Stick making isn't something I do a lot of. I like to carve wood spirit faces into long sticks. Here is a stick I have had over 45 years. I use it a lot when walking my dog, but recently it started to show its age, like me too, with cracks and scuffs. So it was a pleasure to spend some time with this old friend and give it new life.
The wood I believe is cherry. The project was to simply rub it back to bare clean wood, clean out all the cracks, take of the old steel tip and replace it and to fill in all the cracks with coloured epoxy resins. It took some time as the resin was poured in. I think the outcome is lovely and the stick will out live me now.
I got it from an old man whom I visited in Randalstown when I was 18yrs old in 1975. He was a stick maker, but he did not want to part with this stick as he liked it himself and thought it would be nice for his wife. As I talked to him and his wife, she realised that when I would open up my parents jewellers shop some Saturday mornings, if we weren't busy, I would take Irish coins and cut the animals out of them. I had sharp eyes and a steady hand back then. I loved to take the little hare out of the silver threepence and the salmon out of the 10p piece and make them into broaches. The lady loved salmon and ordered one, which I delivered the next week. The deal was I would make her the slalom broach and she would get her husband to give me the stick. It was all in good faith and fun. However, the negotiations and the fun made this stick even more special for me and I have cherished it all my life and still will.