Walking Stick or Cane

[Rodneywt1180b]

Arlin requested more "in progress" type writeups to help teach beginning turners and maybe some of the more experienced ones too.
I think it's a good idea even though I'm not a great turner. 
I've been making canes lately, mostly with natural shanks but a couple turned ones too. 
I already had this blank glued up so I don't get to show that part of the process.
This shank is made of 3 sections.  The bottom is mahogany salvaged from an old window sill.  The center is spalted maple from the same piece the handle is from and there is about a 1/2" thick spacer of mahogany between the shank and the handle.
Here's a pic of the blank still in clamps.


Not the best picture.
Here's another shot showing the joint between the bottom and center sections.  I cut it at a 45* angle. The joints are secured using 3/8" diameter all thread epoxied in place.  A trick for drilling the holes is to drill the holes while the ends are still square and cut your angles afterward.
You can see the handle was left square on the end that attaches to the shank.  I left it that way to help with alignment and clamping.  I'll finish shaping it after it's attached.

I used an off cut from one of the pieces and a small scrap as a spacer to give myself a square clamping surface that was past the end of the all thread that will secure the handle.

 
If you're wondering about the pink lathe, it's my daughter's.  I just use it.  Her lathe uses a solid 5/8" spindle, the same size as ShopSmith accessories.  I used the ShopSmith drill chuck to grip the all thread for turning.  I also put on the off cut to help prevent tearout on the end of the spacer.  You can also see my home made steady rest that I never put wheels on.  It works but could be better.  Harder to see is the bed extension I made.  The lathe only has a 30" capacity without it.
The shank is mostly round at this point.  I still have some final shaping and blending of the taper to do.

Not much to see here.  The shaping is done and it's sanded to 100 grit.  I'm not proud.  I fine tuned the shape with sandpaper.  A better turner could get to this stage with no more than a skew chisel and have a finer finish as well.

I did have a couple "oops's".  This is a small catch with the skew that I had at the bottom.  I also had a tiny bit of tearout in the collar at the top and a couple small worm holes in the mahogany.  They're filled with wood glue and sanding dust.  I'm just waiting for the glue to dry before I finish sanding the shank.  I will take it to 320 grit before I apply the finish.

If you decide to make a cane I recommend starting with a minimum of a 1 3/8 thick blank.  The mahogany I used was about 1 1/16" and was just a little too skinny to get a really nice taper.  It's not quite a dowel but I would have preferred more thickness at the top.
Rodney



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[Arlin Eastman]

Pretty cool and thank you.

How long is your lathe bed?  Seems pretty long maybe 50" to 60"

How do you thing of what woods to put where?

[chips ahoy]

Nice job,get some roller blade wheels to put on your steady rest.

Mel

[Rodneywt1180b]

Arlin that choice was simple.  I don't have a lot of nice hardwoods laying around so my choices were limited. I had already roughed out the handle in the spalted maple and the mahogany was a little on the skinny side.  I also had that off cut of the spalted maple that was about a foot long. I knew I wanted to use it somewhere.   Two woods seemed like enough so the mahogany had to go on the bottom.  The mahogany spacer helps to break up the maple and maybe helps a little with the change in grain direction between the handle and shank. 
With the home made extension I probably have about 40 to 42" of capacity.
Different places sell 2 piece connector kits so there are good work arounds available to those with mini lathes.

Chips ahoy wheels are definitely on my to-do list even if I just turn some wooden ones.
Rodney

[chips ahoy]

You can pick up roller blades cheap at a flea market,I paid $5 for a pair.Gave me enough to make my steady rest and gave some wheels to my buddy.



Mel

[Rodneywt1180b]

Nice looking rest. 
Rodney

[chips ahoy]

Thanks Rodney,most expensive part was the roller blades,the wood was just scrap I had laying around.Great for doing some additional hollowing on pepper mills.Also used it to make a two piece cane using Lee Valley hardware.

Mel

[Rodneywt1180b]

Last night I sanded the shank down to 320 grit while it was still on the lathe and put a coat of oil on just because I wanted to see how it looked.  No, I'm not the patient type.  I really should have waited so there would be no chance it interfered with gluing the handle on.
This morning I started shaping the rest of the handle to fit the shank.
The shank as of this morning.

Shank and handle.  I have a lot of material to remove from the handle.

I put the handle on and traced around it with a pencil so I know where to remove the extra wood.




Now I take the handle to the band saw and disk sander to get the rough shaping done.
Here it is with the machine work completed.  The nub at the top is still attached for clamping purposes.  It will be easy to remove after I glue the handle on.

I spent some time with a rasp and file refining the shape a bit more, getting rid of the sander marks and bringing the handle to within about 1/16" of the shank.  I like to leave a little bit extra until glue up is complete but at the same time it's easiest to work on the handle before it's attached.
Here it is in the house waiting to be glued.  It's cold and I don't have a heated shop.  Epoxy works better when it's warm.

Gluing it up is as far as I can take it today.  I use regular epoxy instead of the 5 minute type so it takes around 24 hours to develop full strength.
After glue up it's more quality time with rasps, files and sandpaper to get the fit right then about a week of oiling it.
I like tung oil.  It's a durable finish that looks good and is easy to touch up if you need to.
If this is too much detail just let me know.
Rodney

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[Arlin Eastman]

Very well documented and I think I will be able to make mine when the time comes.  Thanks a lot.

[Rodneywt1180b]

Thanks Arlin.
One thing I forgot to mention is know your bottom diameter before you start.  I make my tips from 3/4" copper pipe that I polish and rubber stoppers I turn down to fit.

Here's what they look like.

The rubber is drilled and counter bored for a screw to go up through the bottom to secure it.  I like to leave the base wide, it adds quite a bit to the stability of the cane.
There a bunch of commercial tips available as well and there are a lot of makers who just slide rubber chair leg tips over the end and call it good.  I prefer some sort of metal at the tip to prevent the wood from splitting plus a metal ferrule looks better to me.
Rodney

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