# 1st cedar cane



## gdenby (Apr 27, 2013)

Hi, all,

It took me forever to get to this post. In fact, I'm posting a little pre-maturely, but the weather has made my workspace very unpleasant, my joint pain is bad enough that woodworking is too hard, and the way things have been going, who knows what might pop-up next.

To expand: I've been working mostly on a cane /stick from a cedar branch taken from a tree in my garden that is slowly dying by being shaded out by neighbor trees. Its been decades since I planted it, and I can't quite recall, but I believe it is a cultivar of Eastern White Cedar. I've been messing w. it since late August.

Along the way, I was cleaning and restoring a house I inherited so my daughter and son-in-law would have a place to live when they moved back into this area. Way more dirt and grime than I expected, boxes and boxes of papers and personal effects to sort thru, etc. Just finished that about 12 days ago.

Bought a car that was "new to me." After a few days of OK performance, the idle began to fail, and then the engine began stalling at random. Only took 5 trips to various services centers, and hours of wasted time, and I'm still not certain it will work right.

Received a letter from the state asking for repayment of medical benefits my father received in his last months, or show that there were no assets to reclaim. Into the piles of paper (not all saved) and more trips to the lawyers' office.

Upgraded my computer OS, and it wouldn't recognize either of my old digital cameras, and I had to figure out how to avoid using the photo organizer that the system insisted be used instead of the older software I know how to use. Only took an hour of searching and teeth grinding in frustration.

So, finally, to the point.

The cedar stick is pretty close to completion. I have the grip area carved to where I want it, scraped, sanded, burnished, oiled and waxed. The rest of the shaft is about 90% scraped and sanded, so only 4 -5 hours more work, unless I decide I want to fill some of the knot holes (earlier attempts were not good, and I cut the plugging material out.)

The pics are as follows. A close up of the top detail, which can be used as a thumb grip. Two shots of knot features where the grip flares out into the shaft. A comparison of the stick next to my wife's store bought metal cane. You should be able to see the difference between the upper finished areas and the lower partially finished. A close up of a feature near to finish. Another shot of less finished area, taken without a flash, showing somewhat the wood looks like under cold cloudy natural light.







































I mentioned to an old friend who is a fine woodworker, house builder and restorer, I was carving some cedar. He said he loved working w. cedar for the color, and aroma, (He once built almost an entire house completely out of cedar) but that he really would not like to carve it all that much. He was quite right. The grain is long, and very irregular. Twisty, w. very soft sap wood and semi hard heart wood and fully hard heartwood, interspersed w. knots.

I have one more, larger branch yet to go, so the practice on this one will be well spent, because I've learned enough from this one that I think I might be able to manage some detail in the next.


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## Rodnogdog (Jun 10, 2015)

Nice! I like the look. Sorry to hear about your pain; I can empathize because I was severely injured in a collision with an automobile, breaking both my legs, my hip in four places, both arms, some ribs and other stuff. Weather and temperature affect me too, more and more the older I get.

This past weekend I collected my first cedar stick - it's completely green and will have to dry for awhile but I'm looking forward to working it. Yours makes me excited in anticipation.


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## cobalt (Nov 14, 2013)

you have been busy with unwanted tascks by the sound of it gdenby .i also take on jobs that turn out to be a marathon and the pain cant help to tackle them.

So good luck with them and hope you can tackle then without to many unforeseen problems

I do like the colour of the stick your working on.

People over the pond amaze me you put so much time and effort into getting a stick as you want it , okay you work with different materails and take a different approach , but admire your determination. And effort you put into the stick

I just love our nateral resources as well with the shanks i use dont need debarking as it provides a tough naturally waterproof shank its just a case of a few coats of daniish abd carving a topper , fitting a ferrule . But the colours of the bark is prerry amazing depending whers its grown thw condition its grown under and the natural effects of the season.


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## gdenby (Apr 27, 2013)

cobalt said:


> People over the pond amaze me you put so much time and effort into getting a stick as you want it , okay you work with different materails and take a different approach , but admire your determination. And effort you put into the stick
> 
> I just love our nateral resources as well with the shanks i use dont need debarking as it provides a tough naturally waterproof shank its just a case of a few coats of daniish abd carving a topper , fitting a ferrule . But the colours of the bark is prerry amazing depending whers its grown thw condition its grown under and the natural effects of the season.


There aren't any wood barks that I know of that look as nice as the hazel you use. Sometimes I see mulberry that has a nice even yellow brown, w. little light speckles in it. Sassafras can look nice if just the top grey ridges are sanded so the orange under bark shows. About the only bark that I know of that is reliable smooth is beech, and that is a boring grey. So often, it means debarking the stick. And if the wood itself is good looking, then all the sap wood has to come off.

When I started this, I realized I couldn't really make much $ from it unless I ramped up my production by buying power tools, and maybe hired tree trimmers as sub contractors to set aside decent branches of the most common wood around here, soft maple. So I decided to satisfy myself, and put a ridiculous amount of time messing w. woods that might be to hard to carve, and then try to finish them to glossy smooth w/o using varnish. Even at minimum wage + materials, I'd be selling my stuff for maybe $360. When I have all I want for myself (close), I'll just start gifting them to family and friends if they express an interest. Or offer them to the conservancy groups I belong to.


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## cobalt (Nov 14, 2013)

Very few people can charge the time and effort put into a stick I sometimes get a good price and it seems that I am getting more commissions but to charge all the hours it takes would over price them so a little less pays for my tools and a few extras in particular a bottle of single malt

But I enjoy making them as long as they pay for a few materials and replacement tools and of coarse the odd bottle of malt I am happy


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## Sean (Dec 29, 2012)

Cedar stick looks great. Nice shape, form. I hear you on joint pain it gets to me from time to time as well.


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