Hiking Staff

I have been using an old stick that I found on the trail a while ago as a hiking staff. I had a big knot in it and was cracked and checked across its length. I knew it's days were numbered and last week it finally cracked.

I stumbled across an article by El Diablo called "Make Your Own Hiking Staff!" and I thought I'd follow it and craft a new hiking staff.

The Wood

I was out in Irondequoit Bay Park West to do "Really Rock and Roll" and I was keeping my eye out for dead wood to use and I came across a dead maple sapling that was 11' tall with no leaves or branches. I was wishing I had a saw, but gave it a good push and it went right over. I looked pretty silly carrying the thing out of the woods, but I got it home and cut it up and I have a nice 66" blank that is debarked. Since it was dead, I think it is sufficiently cured. There are a few discolored spots, but it has sanded up really nice. It's about 1-1/2" at the top and about 1" on the bottom. I sanded first with 60 grit, then 100 grit, then 150 grit, and finally finished up with a 320 grit.

The Art

I created a simplified version of a griffin and did a test run on a scrap piece of wood. The lines wound up being a little too close together and I didn't like the results, so I made some tweaks and tried it on a scrap from the sapling. One more round of tweaks and then I engraved the griffin on the top of the staff. I used very light strokes at first with the engraver set at 2. After I got the outline, I turned the engraver to 3 and slowly and carefully went over the outline. I got a little impatient at times and went a little outside of the the lines in places, but it is barely noticeable. I also freehanded some details like feathers on the wings and claws on the feet.

The Finish

I started out with two coats of Golden Pecan stain. I followed the directions on the stain and then waited about 20 hours until it dried before I painted the griffin. I experimented on my second test piece with some oil based paint markers and I did not like the results. I had some primary color acrylic paints left over from a project with the kids and I used those. I painted the main body and head a red and the beak and front legs are yellow. I had some metallic paints and used those for the geocaching "G" logo on the shoulder. I also used some gold to highlight the eye and the claws. I had tried using black paint in the engraved lines, but I didn't have enough control, so I used a fine tip permanent black marker. After that dried for about an hour, I applied two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane accoriding the directions on the can. It looks great.