An old sea story

[Waitpinga Whittler]

A few years ago, while walking on the beach near our home, my wife and I came across a piece of driftwood which I thought would make a nice walking stick 'one of these days'. I think it was melaleuca though I'm not sure as it had obviously spent some time in the ocean and there was no trace of bark on it but it did have those deep depressions around the base of shooting branches, typical of melaleuca. In any case, I took it home, set it in the corner of the shed and waited for inspiration to come knocking. Inspiration was a bit slow in arriving and it was only this year that I eventually decided to try a nautical theme given that it was after all.. a piece of driftwood.

Originally the stick was about 55 to 60mm in diameter. I thought to reduce this and at the same time maybe get rid of some of those depressions. I spent about 15 minutes on it with a draw knife and realised that if a walking stick were every to evenuate, it was going to take power tools. The stuff was HARD. I've never come across anything like it before for hardness. My hardest and sharpest tools were just skittering off it. I know melaleuca is hard, but I think that its time in the sea must have increased this characteristic by quite a bit.

In the end, I roughed it out with an Arbortec Pro wheel and did most of the carving with an Archer rotory carver and a variety of bits. I'm not very skilled with these tools, prefering a blade of one sort of another but in this case, that was just impossible. (I broke two blade tips trying)

The photos may not show them terribly well, but there are 4 small crabs climbing up the shaft. I call the stick... wait for it... 'Crab Stix'

[idigjars]

Very cool stick. I love your work, you are very talented. Thank you for sharing the pics with us. Paul

[Eddy-Smiles]

Hey Whittler! Great stick but if you're going to tell a "sea story" then you have to start it out right! Ha! Ha!

[carvingbarn]

Nice stick. It seems like the found wood always make a nice prodject.

[mpounders]

I like it! Your "critters" always look great and you are always doing something different. The wood looks nice too.

[Merle Rice]

Good carving and very nice sticks. The wood resembles Diamond Willow, but Diamond Willow isn't hard. Merle

[Waitpinga Whittler]

Thanks for you kind words guys. Encouragement from fellow carvers is always a good thing.

Eddy: Not sure what you are refering to about 'starting right' except maybe my misspelling of the name 'melaleuca' in my original draft. I couldn't find it in the dictionary and my wife (the brains of the outfit) wasn't around to ask so I spelled it as it sounds. Later after being corrected on another site where this is also posted, I snuck back and corrected it.

I have to say Mike, that part of the reason I 'do something different' is influenced by you. You are always coming up with ideas that are really great. I do a lot of repetitive stuff too, to keep up stock levels for markets and such where I sell this stuff. (I do a lot of carving besides walking sticks). So the chance to do something different always hovers ... caught in the tension between fear of failing and need to succeed at something new. Eventually the creative urge wins and something new happens.

Original pieces are always guarenteed if you work in found wood of course. Nature never gives you two the same so every finished piece is going to be different. For me though, it can sometimes take years to get an idea for a piece of wood that I've seen and stored away waiting for inspiration to come knocking.

I"ve never worked with diamond willow but I have tried other types of willow. I find it comparable to poplar, soft and quite easy to carve. This stuff was like trying to carve an iron bar. The one benifit is that it polishes up really nice.

[carver33]

Nice job on a beautiful stick.

[grdeno]

fantastic (sp) job I love your work my problem is I have trouble seeing the finish by just looking at it.I think your sticks are great and it just makes me work harder to improve my items.Thanks for sharing with us.
Gary

[Waitpinga Whittler]

Thanks Gary. I think its one of the main reasons that a lot of us do these carving 'chat' forums. To get inspiration and to help where possible. I know I value the help and inspiration that I've recieved over the years from guys on this and other sites.