Louisville Slugger, pick handle or crowbar?

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I have no combat experience, but have crafted a walking staff of ash about 4.5' long and slightly oval in cross section. Two handed use requires minimal wind-up, tip is small enough to concentrate force, and top has a small metal lip. I am tempted to explore some type of locking mechanism to affix bayonet or cold steel spear tip, but that might be pushing it...
 
My wife was a school librarian for 30+ years. Early on a LEO friend "suggested" that it would be too bad if a student forget a baseball bat in the library and never came back to reclaim it. Besides the bat she had what most teachers had. Wasp spray for those pesky insects. A 1,000 lumen flashlight (w/ strobe) for power outages and a very loud air horn to get students attention. No weapons here. No, sir.

Would use them? Could she use the effectively? Don't know, but it was better than nothing.
 
4 foot sticks are good for hiking- I used one Saturday, out with the family- and are also a common riot control item in many police departments and militaries.

A long enough item can be jabbed at an attacker, which requires no windup, as well as swung or used to block. I personally prefer canvas micarta, from 1" to 1 1/4". Be aware than the thicker pieces will be much heavier than wood, though lighter than steel. Here are my examples from the good folks at Boedeker Plastics in TX. (For reference, a set of 3 & 4 foot sticks from them ran about $90, including shipping. They should last the rest of my life unless I am attacked by Iron Man.)

I suggest 1" sticks for 3'/hanbo length
39" is my preferred cane length
I went for 1.125" for my 4'/jo length

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Respectfully,

John
 
This is the shovel that could double as a broad axe. It's been heavily used by me and it is tough. Don't think Hulk could break that solid fiberglass handle. The shank of the blade is marked "True Temper Forged in Ireland". I welded on the treads at the top of the blade. As issued, it was very hard on boot soles in tough going. My favorite shovel.

shovel.jpg
 
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Yeah, certain tools could, potentially, look "out of place" if examined closely.

Now, I'm a guy with a ton of construction experience--three or four hammers in my ride are scarcely going to be noticed, neither pick, mattock, axe, or just broom handles.

On that latter, never discount the utility of a broom handle, especially if you have been trained in use of the jo.
Painter's extension handle can be handy, too. And we are coming into the season where an extension pole for putting up holiday lights will be of no consequence.
 
Anything's a weapon if your head is in the game.
Not long before my family left South Central Los Angeles for the last time, Dad came back from the local supermarket with a sheepish look and bloody knuckles on his right hand. (His left was in a cast - he'd just had his thumb re-attached after an industrial accident,)
Anyway, he'd just borrowed my bicycle to go get some spanish brandy when a pack of wanna-be MS13 punks tried to block him into an alley and jump him.
They obviously thought that thay had caught me.
Bad idea,
Dad ducked between two of the garages and snagged a chunk of 2X4, laid out three of the thugs, punched the chunk of lumber through the windshield of the car, which panicked the driver into trying to back out of there.
The car caught a guy wire and flipped onto its side.
Dad nonchalantly pedaled off to get his booze.
Later, he noticed that he'd skinned his knuckles on a wall when he bailed off of my bike.

The news said that there was a serious gang battle in our neighborhood, with three hospitalized... .
 
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I have been known to carry a framing hammer and a trash bag along the river trail for use in pulling puncture vine when I see it, usually at night. I reassure other trail users that I am not a serial killer, but I am not sure they believe me.
What is puncture vine?
 
What is puncture vine?
It is a ground hugging weed that spreads from a central tap root up to 6' in diameter, bearing seed pods that break into caltrops each with multiple spines that puncture tires, paws and feet. Imported from southern eurasia and Africa, spread by harvesters, and universally reviled. Latin name, tribulus terrestris, translates to "trouble on earth". AKA goatheads, bindii, and %$#@*&.
 
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I have seen what an axe handle and shovel handle will do, and was about 5 feet away from someone who got hit with a piece of .75" rebar. Lot of fun that week on the construction yard. I also grew up beating the snot out of my friends with bamboo.

My choices would be axe/shovel handle, 30"bamboo stick, or similar stick. I would avoid a crowbar due to speed of recovery. The baseball bat would not even be a choice due to balance/shape.
 
Why a chisel point? I can see opening up the "crook".....most wooden canes have the crook closed past parallel to the long support.
 
It is a ground hugging weed that spreads from a central tap root up to 6' in diameter, bearing seed pods that break into caltrops each with multiple spines that puncture tires, paws and feet. Imported from southern eurasia and Africa, spread by harvesters, and universally reviled. Latin name, tribulus terrestris, translates to "trouble on earth". AKA goatheads, bindii, and %$#@*&.

I've heard of goatheads. I don't think we have it here in Missouri. Thanks.
 
Hooking with the crook of the cane is a technique and cutting the crook at an angle to open it for hooking allows it to bite on the hook.
 
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Gotta be careful when and where you carry stuff like that on your person or in your vehicle. Can be considered "burglury tools,"
There's that, and the inference of premeditation.

That is not just speculation.

4 foot sticks are good for hiking-
I need a walking stick for safety from falls.

It has obvious deterrent effect.
 
Most black bears in the SouthEast are the size of people, or slightly smaller. Something a skilled user could easily kill a person with, can drive off a wild animal of about the same size.

I have no combat experience, but have crafted a walking staff of ash about 4.5' long and slightly oval in cross section...I am tempted to explore some type of locking mechanism to affix bayonet or cold steel spear tip, but that might be pushing it...

I absolutely would not make a perfectly legal tool, which functions fine defensively as-is, into something which is clearly an improvised weapon.
However, back in '98 or so, I gave Bud Malmstron a 4' hiking stick, which had been drilled near one end, and a CS Bushman. Bud was about to go on safari as an observer. The combo I gave him would let him pull the Bushman off his belt, slip it onto the staff, push a bolt, fastened by a cotter pin through, and have a short spear in less than a minute, if the hyenas came calling.
 
I understand that spears are a much more efficient means of dealing with mambas as well.

My hardware comments were tongue in cheek, but spears and atlatls are fun for boys, all the same. Just probably best not to take with me to the DMV.
 
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I keep an old well worn thrift store find bent wood cane on the back seat of the car, in case my knee acts up. Wrapped a length of paracord below the crook and added a wrist loop, so I won't drop it when walking.....

By the front door of the house is a walking stick, Shelagh length that i cut from a limb of a pear tree at my parent's house about 25 years ago. Handy when walking the dog in the neighborhood.

Kitchen door and back door, have a 3D Maglite LED hanging from a conduit loop in case the power goes out.
 
I've been using a couple of 1 1/8th" hickory canes for about 10 years. I have not broken one yet and I've wailed on them pretty hard. The biggest advantage is that you can carry it into a Federal building or an airport or a plane or a courthouse and security can not take it away from you because it is a medical device and not a weapon. They can examine it but that's all. Farm supply stores usually carry them.
 
If steel crowbars are too heavy and slow, wonder how a titanium one would do, once you recovered from the expense? lol
 
This is a great thread.

I’m not that familiar with pick handles. But I know that size baseball bat is made to be swung with two hands and might be a little slow. The crowbar definitely too slow. Of the two I’d take the bat bc it’s lighter.

as someone above mentioned, those small aluminum little league bats would be devastating bc a grown man can whip them around with one hand.
 
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