Walking Sticks Made With Stone Tops

Choosing Stone

• A good stone for a walking stick top should be smooth to the touch, because it will be handled so much and must be comfortable. It needn't have a mirror polish, though; the slight roughness of stones such as granite will be fine as long as the stone doesn't have sharp or irregular edges. Avoid brittle and fragile stones, as well, especially more glasslike minerals. These will likely shatter if dropped or develop dangerous chips and slivers.

Shaped Stone

• Unless you have access to some pretty advanced lapidary tools and the skills to use them, you probably won't be making your own stone top from scratch, but stone carving artisans will often be happy to take on the job for hire and make a custom piece. Otherwise, look at specialty doorknob sellers for stone knobs you can convert to walking stick tops or look for carved stone orbs that you can attach to a stick with only a strong glue joint.

Choosing Wood

• When combining wood with stone in a walking stick, a hardwood is generally a better choice, especially with larger and heavier stone tops. This way, the wood will be able to bear the weight of the stone and stand up against it in the mechanical joints you build between the two materials. Choose a dowel made of oak, maple, walnut, or another hardwood. Exotic hardwoods may also be a good choice for your walking stick, but bear in mind that some of these tend to be on the heavy side and will become even heavier with a stone top.

Fitting

• To join your wood and stone pieces, you'll need to carve the top of your wood to fit the stone piece; do this before staining or varnishing the cane. This may involve carving the wood to fit into the stone (if the stone top has a hollow to fit the wood into) or carving the wood to fit the stone into it (as you would have to do with a doorknob-shaped piece). If you have a stone orb, carve the top of the cane into an a bowl shape to conform to the curve of the orb. A good tool for all of these tasks is a rotary power tool with grinding and carving attachments, though you may also use hand-carving tools.

Attaching

• You can attach your stone piece to the wood by way of either a strong glue, a bolt, or a combination of the two. A bolt piece works if your stone is carved with a shank that has a hole in it, like a shank button. Insert the bolt into a hollow in the top of the cane, then fasten the bolt through the side of the cane. This joint may wobble, however, so it's good to combine it with a strong epoxy. Use the same kind of epoxy to glue other shapes of stone top in place.