Bright Colored Walking Stick

Just putting the finishing touches on the walking stick.

Although, it's difficult to see from the picture, the colors on the snake are a mixture of yellow, orange, purple, and red.

What to you think?

Red And White Carved Snake Walking Stick

The Kentucky Walking Stick is about 48" tall and the snake is white with red spots.

Finished work on it this afternoon.

What do you think?

Do you like the colors?

Any suggestions?

A Work In Progress

The four carved snake walking sticks are a work in progress.

Once complete each staff will have world globe paper weight mounted onto the top of each staff.

I'm planning to mold a collar for the globe to rest on at the top of each stick,

I will use magic sculpt to create the collar.

Can You Spot The Curled Walking Stick

Do you see the curled stick in the picture?

This is the kind of place where the curled stick grow, lot's of vines and briars.

Cold weather is here in Kentucky.  Time to get out the Gerber saw and look for curled sticks.

Kentucky Walking Cane With Worm Tunneling

What do you think of this walking stick? I stained the walking stick, painted the worm tunneling green, and coated the walking stick with three layers of Minwax polyurethane.

I just hated to see all the worm's work go to waste.

New Color For Kentucky Walking Sticks and Canes

I've added a bit of color to the Kentucky walking sticks and canes.

I decided that a bit of color is just something people may really like.

What do you think?

I would really like your comments.

Harvesting Blank Sticks

Just spent the past four days in eastern Kentucky searching for "blank" sticks and had the good fortune of harvesting nearly 220 sticks, only 780 to go.  For some reason, I have in my mind that I want to cut 1,000 straight sticks.

Worm Tunneled Wood

One of my favorite types of wood to select, when searching in the forest for walking stick material is Oak. For some reason here in Kentucky the worms love to tunnel under the bark as the stick cures.
I remove the bark using my pressure washer and the look of the worm tunneling is amazing.
I often stain the wood "Gun-stock" in color.
Do any of you guys select worm tunneled wood?

Kentucky Walking Cane

Kentucky Walking Stick

A Very Colorful Snake

A few months ago I carved this snake on a walking cane, however I was not happy with the color of the snake. I had painted the snake black. A few days ago, I decided to repaint the snake. The colors I used are yellow, red, orange, and purple.

Please let me know what you think.

Picture Of The Pigs

A picture of my daughter Michelle, her dog and our pigs.

Meet This Guy In The Woods

Just the other day, I was searching for wood to make walking sticks, when I met this guy. He was searching for a cool place to rest and I wished him good luck on his trek.

Wild Ginseng

Last week, I was searching for sticks to make walking sticks, when I came upon a really nice hillside with lot's of wild ginseng growing.  Several of the plants were very old 4 prongs.

What a nice surprise.

Roman Centurion Vitis Stick

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The Roman Centurion carried the vitis or vine staff which was a swagger stick about three feet in length originally made of grape vine. This made a handy weapon for a casual whack of a soldier for insubordination. This practice was known as castigato.

Shipping a Roman Centurion Vitis stick to England in a couple of days for a Roman re-enactor's use.

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Carved Snake Walking Cane

Just completed work on a nice carved snake walking cane.  The snake is painted red, yellow, and black.  The cane has a brass hame handle and is approximately 37" tall.

I carved the cane for a lady in Ohio.

I will post a picture of the snake I carved before I painted the snake and a picture of the snake after I painted the snake.

 

 

Carved Snake Walking Stick With Healing Crystal

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Just created a carved snake walking stick for a lady who is a healing facilator in North Carolina. The snake is has approximately 7 coils and is a light brown color. Mounted in the top of the walking stick is a healing crystal.

 

 

Roman Vitis Stick

Just shipped a kinda unique stick to a person who is a Roman reenator. The stick is a "Vitis" stick carried by Roman centurions to hand out punishment. The stick is about 3' long, twisted, and narrly. This the 2nd vitis stick I have made the 1st one shipped to Australia.

Bright Colored Carved Snake Walking cane

I carve lots of snakes on walking sticks and canes and I have always painted the snakes to look as life like as I possibly can, however a few months ago I had a request from a customer to create a carved snake cane, but paint the snake in very bright colors.

I put a picture of the cane with the bright painted snake and it has been a hit.

Since, then I have sold quite a few of the bright colored snakes. Most people don't care if there is a snake that's colored the color of the snake on the cane, they just think it's pretty.

Have you had anything simular happen?

Carved Snake Cherry Walking Stick

Cherry is a very hard wood, but makes a great walking stick or cane.

