a couple of old sticks

[kronckew]

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:


end of the smaller one: