Traditional Stickmaking E-Book

Charlie Walker

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Stickmaking is an age-old craft that is just as absorbing and rewarding today as ever. This beautifully illustrated book describes some of the customs and practices used in traditional stickmaking. It encourages beginners to get started with a simple staff or thumb stick, but also explains advanced techniques, such as making sheep and cow horn handles, for the more experienced. Written with careful attention to detail by a prize-winning stickmaker, it is an essential guide to this fascinating craft. The book contains ideas and inspiration on types and styles of stick, a guide to timber, storing and straightening shanks, and jointing shanks onto handles. Also, there are step-by-step instructions on making a variety of sticks and handles including wood, antler, buffalo and sheep horn, and detailed techniques on bulking and dressing sheep horn to make a classic shepherd's crook, with further advice on decorating wood and buffalo horn handles. It will be of great interest to stickmakers, woodworkers, farmers, shepherds and fishermen. This ideal resource for all stickmakers is beautifully illustrated with 121 colour photographs.

Leseprobe

Traditional

Stickmaking

CHARLIE WALKER

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Charlie Walker 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 111 6

Frontispiece: A collection of sticks made by the author.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the stickmakers who have helped me over the last few years, and especially Gordon Flintoft, who has been my mentor since I began this absorbing hobby. I also wish to remember two very close friends, John Penny and George Russell, who have sadly passed away; they both willingly gave me help and advice, which was very much appreciated. Lastly my thanks to my neighbour Geoff, who drew the two sketches used in this book.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1GETTING STARTED

2SELECTING, STORING, STRAIGHTENING AND JOINTING TIMBER

3ANTLER HANDLES

4WOODEN HANDLES

5BUFFALO HORN HANDLES

6SHEEP AND COW HORN HANDLES

7DECORATED HANDLES

FURTHER INFORMATION

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

This book is intended to help anyone wanting to make sticks for work or pleasure using tried and tested techniques with traditional materials. It provides advice on some of the tools and equipment needed to make a variety of sticks and handles out of materials including wood, antler, buffalo and sheep horn, and concludes with a feature on decorating handles. It includes suggestions on methods of storing, straightening and jointing shanks on to handles. There is a series of step-by-step guides on making a range of popular sticks using a variety of materials that will help beginners and experienced stickmakers who want to expand their stickmaking skills. The book is designed to assist people of all abilities to make a stick of their choice; it explains how to make a simple stick with a few basic tools, through to shaping buffalo horn, and bulking and dressing sheep horn to make a classic shepherd’s crook, which is often regarded as the most difficult type of stick to make. The final chapter focuses on decorating handles using two completely different materials: timber and buffalo horn. The methods used can be applied to the other materials used in this book.

All the sticks featured in this guide have been made by the author using traditional materials. The techniques, jigs and tools used may differ from other stick dressers, but they are based on traditional methods. During my time making sticks I have received help and advice from many expert stick dressers, and I would like to thank all of them for willingly sharing their knowledge and experience with me. Without their help and encouragement I would not have gained the confidence required to write this book on such a fascinating and absorbing craft.

I hope you enjoy your stickmaking and find some of the information in this book helpful.

Charlie Walker

A traditional market stick.

CHAPTER ONE

GETTING STARTED

When reading old stickmaking books and talking with stickmakers, especially the older generations, they often refer to the size of a stick in inches, even though we now live in the metric world. A conversion chart is useful, but to help a little, here are some measurements used in this book: please note they are rounded to the nearest number and are not mathematically exactly correct, but the tolerances quoted are acceptable.

Basic Styles

Handles

The sketches show two common types of handle: the first is a traditional crook shape and is often referred to as a ‘nose out’ handle; the second shape is typically used for market and walking sticks, and is generally known as a ‘nose in’ handle. The parts identified in the sketches are used in the book to describe some of the steps used when making similar styles of handle. Different shapes and styles of handle are featured in the book, and the relevant parts are described.