Wood for cane?

[bikerdoc]

Found this at the county brush dump.
Anyone recognise what kind of wood it is?
Google-fu leads to some sort of chokeberry?
Good for canes?
Thanks.

View attachment 634850

 

[hso]

Chokecherry is nearly useless.

Very common wood, weak grain, easily separated.

 

[bikerdoc]

Too bad found a bunch. Oh well more firewood to roast marshmellows and make somemores on sat night with the grandkids.

 

[JLDickmon]

HSO beat me to it.

Chokecherry.

Making a campfire smell AWESOME is about the only good use for it..

Cane you want hickory, ash, red sumac, to name a few..

 

[rockdoc806]

If you live in the southwest, mesquite wood makes a good cane. Excellent to burn in the BBQ grill also.

 

[Owen Sparks]

Osage orange also known as bo dock is an excelent choice if dried properly so as not to split. It has the flexability of rattan and blackthorn yet is much heavier.

 

[Mobuck]

I've made several walking sticks from lodgepole pine. Very resilient and light weight.

 

[JimStC]

Lodgepole pine? First I have heard of that wood. What area is that found? What are its characteristics? Weight, density?
I am mostly using black locust and awaiting winter to harvest some mulberry.
My experience with black locust is that it is so dense it will begrugdingly take a poly coat. Very dense and hard.
But Doc knows this based on his fantastic cane collection.
Jim

 

[hso]

Western pine variety.

 

[JimStC]

Thanks HSO

 

[bikerdoc]

Thanks Jim.
My canes have the same gaurantee the parachutes the army gave me, if it fails to work bring it back and you can have another for free.

 

[JimStC]

Doc,
When I cut the mulberry I am going to send you some straight limbs. I'll PM you when they are ready.
Had a great laugh on the parachute analogy. Too Funny!!

Jim

 

[owlhoot]

Hornbeam and hophornbeam are common and easy enough to find in the eastern US. Excellent cane material.

 

[Mobuck]

The main problem I see with black locust is the saplings small enough to be cane sized are not nearly as strong as a hedge of equal size. We use a lot of both black locust and osage orange posts and have decades of experience with the strength and longevity of both in direct comparison.

 

[JimStC]

Mobuck, Thanks for sharing your experience with black locust. I have black locust on my place and harvest wood to burn for my wood stove. I have two black locust trees down now and I am harvesting the straight branches for eskrima sticks, canes and small striking sticks. This is mostly to feed my whittling addiction. The mature wood air dried density is 49 versus 48 for hickory. White oak as a point of reference is 47.
Here is my source: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/weigt-wood-d_821.html
Osage orange is off the charts but obviously I have to buy that as it is not indigenous to central Indiana.
Anyway I am not using saplings and have no experience with them.

Jim

 

[bikerdoc]

Jim,

From the chart

Lignum Vitae 1.28 - 1.38 80 - 86

Holy cow that is hard. I recently saw some at Home Emporium they were selling cheap for decorative purposes. Not knowing anything about it I passed. GRRRRR!

Owl hoot,
Stangely enough I have spent many an hour seaching the riverbanks and woods around the Elizabeth river looking for hornbeem without sucess. Begining to think I need more education on what it looks like, even after all the google-fu I did.

 

[JimStC]

Doc, Yep I saw that and wondered what the heck it was, but was too lazy to look it up yet. Check out the ebony. Two rock hard woods!
I believe I'd go back to Home Emporium just to see if any was left.
I bought some hornbeem on Ebay. Not terribly expensive but the shipping doubled the price.

Jim

 

[dprice3844444]

if your looking for a good cane/defensive weapon,cold steel makes a nice blackthorn stick

 

[JimStC]

dp,
Unfortunately I bought one without handling it. It is literally a club. Bad handle and it does not remotely look like a blackthorn cane. I would hesitate to carry it in public as it says "weapon" all over it. CS missed the subtlety characteristic completely. I have two blackthorns which are very nice and close to the same price as the CS "replica". They are carried in public frequently without a second look.
Just my opinion. Some folks will feel much differently.

Jim

 

[JimStC]

Just went out and took a good look at my mulberry tree/bush. Density is 44 which compares favorably to the woods discussed earlier.
This is an interesting growth in that it is from birds passing seeds they didn't digest. It looks much more like a BIG bush thereby making it easy to harvest limbs. Don't even need a ladder. There are literally dozens of straight limbs suitable for canes or whatever purpose. Soon as we get a couple of multi-day freezes the chainsaw and I will be giving the tree/bush a visit.
Haven't worked with this wood yet. Looking forward to it. Anyone want a limb or two, shoot me a PM.

Jim

 

[Owen Sparks]

Lignum Vitae is so dense that it will sink in water! It may well be the best choice for fighting sticks and canes but I have yet to find a suitable source.