Walking stick

"Cane (walking stick)" redirects here. For use as a mobility aid, see Assistive cane. For the insects, see Phasmatodea.

A walking stick is a device used by many people to facilitate balancing while walking.

Walking sticks come in many shapes and sizes, and can be sought by collectors. Some kinds of walking stick may be used by people with disabilities as a crutch. The walking stick has also historically been known to be used as a defensive or offensive weapon, and may conceal a knife or sword as in a swordstick.

Walking sticks, also known as trekking poles, pilgrim's staffs, hiking poles or hiking sticks, are used by hikers for a wide variety of purposes: to clear spider webs, part thick bushes or grass obscuring the trail; as a support when going uphill or a brake when going downhill; as a balance point when crossing streams, swamps or other rough terrain; to feel for obstacles in the path; to test mud and puddles for depth; and as a defence against wild animals. A walking stick can be improvised from nearby felled wood. More ornate sticks are made for avid hikers, and are often adorned with small trinkets or medallions depicting "conquered" territory. Wood walking sticks are used for outdoor sports, healthy upper body exercise and even club, department and family memorials. They can be individually handcrafted from a number of woods, and may be personalised in many ways for the owner.

Origin

Around the 17th or 18th century, a stout rigid stick took over from the sword as an essential part of the European gentleman's wardrobe, used primarily as a walking stick. In addition to its value as a decorative accessory, it also continued to fulfill some of the function of the sword as a weapon. The standard cane was rattan with a rounded metal grip. The clouded cane, as in the quotation below, was made of malacca (rattan stems) and showed the patina of age:

Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain,

And the nice conduct of a clouded cane.

— Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock

Some canes had specially weighted metalwork. Other types of wood, such as hickory, are equally suitable.

Accessories

• The most common accessory, before or after purchase or manufacture, is a hand strap, to prevent loss of the stick should the hand release its grip. These are often threaded through a hole drilled into the stick rather than tied around.
• A clip-on frame or similar device can be used to stand a stick against the top of a table.
• In cold climates, a metallic cleat may be added to the foot of the cane. This dramatically increases traction on ice. The device is usually designed so it can be easily flipped to the side to prevent damage to indoor flooring.
• Different handles are available to match grips of varying sizes.
• Rubber ferrules give extra traction on most surfaces.
• Nordic walking (ski walking) poles are extremely popular in Europe. Walking with two poles in the correct length radically reduces the stress to the knees, hips and back. These special poles come with straps resembling a fingerless glove, durable metal tips for off-road and removable rubber tips for pavement and other hard surfaces.

Ecclesiastical use

Orthodox protodeacon holding a walking stick. Portrait by Ilya Repin, 1877 (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).

Main article: Staff of office

Various staffs of office derived from walking sticks or staffs are used by both western and eastern Christian churches.

Types of walking stick

Ashplant — an Irish walking stick made from the ash tree

Devil's walking stick — Made from Hercules plant.

Shooting stick — It can fold out into a single-legged seat.

Supplejack — Made from a tropical American vine, also serves as a cane.

Penang lawyer — Made from Asian Palm.

Makila (or makhila) — Basque walking stick or Staff

Kebbie — Scottish walking stick

Whangee — Asian, made of bamboo, also a riding crop.

Malacca — Malay stick made of Palm.

Pike Staff — Pointed at the end for slippery surfaces.

Waddy — Australian walking stick or club.

American "walking canes"

In North America, a walking cane is a walking stick with a curved top much like a shepherd's staff, but shorter. Thus, although they are called "canes," they are usually made of material heavier than cane, such as wood or metal.

In the United States, presidents have often carried canes and received them as gifts. The Smithsonian has a cane given to George Washington by Benjamin Franklin. It features a gold handle in the shape of a Phrygian cap. In modern times, walking sticks are usually only seen with formal attire. Collectors of canes look for the old, the new, the unique and the novel. Retractable canes that reveal such properties as hidden compartments, pool sticks, or blades are popular among collectors. Handles have been made from many substances, both natural and manmade. Carved and decorated canes have turned the functional into the fantastic.

An unidentified woman holding a "tippling cane" or "cane flask" in Washington, DC., 1922.

The idea of a fancy cane as a fashion accessory to go with top hat and tails has been popularized in many song-and-dance acts, especially by Fred Astaire in several of his films and in the song Top Hat, White Tie and Tails.

Some canes, known as "Tippling Canes" or "Tipplers," have hollowed-out compartments near the top where flasks or vials of alcohol could be hidden and sprung out on demand.

When used as a mobility or stability aide, canes are generally used in the hand opposite the injury or weakness. This may appear counter-intuitive, but this allows the cane to be used for stability in a way that lets the user shift much of their weight onto the cane and away from their weaker side as they walk. Personal preference, or a need to hold the cane in their dominant hand, means some cane users choose to hold the cane on their injured side.

In a violent episode in the U.S. Congress in 1856, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts called Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois a "noisome squat and nameless animal" and brutally insulted Andrew Butler of South Carolina for a congenital deformity. When a relative of Andrew Butler, Preston Brooks, heard of it, he felt that Sumner's behavior merited less than a duel and so beat him senseless on the floor of the Senate with a wooden walking cane. Although this event is commonly known as "the caning of Senator Charles Sumner", it was not a caning in the normal (esp. British) sense of formal corporal punishment with a much more flexible and usually thinner rattan.

See also

• Cane gun
• Danda
• Pace stick
• Shillelagh (club)

External links

• YouTube film of walking stick manufacture
• Walking-Stick Papers (Robert Cortes Holliday, 1918) – Project Gutenberg ebook
• Self-Defence with a Walking Stick (Pearson’s Magazine, January 1901)
• Walking sticks
• History of English Walking Sticks
• Suggested cane technique
• Blackthorn Canes and Walking sticks
• How to fit a walking stick to your height
• Irish Blackthorn Walking Sticks (Original and Rare Walking Canes)
• Information about the different handles
• Canes
• Walking stick
• [http://www.walkingisraelis.com/hiking_poles/ hiking stick