# The ULTIMATE geologist's stick



## CAS14

I am working on the ULTIMATE rustic walking stick and Jacob's staff for the fanatical geologist. My 40 year old Jacob's staff from school days was in the attic, sitting unused for 10 years. I removed the Abney level so that I could devise... an attachment device for the new stick. Sadly, the ethanol has leaked or evaporated from the bubble level. This attaches via posts that measure 3.2 cm apart.

The usual suppliers, Forestry Suppliers, Ben Meadows, and Minerox can not replace the bubble. I think that the manufacturer, Mikasa, is out of business.

Any ideas? Where is a really good source of lots of leveling bubbles like this? I could just purchase a new Abney level, but this one has been over outcrops all over the USA and like my trusty rock hammer, I don't want to give it up.









The goal to add GPS fizzled, but I found a compass that isn't a toy but a durable scuba diver's compass that would work great for the top of the stick, if they will ship from Australia.


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## CAS14

Update, a repair guy at Forestry Suppliers may be able to find a replacement bubble! Fingers crossed.


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## JJireh

If not you could modify a string level from Lowes/Home Depot to fit. May have to make a frame for it that will screw down, but should be easy nuff.


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## CAS14

I could pull one of the end caps off this one, hopefully without breaking it, and if another tube is the same OD, I could insert it.

Several problems - now days I am told they don't make the bubbles out of glass and fill them with an organic liquid (like ethanol). They make them out of a plastic and use another liquid. Sizing is the other potential problem. Yes, I could make a frame, or modify one from the hardware store if necessary. Hopefully I will get lucky. The good news is that I have a long history of being lucky.

The Forestry Supplies repair guy said if I ship him the bubble, he has four kinds of replacements and if one would work he will send it for $10, if not he will return mine. So I'll try that first, but I will not send the Abney just to be safe.


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## JJireh

Being of the laity, could you explain why it would matter if it were glass or plastic or the liquid type? Functional issues or just preference?


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## CAS14

JJireh, in an emergency, you could drink the ethanol in the glass one! 

Just kidding.

I'm always suspicious that changes to a perfectly good design are just to reduce manufacturing costs. In general, product quality seems to be deteriorating, not improving. My attitude may be attritubable to premature senility or just old fartedness.


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## CAS14

Cheap compass for under $2 with easy to install instructions:

http://www.klockit.com/products/dept-25__sku-32222.html









First-rate durable diving compass for over $30, made as a replacement insert for a compass on a wristband:

http://www.problue.com.tw/ag.htm









I may see if they will ship one of the diving compasses from Australia and also buy one of the cheap ones to compare durability and utility.


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## JJireh

No, I understand and don't blame you. I just wasn't sure if gravity effected one over the other or if there were some barometric issue.

I am just a scavenger  If I can make it work and it's free/cheap, I can usually pretty it up enough. We are a single income house with 3 homeschooled children(17 mos, 5, 8 all girls  ) have to save up for those weddings, if any hairy legs can muster their manhood to come ask for them one day ha.


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## CAS14

Good luck JJireh. Remember the words of John Lennon: "Everything will be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not yet the end."

My younger (son) is 34 and my elder (daughter) is 38, both finished college and are happily married, and my daughter has rewarded me with two grandchildren with whom I spend nearly every Friday afternoon and evening, and sometimes Saturdays. Somehow, we began saving early and got them through college and married without borrowing. It will work out in the end.


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## JJireh

You can call me Sean, and no worries, the Lord has brought me this far, He won't let go  I'm just a few years older than your daughter.

There is a doctrine among Christians called pre-trib, those people who believe Jesus is coming back before a tribulation period. I tell people I am pre-pub. He has to come back before my girls hit puberty 

Not trying to hijack your thread, I was just saying I have learned to "make things work"

It's great that you are investing time in your grandkids life! It is important, you pass things that their parents can't. I remember just walking around my grandpa's shop, I can still smell the shavings and pitch he used on the outside. I actually have some of his old tools.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand  Can't wait to see what you put together.


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## CAS14

No problem at all Sean. When the hairy boys come around, point out what that shillelagh that you are working on is used for!

As crude as the two walking sticks that I made for the grandkids are, they are already going on walks with them!

Tomorrow my bubble level will ship to Forestry Suppliers, hoping that one of the four replacements they have will work. A little hitch, but it will work out.


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## CAS14

Status:

I have been to every hardware store in Tulsa and can't find an ideal piece of hardware to mount my Abney level, which looks a lot like this:








I plan to use a couple of brass shelf supports unless I stumble onto something better.

Struck out on a small and precise enough GPS, even though the technology exists.

Bought small brass screws to mark measure points on the stick.

