and not a branch from a tree – there was an abundance of nasty skelfs picked up during finishing which resulted in a few extra sessions of sanding to get it super smooth and ready for use!

Working on projects like this is always an absolute pleasure – and an honour with which we take great pride –  to be trusted in the creation of something so personal. We always strive to create unique and beautiful items but knowing they will also serve a meaningful purpose in someones life for years to come is why we do what we do at Rankin Bespoke!