Alan Eardley
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,500
- Location
- Midlands, UK
As requested, some observations on the noble family of those country walking accessories, knobsticks, to which others are invited to add. I can only recommend them as a pleasing accessory, useful implement and interesting hobby, whether as a collector or as a maker.
First, the basic types. I will mention the Irish Shilelagh, the English knobstick and the African knobkerry (knopfkirie).
The Irish type is definitely not alive and well, thanks to the tourist boom on that fair isle.The examples I have seen for sale in places where visitors congregate are shadows of those that I have seen from years ago. I typical modern Shilelagh is made by sectioning the trunk of a small Blackthorn (prunus spinosa or sloe - a member of the cherry family) leaving on a straight branch only as thick as a man's thumb. Weedy. The advantage (to the producers) of this is that they can get a number of sticks from a small bush. Blackthorn grows slowly and large examples are rare and coveted. The vintage examples are made by stripping the branches off the trunk of a larger tree, making a stick that is as thick as a man's wrist, preferably with a nice taper. You need to go on a Blackthorn hunt.
Now, Blackthorn isn't black (only the bark is and you don't want to leave that on) so some form of darkening is required. Neither is it likely to be straight. So, having spent a summer looking for a suitable bush and stripping the bark frm it, you need to blacken and straighten it. For this you need a fire, some sheep fat and a stone gate post with a hinge hole in it. A full moon helps, too, with suitable music. Put the stick in the fire until just the right moment, rub it with sheep fat and jam it in the hole, levering it until it is straight. Note: over the years it will find its bend again. Some people put the stick up the chimney of their cottage to absorb peat smoke. In any case, the process must be repeated at regular intervals. This is called 'training the stock to be straight'. Contrary to popluar beliefe (they will tell you anything in Ireland) Blackthorn is not a particularly hard wood. It is resilient, thuogh, which makes for a good stick,
Having said this, a top quality Shilelagh stick should be made from Oak (quercus) - preferably bog Oak. This wonderful substance was formed anything up to four thousand years ago when an Oak tree fell into a peat bog. The acidity preserves and pickles the wood, making it as hard a wood as occurs in Western Europe. The name comes from an ancient Oak forest that no longer exists. It is also easier to find a thick, straight limb in Oak.
In either case it should be shaped with a sharp blade, leaving the bases of the thorns in the case of Blackthorn to give the characterstic knobbly look.
The English knobstick is very similar and is equally traditional and gave its name to a type of person. Mrs Gaskell (if you haven't seen the BBC's version of Cranford, I can recommend it) calls the rough young men who were hired to break strikes in the mills 'knobsticks'. As with the Irish stick, either Oak or Blackthorn can be used. The main difference is the shape. The English stick will tend to be heavier and more tapered (almost a long wedge shape) rather than a straight stick with a pronounced knob. The name cudgel is sometimes applied, although strictly speaking a cudgel is too short to use as a walking aid. I like a heavy stick of a medium lenth - mine is 30 inches and weighs just over a kilo. They are currently a bit out of fashion, but are still favoured by gypsies. I once had the honour of presenting a stick I made to a gentleman who was very eminent in the Romany community.
The knobkerry is derived from the Zulu fighting stick or mace and was adopted by the 19th Century Voortreckers and Boers. The form is a slender smooth stick with a pronounced knob. They are made from one of the African hardwoods. You will need a pole lathe to form one of these. The European settlers began to make them from the spokes of broken wagon wheels (often made of Ironwood or Iroko), and often added a 'load' in the form of a large bullet in the knob. I have a beautiful example given to me by the decendants of a Boer War veteran, with some items of his equipment and an excellent book (dated 1902) about the conflict.
There are, of course other types of rustic stick. Many troops serving in the Far East during WW2 brought back as souvenirs the bamboo sticks that were carried by Japanese officers. I class these as knobsticks, whereas the pace sticks carried by Empire officers would be classed as canes, which is a subject for another thread...
<Added later - I neglected to mention that the most coveted Blackthorn sticks used to be made by training the bush while it was still growing. This would be done by winding a shoot around the main trunk and cutting the bark of both so that the branch would take a spiral form and become a part of the trunk and therefore a feature of the stick. This occasionally happens naturally, but the thought that someone would go regularly to a secluded hedgerow and work on a sapling over ten years or longer to make a nicer stick is impressive. People had a different approach to time and their own hand skills in those days.