Stopped by the local dive shop (yes one exists in Tulsa), and bought two of this small compass at about $25 each:








The kiln dried Bois d'Arc staves sold for bow making, at $200 plus shipping would deplete my warrior fund too much, so I don't yet have a suitable, dried stick. Perhaps the Kansas fence post outfit will resolve this issue.

I can't wait to finish this project, and I'd bet a six pack that some geologists will show up here eventually.


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## JJireh

Vance, have you drawn a layout of what you are planning? I'm just thinking that you shouldn't need a 200 dollar piece of wood to do this thing, when I nice oak or hickory or ash would suffice and are easier to come by. By the time you finish that sucker it will be 500 bucks just to break even


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## CAS14

I agree, I decided not to buy a lathe or the kiln-dried Bois d'Arc staves, as that adds up to enough to slow down Afghanistan shipments (long story). There are some hardwood dealers locally, where I can pick up something to work on, as I wait for all my green sticks to dry.

The measure marks are easy, #8 brass wood screws every foot for five feet, starting at the bottom. Then #6 brass wood screws every tenth of a foot, the lowermost foot.

The clamp for the Abney os more difficult. It was easy to mount it atop the aluminum tubing that I used 40 years ago. It was mounted so that the lens at precisely five feet above ground level. In order to mount a compass on top at perhaps 5' 4" or 5' 6", easy to view, the Abney must be side mounted and easy to attach and remove for protection in thick woods and brambles, and the steeper rocky outcrops, or just when it isn't needed and there is no point in risking damage.

After looking in all the usual hardware stores, I have up on a brass spacer all the way through the stick, into which I could slip a pin attached to a clamp. Yesterday I bought two small brass bookshelf holders that I can attach by drilling a shallow hole and epoxy them on. Getting them perfectly to fit and perfectly squared is the tricky part.


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## CAS14

My nearest Lowe's doesn't carry red cedar in 2" x 2" stock, but I think I can get 2" x 4" x 8' and get them to rip it for a nominal cost. One challenge will be to find a piece that is straight and with few knots. After working on taxes today, I hope to have time to look.


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## CAS14

On my lunch break, I stopped by a hardwood vender on a hard-to-find street. He is ordering me some 2" x ??? x 10' pecan stock at $5.50 per board foot, and he will cut square lengths of 6' and 4' for me.

Now, I won't have to come back posthumously as a zombie to compete the sticks that are now curing in the garage.

Still, I will use primarily hand tools to get this down to size, and I should have a fairly rustic looking product.

The cost per stick should be nominal, and the labor will be more than I want to think about right now. But I will enjoy it.


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## CAS14

CAS said:


> Status:
> 
> I have been to every hardware store in Tulsa and can't find an ideal piece of hardware to mount my Abney level, which looks a lot like this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> image.jpg
> 
> I plan to use a couple of brass shelf supports unless I stumble onto something better.


One of those "DUH" moments struck. The Abney level could be perfectly squared and secured, simply by leaving a short square section of the stick (or just one flat side, or not), and using a square to draw perpendicular guides across the stick and then sawing two cuts with a miter saw, just deep enough to set in the Abney, but not too deep. Then a metal or wood strip that slides vertically can secure the Abney in it's slot. The stick will be sufficiently wide near the top anyway.


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## Rad

CAS: if you can, post pictures of the process! I'm interested in how all of this is going to come together!


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## CAS14

Rad said:


> CAS: if you can, post pictures of the process! I'm interested in how all of this is going to come together!


Only if you promise not to make fun of me. I'm a very sensitive person. :thumbsu:


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## Rad

CAS said:


> Rad said:
> 
> 
> 
> CAS: if you can, post pictures of the process! I'm interested in how all of this is going to come together!
> 
> 
> 
> Only if you promise not to make fun of me. I'm a very sensitive person. :thumbsu:
Click to expand...

I would never make fun of anyone! It's all a learning experiance! I look forward to your pictures!


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## CAS14

Just joking. At my age not much bothers me, unless you mess with my grandkids, then you are in deep doo doo.


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## CAS14

CAS said:


> I am working on the ULTIMATE rustic walking stick and Jacob's staff for the fanatical geologist. My 40 year old Jacob's staff from school days was in the attic, sitting unused for 10 years. I removed the Abney level so that I could devise... an attachment device for the new stick. Sadly, the ethanol has leaked or evaporated from the bubble level. This attaches via posts that measure 3.2 cm apart.
> The usual suppliers, Forestry Suppliers, Ben Meadows, and Minerox can not replace the bubble. I think that the manufacturer, Mikasa, is out of business.
> Any ideas? Where is a really good source of lots of leveling bubbles like this? I could just purchase a new Abney level, but this one has been over outcrops all over the USA and like my trusty rock hammer, I don't want to give it up.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 1970 Mikasa Abney level_50.jpg


1) We returned home late Sunday from my brother's place in Texas. I cut some cured but cracked cedar, some green cedar, some oak, and another wood not found around Tulsa. Now I have to decide between the pecan that I bought (it will be here this week), and the cracked but very hard and with shrinkage cracks. I am inclined to use the "natural" from my brother's place, after some remedial work on those cracks, some of which extend 3/8" and into the heartwood.

