[Thomp]

I put a 2 inch stick in a plastic rain barrel and its soaking, ill see if i can get it boiled this weekend to see how it will bend,

i may get it out and rip it every 1/8th of a inch with slots with mt scrollsaw for finer cuts or less stock waste. and see if that will limber it up for bending figuring 6" bend x pie about 19" less 1/3 of bend 12 or 14 inches to make the handle. the staff is 6 foot long. so even if the bending fails i still should have plenty to fool around with with other methods.

now out to the shed to make a bending form and set up the fish frier for boiling.

[Smokey]

There certianly is another option--Here are a couple of canes, made from a single piece of 1" stock. If the cane is made of Hickory, Ash, White Oak, or Mesquite, that is 1" thick--then you can be assured that it will be strong enough.

The first is a Cherry elephant
The second is a Black Walnut draft horse

[Thomp]

i think you got it there smokey...

[Mike-in-WV]

Finding a good cane stock with the proper bend in it is not hard to find at all if you know where to look....No matter where you live there are roads with steep banks along side of hills with sapling growing out of them. In these areas the trees will grow out of the side of the banks and then turn and grow straight up creating some great and unusual shapes for canes.
We who live anywhere in the east or south east have no problems finding cane stock on old mining and logging roads.Make sure you take a small spade for digging and an old saw for cutting.Any mountain or hill country will produce cane material for you. Mike

[Thomp]

I guess one who frequents undisturbed wooded areas could dig roots out to lean the sapplin and weight it down with rocks tye up limbs and make loops in the intended cane handles with carefully weighted rocks and such then checking back in on the progress over several years to achieve the proper bend more naturaly,

i been out looking for wind blown washout rooted saplings in the backwood creeks where only deer and squreel hunters normaly go. and it produced nothing but a good case of the red bugs....

im tending to lean towards steam bending or fine slab cuts through the handle 10 or 12" area and bending the wood like the back of a chair rail in a form or mold...

it would be a solid bend after epoxi set and should never break.....
thomas

[Irish]

Thomas, with the weight factors that you are considering for this cane I don't think I would go with a bend handle or L handle at all. That bend puts all the weight right into the bend which is the weakest point.

So there is more chance that the wood will split out along the grain instead of cracking at the joint of the cane staff and the cane handle. Personally I would go with a straight shaft cane and with the cane topper (handle) centered to the stick. This will keep the weight distributed straight down the entire stick instead of at the bend or at the weak point of the topper.

For those walking sticks that we want extra strong Mike has always used a hard wood dowel and wood glue ... He makes sure that the dowel goes several inches into both the topper and the staff. Now his trick is a simple but important one. He crimps the hardwood dowel with a pair of pliers first, then adds the glue, then pops it into place. The dents from the pliers gives room to carry the glue deeply into the holes in the stick. So you don't wipe off too much of that important glue sliding the dowel into the tight hole.

Now, since the glue is water based it causes the dowel to re-swell where the plier makers/dents were which adds that touch of extra pressure.

Hope this helps. Opps, my dad use to use antique brass door knobs as cane toppers. They are beautiful, fit the hand perfectly and have lots of texture to add to the grip.

Susan

[Hugh]

There seems to be a lot of different ways, the mortise and tenon sounds great, smokeys cane also. My own are made the way Susan describes, the only difference, is that I have a dowel cutter, the top of the cane is doweled, the handle centered and drilled to fit, and the dowel that has been cut on the top of the cane is split and when the handle is put on a wedge is put in the split. You can also hide the end of the dowel and wedge by not drilling the handle the whole way through, insert the wedge in the split, cover it all with Lepages yellow glue, and push it into the drilled handle. If the fit is right, the wedge will seat. Just thought to throw my two cents worth in. A lot of good ideas, and they all sound great.

[Thomp]

Thought of making a brass pipe socket, like to mount a carved human head and fave the neck and staff could be carved down to the inner size of the brass tube-pipe. then epoxi the tube on one side a dowell could be used to pin it all togather but the other end would be epoxied as well.
like irish said the mechanical pressure may be to great at any other kind of joint especally with a curve,

i may just buy some large ratan and steam bend it for this cane.. its tough as bamboo and its pretty solid//
thomp