So I believe that this stick was wrapped by a vine, yet not enough to twist it like Stixmans snake carvings of twisted sticks. Just enough to leave the grooves, as they are NOT regular (machine made).
Do you mean at the top of the handle? i did that with a chisel and a LOT of sanding. There was already a small dead stick there that was easy to clean out and that left that groove so that was more the reason for the groove than a design on my part
EdChads just found a true work of nature. Kudos to him for recognizing it, harvesting it, and making a walking stick out of it! The "small dead stick" was the remnants of the vine that used that sapling to get to the sun. They must have lived at least a year together, maybe two, for those grooves to appear in the tree.