2) The replacement level from Forestry Suppliers was waiting on our doorstep. With a little reaming of the pre-drilled screw holes, it fit perfectly. The internal mirror is a bit cloudy but it works well enough. This Abney may not be as good as new, but it has travelled all over the USA, throughout the Rockies and the Appalachians, and many other areas. I can't give it up.

I think that if I heat the structural epoxy on a glass plate and warm the cracked cedar stick, that the epoxy will penetrate deeper into the cracks. I made thin sections (slides from thin slices of rock) as a graduate assistant, over forty years ago. We heated the epoxy back then. If nobody here says "no don't do it", then I will try that. The epoxy should be less viscous.


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## Rad

Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing what you do.


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## JJireh

Cedar is a tricky beast, because of its structure it can be sturdy as stone, but have a hidden weakness that can break a stick from top to bottom. This is also dependent on the types of cedars too. We have red cedars here and I personally avoid them unless the are to remain un-cut and not carved. i.e. a post  I wouldn't put my best equipment on them, but you could experiment with them. The fact that they are alread cracked would make me even more wary.


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## CAS14

JJireh said:


> Cedar is a tricky beast, because of its structure it can be sturdy as stone, but have a hidden weakness that can break a stick from top to bottom. This is also dependent on the types of cedars too. We have red cedars here and I personally avoid them unless the are to remain un-cut and not carved. i.e. a post  I wouldn't put my best equipment on them, but you could experiment with them. The fact that they are alread cracked would make me even more wary.


Thanks for the heads up! I will avoid installing expensive hardware, at least until I have banged them around a bit. I believe that this is also red cedar, and so your experience is especially relevant. I think that I will go ahead with the epoxy experiment, unless the guys at Woodcraft advise that this particular structural epoxy shouldn't be heated. I should experiment with a small segment that is deeply cracked, apply the warm epoxy, let it cure, and then saw it to see how far it penetrated and how well it bonded the crack.

If only there is a way to use these very straight and attractive sticks, I would have an unlimited supply every time I visit my brother.


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## CAS14

Jumping ahead to hardware, I need a detachable bracket to secure a mount for the Abney level so that can be detached and protected in rough terrain, and easily attached, perfectly level if the stick is perpendicular to sea level. Plans A, B, C, and D failed because no such parts could be found or they were just too complicated. Plan E will work. A bed rail bracket will attach near the top of the stick, and the other part of the bracket will screw into square hardwood dowels with spacers. The hardwood is not yet purchased.


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## CAS14

Several leather instrument cases will simply secure to the stick with some sort of web belt device, including the Abney level and the Brunton compass. My KA-BAR sheath may be attached that way, depending on the group or if I am solo.

All equipment dilemmas are solved. Now I need to epoxy my favorite, cracked cedar stick.


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## CAS14

Here is the likely stick, right after cutting.
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/139-me-and-my-niece-at-my-brothers-place-near-fairfield-tx/

The stick is warming, and hot epoxy is about to be applied to the cracks on one side.
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/140-1st-candidate-stick/

A few weeks later, beginning to use the draw knife and then some sanding with 40 grit.

http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/162-red-cedar-stick-a-work-in-progress/

Sanded down to 80 grit, then popped four recessed areas with 1 1/8" forstner bit. This is an experiment (shouldn't experiment on a piece with so much labor invested, but I maintain a positive attitude). A safer option would be to shave one or more sides flat, and then use the forstner bit, as with my profile image (a stick made for me by a retired Marine Gunny). However, I wanted this look:

http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/178-more-progress/


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## CAS14

SitRep: pecan 2"x2" notched to fit Abney level very well, and a brass latch purchased to secute. Drilled with forstner and 9/16" with threaded 3/8"x16 female insert installed, and it secures nicely to the stick.

Working on the Glif iPhone attachment for stabile photos - shaping a bronze plumbing thing to protect exposed threads and to look better.

Dog tag and five of eight military pins embedded.

20mm shell arrives Tuesday for the bottom tip. I'll drill out the top and shape the stick to fit, then epoxy the 20mm on. Then, hack saw the lead round and drill and screw mount a hard rubber furniture leg protector so that it is exactly 5 feet below the sight on the Abney level when attached.

Rasp "Chepo-style" grooves at three one-foot spaced intervals, epoxy & wrap soft brass 16-ga. wire, and then mark 1/10 foot for a foot with brass screws. Then I can measure thin outcropping rock beds.

Make another hardwood attachment just for a compass.

Seal & finish with lots of coats of Danish Oil & then wax.

