[Jim-Iowa]

I am drawing up plans for an ornamental walking cane.
There are a few questions I have yet to find the answers to.
1) what would be a reasonable weight?
2) Balance of head vs shaft. where would one consider the balance point?
3) How much contact area in the handle would be considered most comfortable?

[Ashbys]

Jim , I am sure there are many different answers, here are mine but they may not help much.

1) what would be a reasonable weight?

To me it would depend on the person I am making it for , what it is being used for and the wood. If I was making it for an older person, that needs it for weight bearing , I will look for a wood first that is not going to break, with the weight load. Most people can handle 1 - 5 pounds, A walking cane to support a person at least 7/8 - 1 dia. woods oak , walnut , hickory, apple, pear , bamboo, ebony, purpleheat, .. ect The weight of the person should give you the size of the cane. The wood used will determine the weight .

2) Balance of head vs shaft. where would one consider the balance point?

The balance point should be center of the staff .
You want the bottom of the staff to naturally drop from a touch of the hilt.


3) How much contact area in the handle would be considered most comfortable?

This really is depending upon who you making it for. If it is weight bearing They can be up to 21/2 inch dia. and as small as 7/8. Normally at least the width of the cane.

I am not sure that helps.

Ash

[Jim-Iowa]

Ash that is helpful. I'll be making this for myself At 58 I no longer consider people of that age older at all. At 5'8" and 160 lbs it does not have to be excessively stout, though I do have a knee that sometimes gets finicky.

I'm thinking of using either Cherry, or Walnut with a derby style handgrip.
My intent was an octagon shaft tapering from 1 1/4" to 7/8" over 32" aiming for a finished length of 34-35" with teardrop shaped flutes on the flats. The carved figure on the handle is still up for grabs. It is intended to be functional but primarily a conversation piece. And to test some of my theories that I often find to become total nonsense.

[Ashbys]

Jim , should be a beautiful cane. And that size it should support your weight with no issues even as a full walking cane.
When I said older , I was thinking 80's +. More to the little Granny that is more prone to use a cane than a walker.

When I think of weight support, I have a friend with MS. Even when we were young, because of the braces , the support needed to be made to at least 250. lbs

I know theses are extremes, a women that weights in at 150 - 170 should be about a 7/8 size. Aluminum canes weight about 3 pounds and designed for 250 weight load.

The cherry should be great, I would watch for knot holes, cherry has some strange properties , when it comes to them. Seems mot of it I have used the knot is the weakest point of the cane.

[Jim-Iowa]

Yeah Cherry can be funny to work with, I'm putting the finishing touches on a Cherry Stocked Southern Mountain rifle now. It had a nasty knot on the end of the blank beyond where the barrel would lay which I cut off. When I cut in the barrel channel, it released internal stresses and the forend of the stock skewed off to the right about 3/4" for about 5". I had to soak it and bend it back straight.
I also noticed Cherry grain can be hard to work with. Sometimes it cuts well and others you have to reverse your cutting direction to keep from rolling out chunks of fiber. It sure is pretty when done though.
I sure would not avoid it due to it's peculiarities! all woods have them and one just has to learn how to work with them.
Hey if it was easy anyone could do it!

[Dean Dickerson]

Jim, I'm certainly no expert, but I've been carving wood spirts on walking sticks and canes for a couple of years with reasonalbe success. I normally use aspen or poplar for most of my sticks. Stripped aspen color is usually whitish and relativly easy to carve. One comment of balance: I believe a carving should be just below the hand grip estimated to be on a level equal to the height of a bent elbow...make sense? Dean Dickerson, Anita, IA