The Story of a Stick
The “day of the take” is the date during a taking of land by the government via eminent domain when the value of the property taken is set. If the day of the take is October 16, then the value paid to the land owner is based on how much that land was worth on October 16. Because eminent domain is so difficult and unpopular (for obvious reasons), often things are forced to happen at the last minute. It is not common for land to be under developed or entirely unkempt on the day of the take. As a result, a lot of weird construction stuff happens. Near my old house, the MBTA seized a bunch of land to build an extension on to the commuter rail. Right around that land was a forest and the forest was very quickly cut down, probably on or just after the day of the take. Because this happened all at once, the growth of the trees around the area was very uniform, resulting in a huge, almost endless stand of same aged maple trees. Unhindered by buildings, power lines, or waterways, these maple trees grew almost perfectly straight. They made an excellent source of wood for walking sticks. One of those maple saplings became my walking stick, the stick you see above.
I made this stick when my first son was born. His birth (or impending birth) also spawned this website (“We are having a kid you cannot spend money on knives unless you generate it separate from your salary.”). That was more than 16 years ago. Since then, this walking stick has been with me for thousands of hikes.
Trying to calculate the mileage is tough. When both boys were born for the first three months of their lives we went on a hike every morning. It was about 2 miles each day. That’s (2 miles x two boys x 90 days each) 360 miles. Then there are the dozens of hiking vacations we took. One time I had my Apple Watch and recorded the distance. That was the year my second son was born so we had fewer miles than normal on vacation. It was roughly 8 miles a day for 7 days. We had 5 of those vacations for a total of 280 miles. I would guess that I put around 20-40 miles on the stick each spring and again each fall. At 40 miles a year that is 640 miles. So all told I think we have just over 1,000 miles on this stick (1,280 to be precise). I used it when I was walking post surgery, this August and I walked about 4 miles a day (with copious laproscopy-related flatulence) and I did that for two weeks. So it is probably over that number, but suffice to say, it is a lot. It has been on hikes in Ohio, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Washington state. Like Johnny Cash, it has been everywhere, man.
The stick has held up exceptionally well over the miles. I originally covered it in spar varnish, an outdoor marine-grade varnish used to cover masts and wooden spars on ships from the Age of Sail. I chose Minwax because it was readily available and did not stink like a dying horse or a chemical weapons factory. You still need very good ventilation, but it is the least awful I found. I picked glossy because, well, shiny. It does chip and ding over time, especially near the bottom of the stick and so I have recoated it entirely once and I touch up the bottom each time I replace the rubber ferrule.
As for that ferrule, I have a fancy brass one with a swappable tip with a steel spike for grip and a rubber tip for less damaging use. This was too fancy and added significant weight. Because of that, I have switched to an easy chair leg tip and it makes for much easier replacement and is less heavy. It also bangs up the car less when I take the sticks on hike I have to drive to. I would guess I have replaced the tip 10 to 15 times and I have a stock of chair leg tips ready for a new replacement.
The blue wrist loop has been replaced twice, both times with hollowed out blue 550 paracord. I always heat weld the ends and knot it so that it is hard for it to come out. I used to have a flamed brass nut that prevented the loop from passing through the handle, but that has been lost to the mists of time. It also beat up the handle area a lot.
The stick itself is just the right size for me, in the hand grip, which was natural but accentuated via carving, my arm is at an almost perfect 90 degree angle. It helps pace me when walking and it does a good job in the winter testing ice surfaces. Over time the stick has gotten more and more reddish brown. The light portions used to be bone white and they are now near orange. The darker portions were brown when the stick was first made, but now have changed to an almost blood red. For a comparison, see the stick in the link below. The knots have hardened and are glass smooth, as is the rest of the stick, but for the portion near the bottom where the stick collides with rocks on a hike.
Having talked to the stick in preparation for this article, it told me that its two favorite hiking buddies are my Chris Reeve Small Sebenza 31 and the 2020 Knives Ship Free Northwoods Knives Indian River Jack. I think it has good tastes, though the stick is a bit more classicist than I am. It did not like some of my newer, less traditional knives. As far as torches are concerned, it only liked one despite being paired with dozens for night hikes—the McGizmo Haiku with 800 lumen 4S drop in. While not traditional by any means, I can’t disagree with the stick. This is a good, all around light for basically any job. Though not its unqualified favorite, the stick does like the Baby Banter 2 TG, seen here on a recent fall hike.
Making a hiking stick like this is pretty easy. Here is my 2011 guide. Nothing has changed really and I still make them for friends and family. You can see that I am still using the same stick 15 years later. Even the house has changed. One tool I would add to that list is a draw knife. You can get a cheap one from Amazon for around $30 and it perfect at debarking the stick in short order. I’d also add a bench vise to hold the knife, especially one with wooden jaws. Both are nice to have items, but neither are essential.
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