I carved the snake coiling around and up the walking cane, which is approxiamtely 53"  tall.

The snake looks very natural.

A lady in Ohio purchased the carved snake stick along with a curled stick.

Visit my website http://www.kywalkingcane.com

Carved Snake Walking Cane

After spending several days working on the latest carved snake walking cane, the cane is now ready to ship to the customer and I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Take a look and let me know what your thoughts are.

Traded Sticks

A customer who is 83 years old dropped by by today to pickup a new walking cane. He had broken one he purchased from me last summer. Seems he ran over it with his truck. Traded a couple of nice twisted sticks for the cane, which is good because it's hard to hunt sticks in the snow.

3" World Globe Paper Weights

Just applied the final coat of polyurethane to the two carved snake walking canes and one curled walking cane .

The 3" world globe paper weights will be mounted to the top of each cane.

Looking pretty good so far.

The paper weights are only set in place now, but will be epoxyed as next step, barring any changes as requested by customer.

 

 

3" World Globes

Just finished drilling and epoxying the bolts into three of the 3" world globes to be installed on the tops of three carved snake walking canes. The holes are drilled into the sticks, next step is several coats of polyurethane, then epoxy bolts into the sticks.

Carved Snake Walking Cane

Working on two Carved Snake walking canes for a College of Osteophatic Medicine. The walking canes will feature a 3" world globe on top of both canes.

 

 

 

More pictures to come as I continue to work on the canes.

Now I'm On Facebook and Twitter

Just created a couple of Twitter accounts for Kentucky Walking Cane and Kentucky Walking Stick.

 I am new to Twitter for sure, but my daughter thinks it's a great idea.

Just wondering if any of you have created a Twitter account, if so you can find me by searching on Twitter for kywalkingcane or kywalkingstick.

Of course I just also started a facebook page called Kentucky Walking Cane.

Let me know your thoughts.

PIctures of Curled Sticks Growing

I just made a short video of curled sticks that I have seen growing in the woods.

Thought you might like to see what they look like.

Boy Scout Walking Sticks

Living here in rural Kentucky, I sometimes forget that people live in places where they don't have access to sticks growing in the wild.


We always think of boy scouts out in the woods camping and hiking around, which boys and girls like to do, however kids growing up in cities don't have access easy access to sticks.

I have been lucky enough to supply cub scout, boy scout, and girl scout troops with "blank" or unfinished sticks for several years.

Troops order the blank sticks and make their own walking staffs.

I've supplied groups all over the United States with sticks.

Carved Snake Walking Cane 01/27/2014

Today has been a great day to carve a walking cane.

The cane is approximately 58" tall and the snake makes four coils around the cane.

Comments are always welcome.

How Do You Remove Your Bark

Today, I needed to remove the bark from a couple of curled sticks, before I carve on them.

The pressure washer can make the difficult job of removing bark from the stick, easy.

 

The pressure washer is 3,000 psi and I'm using an oscillating head on the wand.

Removing Bark From Stick With Pressure Washer - YouTube

3" World Globe

The two 3" globes arrived arrived to from the customer. Looks like warmer (above freezing) for Sunday. If the forecast is correct I will hookup the pressure washer and blast the bark off two nice curled sticks, then begin carving the snakes on both.

 

Keep watching for progress pictures.

 

I think this will be excitting.

 

 

Walking Cane For Drive Angry

Carved a snake on walking cane for a movie Nicolas Cage was staring in called Drive Angry, but for some reason the people making the movie decided to us another walking stick with big bone on the stick, rather than the snake, figure that one out.

Needless to say, sitting in the movie theator I was disappointed when I got a chance to see the walking stick shown in the movie.

Making Split Tobacco Sticks Years Past

MAKING TOBACCO STICKS

 

YEARS PAST 

 

Tobacco provided a reliable source on income for my parents, who were born in Wolfe County, Kentucky.  Dad (Rodney Spencer) often told me stories of working in the tobacco fields, both when he was a child and later as adult.  Dad and his brother (Ray Spencer) would spend the day with their pa-paw (John T Spencer) hoeing and plowing the fields, then of a night sneaking out of the house and riding the work horses until well after midnight, without a saddle using a string for a bridle. 

 

The tobacco was harvested late in the summer each year.  The tobacco plants were cut using a tobacco knife. Several tobacco plants were placed on tobacco sticks, which were hauled on sleds to the tobacco barn to cure, later the tobacco leaves were removed from the tobacco stalk and sold at market.

