walking sticks

[miles888]

hi miles888 walking sticks? ive been walking round lake district with a single stick, very cheep alloy stick.
i dont usually go out with them, no keen but they do come in handy. helped my ballence on rocky ground & may consider a lightweigh carbon one for the future.

[Kepis]

I use a piece of Hazel cut from the hedge

[WULF]

I make sticks and always use one when walking in the hills,gives great assistance.

[Shewie]

I use a pair of Pacers if I'm up in the hills, I also need them for my shelter. I never thought I'd use them but I'm so glad I did.

I don't when I'm shrafting though, no point when there's so many sticks about.

[cbr6fs]

Another convert here, i find they really help over the very rough ground we get here.

I use the collapsible type though as i find it just tends to get in the way on the smoother paths.

[Native Nathan]

I have a pair of Carbon fibre poles (I think they are LEKI if my memory serves correct)
I use mine on wet/rough ground.
I also use mine to raise the side of my tarp.

I also used mine the last couple of winters, it made walking on the ice and compact snow much easier.

[treadlightly]

I use a piece of Hazel cut from the hedge

ditto......................... ....

[hermitical]

if you cut a stick, what happens if you don't let it dry out?

[TurboGirl]

I have a good hefty ash pole with a woodspirit carved on top... I'm dying for an undead to accost me across the fields so I can see if he makes a nice inverted stamp when I thwack it one on the forehead Seriously, tis a great tarp lifter/ branch puller/ bullock scarer as well as a helping hand for an auld gel up slippery slopes

They all dry out eventually but lot split, I find blackthorn particularly does...

[Humpback]

When you cut your ash or blackthorn walking stick what length do you choose (inches or metric are helpful but reference to where on the body the stick comes will help to transfer to a short a*s* of 5'5" 165cm person's dimensions.
Alan

[TurboGirl]

I take it to about the armpit, works for me but I like 'em that length... I don't walk far (2.5m to the local, usually, I can crawl back at a push )

[Laurentius]

I use a piece of Hazel cut from the hedge

Likewise I make my own. My most interesting one is not wood though, it has the silver handle off a stick I bought from James Smiths umbrella emporium and the stick itself is made of a peice of the kind of steel tubing used for curtain and towel rails, which I have drilled and corked to turn into a flute. Very unique, and it has the honour of having been played in both the palace of Westminster and St James palace very recently all within a weeks space, not that I was invited to play it, I just did. In it's original format it nearly got me shot once being mistaken for a gun, but that is another story.

Thing is in making your own you have something that is unique, I need to use a stick for walking and the way I think is something you make for yourself is always going to be more interesting than anything off the shelf and often becomes a conversation piece as my flute stick certainly is, people just don't believe it, when you pick it up and play a tune on it as it is not what they were expecting.