[Mike-in-WV]

Placed some of my newer carvings on the Walking Stick form in our Picture Trail site. One is a Diamond willow staff with 3 wood spirits, another is a wild cherry cane with a wood spirit. another is a wild cherry staff with 3 charitures on it called , Captain, Trapper and Indian. Another is a wood sipit carved from an aged piece of Red Oak (hard stuff!,Lol) Thanks for looking, Mike
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...amp;uid=731540

Mike,
Great job!!!! Love the hardwood you should do some more of that! What type of finish did you use?

Nice job on the walking sticks did you carve the oak green or when it was dry? I try to carve the hardwoods green because when they dry it is too hard on the knifes and gouges
Colin

[Hugh]

GREAT JOB ON ALL OF THEM. I SAVED A COUPLE OF THE PICTURES OF THE WOODSPIRITS, HOPE YOU DONT MIND. Â*I TRY THE KNIFE AND CHISEL WORK, BUT I'M NOT VERY GOOD. ITS A CHALLENGE THOUGH. Â*THANKS FOR POSTING THE PHOTOS. INSPIRATIONAL!!!

[Mike-in-WV]

Thanks for the kind words , I'm still learning but I sure do enjoy it.
The Oak was aged and hard as a rock carving by hand . Took some time to do it and I just carved on it now and then.
The finish I like is a combination of color pencils and water based stains and paints then I give several coats of water based poly.
I need to work a little more on detail on the faces of my spirits or make the features stand out a little more like my hero wood spirit carver, Collin, Lol. Mike

VERY nice sticks Mike. Thanks for sharing them. Â*

The cherry cane is delightful. Is the handle one piece or is it added? I have never gotten a nice cherry root ball or even a good branch crotch for a natural handle. Â*:'(

I am thinking about finding some young branches and bending and tying them to form a natural handle

while I am at it think i will wrap tightly alounfd the bottom to form a twistie

wonder how this will work
best natural handle stick I ever found was short buth then the other half is short so I gave it to her. Click on my name to view my profile, then click on the pic and i think it will enlarge the stick i am talking about is the short walking cane

[Mike-in-WV]

Clifff, the handle is natural. If you ever come down to WV make sure you bring your hand saw and a small spade for digging. Finding cane material and staffs with balls on them is easy down here. Just look on any mountain side or old cut away minning trails. The trees grow out from the side and then straight up.
I'm going out next week to cut a batch so they will be dry by late spring. Another good place to look is along creek banks. Hope this helps, Mike