A
Alan
First, the basic types. I will mention the Irish Shilelagh, the English knobstick and the African knobkerry (knopfkirie).
The Irish type is definitely not alive and well, thanks to the tourist boom on that fair isle.The examples I have seen for sale in places where visitors congregate are shadows of those that I have seen from years ago. I typical modern Shilelagh is made by sectioning the trunk of a small Blackthorn (prunus spinosa or sloe - a member of the cherry family) leaving on a straight branch only as thick as a man's thumb. Weedy. The advantage (to the producers) of this is that they can get a number of sticks from a small bush. Blackthorn grows slowly and large examples are rare and coveted. The vintage examples are made by stripping the branches off the trunk of a larger tree, making a stick that is as thick as a man's wrist, preferably with a nice taper. You need to go on a Blackthorn hunt.
Now, Blackthorn isn't black (only the bark is and you don't want to leave that on) so some form of darkening is required. Neither is it likely to be straight. So, having spent a summer looking for a suitable bush and stripping the bark frm it, you need to blacken and straighten it. For this you need a fire, some sheep fat and a stone gate post with a hinge hole in it. A full moon helps, too, with suitable music. Put the stick in the fire until just the right moment, rub it with sheep fat and jam it in the hole, levering it until it is straight. Note: over the years it will find its bend again. Some people put the stick up the chimney of their cottage to absorb peat smoke. In any case, the process must be repeated at regular intervals. This is called 'training the stock to be straight'. Contrary to popluar beliefe (they will tell you anything in Ireland) Blackthorn is not a particularly hard wood. It is resilient, thuogh, which makes for a good stick,
Having said this, a top quality Shilelagh stick should be made from Oak (quercus) - preferably bog Oak. This wonderful substance was formed anything up to four thousand years ago when an Oak tree fell into a peat bog. The acidity preserves and pickles the wood, making it as hard a wood as occurs in Western Europe. The name comes from an ancient Oak forest that no longer exists. It is also easier to find a thick, straight limb in Oak.
In either case it should be shaped with a sharp blade, leaving the bases of the thorns in the case of Blackthorn to give the characterstic knobbly look.
The English knobstick is very similar and is equally traditional and gave its name to a type of person. Mrs Gaskell (if you haven't seen the BBC's version of Cranford, I can recommend it) calls the rough young men who were hired to break strikes in the mills 'knobsticks'. As with the Irish stick, either Oak or Blackthorn can be used. The main difference is the shape. The English stick will tend to be heavier and more tapered (almost a long wedge shape) rather than a straight stick with a pronounced knob. The name cudgel is sometimes applied, although strictly speaking a cudgel is too short to use as a walking aid. I like a heavy stick of a medium lenth - mine is 30 inches and weighs just over a kilo. They are currently a bit out of fashion, but are still favoured by gypsies. I once had the honour of presenting a stick I made to a gentleman who was very eminent in the Romany community.
The knobkerry is derived from the Zulu fighting stick or mace and was adopted by the 19th Century Voortreckers and Boers. The form is a slender smooth stick with a pronounced knob. They are made from one of the African hardwoods. You will need a pole lathe to form one of these. The European settlers began to make them from the spokes of broken wagon wheels (often made of Ironwood or Iroko), and often added a 'load' in the form of a large bullet in the knob. I have a beautiful example given to me by the decendants of a Boer War veteran, with some items of his equipment and an excellent book (dated 1902) about the conflict.
There are, of course other types of rustic stick. Many troops serving in the Far East during WW2 brought back as souvenirs the bamboo sticks that were carried by Japanese officers. I class these as knobsticks, whereas the pace sticks carried by Empire officers would be classed as canes, which is a subject for another thread...
<Added later - I neglected to mention that the most coveted Blackthorn sticks used to be made by training the bush while it was still growing. This would be done by winding a shoot around the main trunk and cutting the bark of both so that the branch would take a spiral form and become a part of the trunk and therefore a feature of the stick. This occasionally happens naturally, but the thought that someone would go regularly to a secluded hedgerow and work on a sapling over ten years or longer to make a nicer stick is impressive. People had a different approach to time and their own hand skills in those days.
A
Alan
