[Rodney]

It seems almost a contradiction.
I finished this one about a week ago.


The handle is western red maple burl on the front and back with a core of straight grained western red maple under the leather. I did it that way because it's my understanding burl wood can be weak. It also has a small piece of cocobolo for a spacer. The cocobolo is from a piece I've had since the 90s.
I planed the shank to a tapered 8 sided shape at the top. It tapers down to round at the bottom. Even with a freshly sharpened plane I was fighting tearout on it. It came out pretty well but there are a few small spot I didn't quite get smooth. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. The only other thing that went wrong was I didn't get a good straight stitch line on the leather. Even with that it's my best leather wrap yet.
Rodney

 

[dww2]

Great looking stick, Rodney. I like the way the facets of the shank catch the light. What kind of wood is the shank?

I was always under the impression that burl wood was stronger because the grain is so twisted, but I might be wrong. I can see a piece with a large bark inclusion being weak, obviously.

 

[cobalt]

Nice one

nice combination of materials .The style reminds me of the art deco style /Macintosh with its straight up right clean edges

 

[Rodney]

Thanks.
Dana: The shank is western red maple. I used India ink for the black. I thought I wrote that but I don't see it.

Cobalt Art Deco is one of my favorite styles so I'm sure there's some influence there.
I like Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau too.
Now you have me thinking. Not too many Arts & Crafts canes out there.
I don't think the style lent itself well to personal ornamentation. Too angular, at least the American version was.
I may be able to do a simpler Art Nouveau inspired cane too. The curves may be a bit beyond me but it would be fun to try.
There are some good examples out there though the handles are generally silver or ivory.
I do have some holly that might work for a handle.

 

[cobalt]

I am a fan of the arts and crafts movement both art nova and art deco have characteristics that i like but have a quick look at Macintosh style particularly from the Glasgow school ,They did use a lot of silver but you can get silver blanks if you want to pay the price for them it does add a touch of class but even a silver collar looks good ,but that would be a gentleman's evening stick

 

[dww2]

I remember you said that was what you did with the shanks on those cool pumpkin canes so I figured it was the same but thought I'd ask to be sure.

Just out of curiosity, I Googled the Macintosh style that Cobalt mentioned. I got pictures of Peter Falk as Columbo and Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. LOL!! I guess I needed to add a couple more words to my search.

I've always been a fan of the Stickley style of arts and crafts. Green and Green as well.

 

[Rodney]

Dana here's a bit on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rennie_Mackintosh
Interesting work.

 

[dww2]

Yeah, I did some more Googling after finding the trench coat pics and found images of his work. Very nice stuff, though I think I still prefer Stickley. His furniture reminds me very much of the post and beam construction like I saw (and see) in the big old wooden barns that my brother and cousins and I grew up playing in (even though we weren't supposed to).

The images of Mackintosh's architecture were very nice, though.

 

[Rodney]

I'm not sure how much the styles of the time influenced his work and how much his work influenced the styles of his time.
Very interesting mix.
English Arts & Crafts is different from the American style. The English stuff has a more medieval inspiration behind it while the American stuff was more a rejection of the cheaply made, overly ornate styles of the Victorian era.
At least in their roots. When furniture companies saw that the stuff was selling, most of them jumped on the bandwagon.
I've worked on a few cheaply made Victorian pieces restoring them. I've also worked on a few pieces of cheaply made American Arts & Crafts furniture. Proof that shoddy goods transcend style I guess.