Add a paracord section to grip with a loop.

Name it MacGyver, as the girl at the hardware store suggested after asking me what I was doing with all the assorted hardware.

A few hours every other weekend isn't knocking this out very quickly, but it is beggining to take shape.

Right now, using a rasp to cut grooves at one-foot intervals similar to the "Chepo style" grooves I learned about on the Slingshot Forum. They worked great on my first slingshit:


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## Rad

Looking forward to the end product! ------ I'm sure your last line up there was a type O -- . Or not?


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## gdenby

Seems you are making great strides (groan) towards some walking bling. The iPhone attachment is also pretty cool, but careful... "Geologist found at bottom of ravine, last seen texting at the edge of Sharp Rock canyon. More at 11." :thumbsu:


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## CAS14

Ha ha, maybe a Freudian slip? ;-)


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## CAS14

gdenby said:


> Seems you are making great strides (groan) towards some walking bling. The iPhone attachment is also pretty cool, but careful... "Geologist found at bottom of ravine, last seen texting at the edge of Sharp Rock canyon. More at 11." :thumbsu:


11 o'clock update: geologist found impaled on a stick full of gadgetry. Foul play suspected.


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## CAS14

CHEPO WIRED!

Soft brass wire secured at one-foot intervals in grooves with structural epoxy. Thanks to the groovy method explained by Chepo on Aaron's slingshot forum.


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## CAS14

Pics soon. Epoxied bubble level to top of pecan mount for the Abney level. The bronze fitting that holds the 3/8" x 16 to 1/4" x 20 adapter for the Glif iPhone and/or camera mount was finished. Now I have these two and the KA-BAR handle that screw onto the top of the stick. Next, a marblewood block to hold the diver's compass.


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## CAS14

Rad said:


> Looking forward to the end product! ------ I'm sure your last line up there was a type O -- . Or not?


Ok Rad, here are (links to) the pics:

Abney level mounted, it becomes a geologist's Jacob's staff:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/205-abney-level-mounted/

Camera or iPhone mounted, it becomes a steady staff for the photographer:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/206-iphone-mount/

KA-BAR handle mounted, it becomes a conversation piece for old Marines:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/200-ka-bar-handle-attachment/

Side 1 - Marine pins:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/201-usmc-stuff-side-1/

Side 2 - Marine pins and a dogtag:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/202-usmc-stuff-side-2/

Grip for climbing uphill, with brass wire spaced at 1-foot for measuring outcrops:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/203-brass-wire-bands-spaced-one-foot-apart/

Brass screws every 0.1' for one foot, for measuring thin beds and small objects:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/207-brass-screws-at-01-intervals-for-one-foot/

Ferrule - 20mm brass cartridge, with brass wire one foot from the base:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/204-20-mm-brass-casing-at-base/

The whole enchilada:
http://walkingstickforum.com/gallery/image/199-1st-coat-of-tung-oil-applied/


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## Rad

Thanks CAS! Great project, its been fun following it -- now what ya gonna do?


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## CAS14

Waiting on several oak sticks to cure, collected in December and January, soaked in Pentacryl for a week each. I'm reluctant to push my luck on those, they are for my son and my son-in-law.

So, I suppose I'll work on a simpler hiking stick for me that I wouldn't be afraid to check as baggage (in a fishing pole tube), when we fly to San Francisco to visit our son, or elsewhere.

If I can find the right hardware, I've thought of a much stronger and less labor intensive way to attach another 20mm brass cartridge. That makes a nice ferrule, and a lot cheaper than the ones you can purchase.

Also, I have to learn more about wood carving. I'd like to be able to carve some simple things. A long term goal.

Finally, wood burning - the stick I had made a couple of years ago has some outstanding artwork burned into it and then the retired Marine dyed some areas of the artwork. Another longer term goal.


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## CAS14

Just ordered a 40mm dummy round. I think I can use the 3/8" - 16 thread at the top to make yet another "topper."


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## gdenby

CAS said:


> Also, I have to learn more about wood carving. I'd like to be able to carve some simple things. A long term goal.


To help you get started. First thing my teacher told me. "Sharpen your tools before every use. Keep your stone handy while working. If the tool starts slipping, freshen the edge."

Not possible to make a fine carving w/o also knowing how to make a fine edge.


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## CAS14

I think that I posted a part of this once before. This was an inspiration for creating a stick that can be used in the great outdoors to measure things that you observe.

http://scoutingrediscovered.com/scout-equipment/rediscovering-the-scout-staff/


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## cobalt

This may suit you CAS a GARMIN SMALL TUBE MOUNT for VIRBand VIRB elite

They say its suitable for gun barrels roll bars etc ?

On amazon also advertising some alternative things for mounting on ski pole probably work just the same on a hiking pole So a universal idea seems to be on the cards even a phone mount there


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