I am a newbie, so take what I say with a grain of salt. This past Saturday, I spent an hour looking for walking stick material. I took a walking stick that was made for me, it's light weight and no more than five feet in length. That stick was very useful in the woods, especially when brushing aside some of the thorn bushes that are thick in some areas. It was also useful as noted above, when travelling down steep slopes.
Near the end of my allotted time, I found a young Black Locust tree about 2" in diameter that had been cut months ago along a power line right of way. I cut about a seven foot length and headed back to the truck. This required climbing up two rock escarpments, with knees that have seen too many hard landings and are no longer much good for such things. The short, lightweight stick was of little use here, but the long, heavy stick, I'll call it a staff, with bark still on, provided a good grip and really helped my balance when climbing up.
And so, one stick was great for moving down slopes and through thick underbrush. The cumbersome and uncut staff was very useful for negotiating some steep rock faces. Regarding the latter, I think I will try to leave a bit of the bark on where I might grip it for similar purposes, carve a smaller smooth grip more comfortable for walking, and reduce the length to perhaps 6'. That way, I'll have sticks for different purposes.