 

Dad, papaw, and grand-paw made their own tobacco sticks.  A large tree was cut down.  The logs were cut into approximately five foot lengths.  Each log was then split into smaller and pieces, using a froe and a wooden mallet until the tobacco sticks were the end product. 

 

A froe was a simple tool which functioned more like a wedge than a cutting tool. The blade was driven into a block of wood with a wood club or mallet which struck the back of the metal blade. The wooden handle served as a lever to pry the blade sideways deepening the split with further blows.  Dad’s papaw had a blacksmith’s shop and he made the froe they used.

 

Often, the fall of the year was a slow period of time.  Dad told me that on a good day, they could make 250-500 tobacco sticks. Several thousand tobacco sticks were needed for the tobacco grown on the family farm, however extra sticks were made and sold for much needed dollars.  The tobacco sticks sold for about $0.03/each.

 

Our family no longer grows tobacco crops, however I have a small web site http://www.kywalkingcane.com , where I sell handmade walking sticks.  The best tobacco sticks are selected from the barn.  The tobacco stick is cut to length and hand sanded to remove splinters from the wood.  Several coats of oil based wood sealer is applied, followed by three coats of oil based polyurethane.

 

Most farmers have thrown away or burned the tobacco sticks used on the tobacco farms.  The tobacco barns are slowly being torn down, soon the tobacco fields will be empty of tobacco.  Creating walking sticks from the tobacco sticks is a way for me to save a small piece of our family history by providing walking sticks for people to enjoy for years to come.

 

Please come to my web site http://www.kywalkingcane.com and enjoy the family pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Kris Kristofferson With Carved Snake Walking Cane

Picture of Kris Kristofferson holding a Carved Snake Walking cane I created for him to use in the movie "Bloodworth".

Carved Snake Slide Show On Youtube

The attched link is for a youtube slide show featuring several carved snake walking canes I have carved over the past year or so.

Watch the video.

Let me know what you think.

Carved Snake Cane slide show.

Kentucky Walking Stick and Kentucky Walking Cane on Google+

Follow Kentucky Walking Sticks on google+.

Follow Kentucky Walking Cane on google+

Check Out Kentucky Walking Cane - Kentucky Walking Stick On Facebook

The facebook page for Kentucky Walking Sticks - Kentucky Walking Canes is up and running after several days of work.

Everything appears to be working well.

Take a look and give me any suggestions for improvement.

You can also find Kentucky Walking Canes on google+.

Of course you can visit the websites:

Kentucky Walking Cane

Kentucky Walking Stick

I Must Be A Neanderthal

I may be a Neanderthal, but I just set up a Facebook page for Kentucky Walking Canes.

Don't laugh, I'm know I'm behind the times.

How To Straighten A Crooked Stick

I use an electric hot plate that I purchased at a garage sale.

I also use a large 2 gallon pan.

Place the pan of water on the hot plate and heat until the water boils.

Place the crooked stick with the crook over the pan and cover with an old coat or blanket, but be careful not catch the coat on fire.

Let the stick stay in place for about an hour or so.

Remove the stick and bend over your knee until straight, a bit at a time.

Facebook

Just been working on my Kentucky Walking Cane page on Facebook, but I'm having some problems.

I can't seem to figure out how to install a link on my website to facebook or for the matter, how to install a link on my blog to facebook.

On Facebook you can search Kentucky Walking Cane, but I want to click a link on my website and go to Facebook.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

New To Facebook

Just setup a facebook page for Kentucky Walking Cane.

If I understand facebook correctly, just search for "Kentucky Walking Cane" on facebook and you should be able to find me.

I continue to work on the new website Kentucky Walking Cane, for some reason the website is not very high on the list when I search for walking cane or walking sticks.  Not really coming up at all, any suggestions?

Kentucky Walking stick comes up on the first page in google.

Ice Hanging On The Cliff

The creek runs over the cliff behind my parents house in Wolfe County, Kentucky.

When I was a young boy, my favorite sport in the winter time was to shot ice sickles off the cliff where running water had frozen.

I guess when you grow up in the country it really doesn't take much for enterainment.

Cold Weather Stick Hunting

I love to go outside an walking around in the woods searching for sticks in cold weather, but wow! This is really cold weather.

Looks like this weekend will bring about warmer weather, but here in Kentucky we are going to have rain.

Just looked out and it's raining now.

Merry Christmas

Created this cool Christmas card a few weeks ago and emailed to lot's of people. 

If you didn't get a card I'm sorry and Merry Christmas once again!!!

Kentucky Walking Sticks and Kentucky Walking Canes