Hopefully this is the right forum.  I surf the topics a lot but rarely post. 

Just finished out another walking stick.  Stick is a limb off a wild cherry tree that grows in NW Ark and on my lot.  Ball is from a scrap piece of cherry that I have had for a while.  I harvest various types of limbs from my lot or others being cleared for homes in the area.  Dry them for a year and then strip bark, knock down the knots with a rasp, scrap out the rasp marks, sand and then ID a rough design that seems to change as I go.  On this stick the cherry ball was not in the initial design, just seemed like it would fit.  I use stains that I have on hand, but the black cherry left the white wood more purple than cherry so I used a mix of walnut and the BC on the stick, no stain on the ball.  Ball is secured with epoxy before staining.  Pattern is supposed to represent snake skin and is cut in with a dremel tool.  Design is not planned, just what seems to fit that day.  I have made and given away approx 12 since I started last year and have 5 completed on hand and 7 more limbs drying. 

Edited December 24, 20241 yr by Lost Oki

Very cool Don. Spectacular work and the idea of the wood and the creativity for the day leading you to the final design is fantastic. Well done and thanks for sharing.

Nicely done!

That's awesome! Love the design!

Great job. Hey, I could use one myself. 

Late again but snow is blocking me from getting into my shop so I will say your walking stick had lots of thought went in to that beauty and has a good start of many to come. For me to make a walking stick I can see many more in my mind while finishing the I am working on. I can get plenty of ideas from my own work.

 My first stick was made while camping in the mountains and there were lots of aspen trees which is good for it is easy to use a pocket knife and this kept me busy thinking what else could carve in to this piece of wood.

   Then the next year up there I took a sharpening stone with me and did these. All are done using aspen. My Dremel with the flex shaft and a few good bits from Wood Carvers supply out of Florida helped make the animals.

1 hour ago, Smallpatch said:

Late again but snow is blocking me from getting into my shop so I will say your walking stick had lots of thought went in to that beauty and has a good start of many to come. For me to make a walking stick I can see many more in my mind while finishing the I am working on. I can get plenty of ideas from my own work.

 My first stick was made while camping in the mountains and there were lots of aspen trees which is good for it is easy to use a pocket knife and this kept me busy thinking what else could carve in to this piece of wood.

   Then the next year up there I took a sharpening stone with me and did these. All are done using aspen. My Dremel with the flex shaft and a few good bits from Wood Carvers supply out of Florida helped make the animals.

 

Fantastic work, Jess!

Now you have done it Smallpatch.  Designs that I have thought of but my current skill level is not equal to some of the wood wizards I have seen.  Great work, now I have to step it up a notch.   Sincerely Thank You for the pics of your work.

 

7 hours ago, lew said:

 

Fantastic work, Jess!

Did you move he shop out of the basement?

Gerald that can be taken a few different ways but do wish we had a cellar or a basement.

 

My trying to help for this is a good way to be a good woodworker for it takes only a sharp pocket knife to see if this is the work, fun, I would like to do...

   I know a couple of guys who went hog heaven and bought every tool and machine they could find for this was how they 

thought it would be easier to do wood working than not having any thing but a pocket knife. But you never saw any saw dust.. Mainly to show off I Believe but never turned out anything made of wood!!!!

   In high school I made a wood chain six lengths long and this is what I decided I would do in my spare time. No money at all and I could make small things from a limb off a tree.

 Gerald, the little town where I went to high school every other family had a cellar or almost. They were only about 4 foot wide 6 foot deep and as long as a guy could stand before he said that's all I can do and quits. Used railroad cross ties covered to top with used tin covering the cross ties before the dirt was piled on top. This also was a good place to store the canned goods. Dirt steps.

  Working on my nest project. 

 

 

Put a handle on them and they make a good soup spoon!!!

 

Hey, we bought a great lot there in Bella Vesta in 1961.  They had many single wides completely equipped for free for the family's to stay in ,as they tried to talk folks in to buying lots. Everything was free except food. Lots of extras like horse back riding, free swimming and row boats or some kind of boat rides, to long to remember and bought a lot there.. Paid on it for a few years  then told wife too much sweating up there so we quit paying and forgot about Bella Vista but we did go back is a few more years to look around to see if they did all the things they said they had planned and would build, hospitals and churches and stores!!!!

   The second time we stayed in someone's cabin for free..Nice place except the summer time!!!!!

Bella Vista,

 

Remember if there are no pictures then it didn't happen.

 

@Smallpatch In Louisiana where I was raised and Mississippi where I have lived all my professional life we don't call them basements; those are swimming pools.

Small patch;  off subject but Bella Vista has 6 golf courses (I don't golf), 7 lakes, I do fish), Original lake dam burst last year do to heavy rain.  Shooting range (rifle and pistol) has been down almost a year for renovation, due to open this spring (we hope) also adding archery range.  Trap and skeet range is going strong.  Several grocery stores, lots of churches, bicycle trails all over the place along with walking trails and paved paths.  3 Rec centers, two with pools and pickle ball courts.  Property owner fees are reasonably low.  Walmart grandsons just bought out a lot of original developer land so who knows what the future holds.  Also, you bike or walk the trails from Bella Vista to Fayetteville, approx 35 miles.  NW Ark is claiming the Trail bike capitol of the world. even the high schools have trail bike clubs.  Home building all over the place.