a couple of old sticks
 

ah, well a couple of new but antique sticks that arrived yesterday, the one with the badges is essentially an alpine walking stick with lots of badges for mountains and forests visited. the offset ball head is a large handful, about 2"+, the 1.5" shaft is substantial, a great head knocker. not yet sure what the wood is, but it floats handily, even with the metal badges and steel spike about half of it is above water, so density should be in the .4-.6 range. (water is 1.). it has an edelweiss carved lightly on the upper section, so i assume it's austrian. most of the badges are also. good for the things that wander around the dark forests of europe.

the other one, a gentlemans town cane, possibly early 20th c. (?) is more slender than i'd hoped, but the good news is that it does appear to be lignum vitae, the hardest and heaviest of woods. it's about 3/4 in. at the tip, the ball is about 1 in., to check the density, i dropped it (and the other one) in the tub after my bath this morning :) it sank like a rock (unlike the 1st), density appears well over 1.0, as i'd expect in an ironwood or lignum vitae. hard and oily. good for the things that wander around the dark alleys of london.

sticks:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/P7040146.jpg

end of the smaller one:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/P7040147.jpg

NICE WALKING STICKS :) , I SEE A FEW OF THESE FROM TIME TO TIME BUT MOST HAVE A CROOKED TOP AND ARE TOO LIGHT FOR DEFENDING ONE'S SELF. THE BADGES ARE FROM PLACES VISITED AND MOST I HAVE SEEN WERE FROM GERMANY OR AUSTRIA. I WONDER WHEN THIS FIRST STARTED AND IF THE BADGES ARE STILL AVAILABLE AS SOUVINEERS TODAY.?

I don't know when this first started, but they are still available as souvenirs, and indeed people who visit some place around the Alps for holiday and walking/skiing, bought themselves such badge and put it on their walkingstick, just as souvenir that they visited that place.
In the past people had stickers also on the rearwindow of their car, for everyone to show which place they visited allready in a former vacation..:confused: However I don't see what the point is of all that fuzz, but everyone his own I guess..:D