Help-How to seal walking stick with bark on it??

[Dan C]

A neighbor of mine brought her walking stick over and asked for some advice. It's about an inch in diameter and has all the bark on it. She's had it wrapped in tinfoil for about a year drying out, and it appears to be nice and dry at this point. The bark seems to be adhering to the stick nice and tight.

Her question was - "How should she seal it so that the bark will stay on, and the stick will stay stable?" I haven't carved any walking sticks, so I don't really know what to tell her. I don't want to recommend something that will make the bark come loose!

Any thoughts from you experts out there would be very much appreciated!

Dan C.

[bill#1]

several coats of polyurethane would do the trick..either glossy or matte finish..to what ever your liking..

bill

[Eddy-Smiles]

That's what I use on my canes and walking sticks.... polyurethane. I've used both oil based and water based but oil based seems to stand up better to outdoor abuse. The only problem is that it will yellow or darken the wood more than a water based product.

[Lightningbolt]

I'd have to say that it depends somewhat on just what kind of wood that is being sealed. In my area of the southern Appalachian's I mainly use sourwood, red maple, dogwood, and black "mountain" birch for my walking sticks.

The sourwood bark definitely stays on the best so if I leave the bark on, then it'll probably be sourwood. I give it a light palm sander sanding using 220 grit then apply a single coat of indoor/outdoor polyurethane. I rub it on thinly with a clean cloth so as not to leave a glossy look but just a good smooth sealing. I then proceed to carve the stick.

The red maple has the most unstable bark and I almost always take it off.

With dogwood I usually take the bark off it too but I've had good results by using my palm sander first with 150 grit, then 220 grit, then finish up by hand with steel wool. This process removes the "scally" segmented dogwood bark nicely leaving an interesting color variation of the inner bark. I then seal it the same as sourwood bark by rubbing on a thin coat of polyurethane.

Mountain birch bark stays on very good so I usually just give it a nice rub down with steel wool then the polyurethane drill.

Depending on the type of wood I'd just say to experiment around with some "sample" pieces by poking it with your fingernails, some light scraping with your pocket knife, and whatever kind of tapping and thumping that it takes to make an educated judgement about just how stable the bark on a particular tree might be. In all cases when leaving on the bark I would highly reccomend cleaning up the bark with steel wool before applying the polyurethane. It's amazing how dirty the bark on a stick becomes from fungi, mold, and whatever so clean it up real good first.

Good luck!

[Ashbys]

I agree, because of what she is trying the poly will most likely give here the best results, as your basically coating it with plastic.

I would suggest that she uses twice what is normally suggested as she needs to encase the bark to keep it from any expansion from moisture. I know sasafrass holds bark without any treatment for years, also hickory. But if used as a walking stick , a chip could cause the bark to start chipping, so also suggest she protects the end of the stick.

Sounds like a nice piece

Ash

[Dan C]

Thank you all for the great info! It sounds like polyeurethane is the way to go, along with cleaning the stick up good first. What I'm going to do is to just print out this thread and give it to her. Then she'll know everything I know. Thanks again!

Dan C.

[Thomp]

I did a gunstock once with polyurithane great look with satin finish, but being military i had axcess to the gi green bottle of insect repellent, being liquid not a can of propelled spray you put 5 drops in your hand rub them togather ang wipe your face and neck...
well i used it without thinking one day hunting, when i got back to the truck the urithane finish was a sticky spider web all over my hands and the finish was wrecked,,

the repelent contained deet so let her know please

[Dan C]

Thanks Thomp! That's a mistake that would be easy to make. I'll be sure and pass it on.

I've always thought of polyeurathane as being pretty inert, but obviously that's not the case. Wonder if a very very small amount of Deet on a rag could be used to sort of smooth out a scratch on a polyeurathane surface.

I've always thought that the only way to repair polyeurathane was to sand and reapply, but maybe not. Wonder what it is in the Deet that dissolves the polyeurathane.

Also, maybe I'm just speaking out of my own ignorance. Maybe there are solutions sold out there to dissolve polyeurathane.

Dan C.

[Thomp]

dan after the deet got done with the finish i stripped it off and did a boiled linseed oil hand rubbed finish on that old gun..
it was late in the summer and the finish was gummy i scraped it off and it was like a rubbery mess, after cleaning all that mess off. i did the blo and hand rubbed finish about 4 or more coats 000 steel wool between coats,, and never had any problems,

I always thought maybe it was the age between when i applied the finish to the application of deet,
but it sure made a sticky mess, and it never dried it stayed sticky all summer, i was hoping just sand it down and reapply the poly, but i gave up waiting just before deer season and refinished it with blo...

the blo finish is just as good now as the day i put it on over 10 years or so ago. and i know its been drenched in deet over the years..

[DanBillings]

birchwood casey true-oil is by far the best I ever used and i been carving for 48 years.