I'd like to make a Cane for a friend who had a stroke: Materials Q's ?

Factual Questions
1

A good friend of mine had a stroke a few weeks ago, he’s only 40. He is improving very well, getting used to everything again…though the doctors say he’s going to have to walk with a cane for quite some time. So, as I love to work with wood, and he doesn’t want to use the one the physical therapist gave him…Few Questions:

Has anyone done this before? If so what type of wood did you use? I’m thinking a good solid Oak.
From what part of the tree did you get it? I’m thinking a strong branch, cut after the bend. This would leave room for the hand hold.
Should I poly the wood? What thickness should the wood be? I’m thinking an inch and a half…He’s a big guy, 250-275 at least. I’m looking to make something that will last a very long time. Longevity, and toughness is what I am shooting for.

Any one have any ideas…?

2

My father had a beautiful cane made from diamond willow. The cane wasn’t made as a smooth piece. Rather, it was carved to look somewhat gnarly, which brings out the diamond pattern in the wood. The handle was a slightly curved piece attached at right angles to the staff, rather than the traditional curved handle you see on canes. It looked to me like it was finished with poly. I wouldn’t make it too thick, as someone who has had a stroke may have a hard time lifting or gripping. You might go look at some commercially sold canes to see what may be appropriate.

3

I’m not going to make it too thick, but I would like to know how thickness will play on the strength of the cane. Canes are used to aid in walking, I doubt he’d be leaning all his weight on it. However, if he were to lean his weight on it, we can’t have it snapping now cane we. I’d just like to know if there is a some type of formula or reference to go by where I can find this info out on strength.

I’ll probably make it out of oak, as I have oaks all over my property. I’ll probably give it a half, T-grip on it. But I’d like to to be all one piece of wood.

4

nudge…

5

My brother has done stuff like this in his woodworking shop; here’s what I recall about it.

For wood, basically any hardwood will work OK. The cane can be either straight & smooth, like commercial ones (boring, and wasteful of the appeal of natural wood) or it can be carved & patterned, or even with slight bends showing the natural tree limb it came from (but not *too[.i] much bending – needs to be solid & sturdy).

Handles can be one of several types:

  • typical curved shape (upside-down J).
  • straight shape (upside-down L).
  • straight both sides (T shape),
  • knob on top.
  • nothing special on top – just a straight stick.

It’s fairly common to make it in 2 pieces, the stick itself & the handle at the top. That gives you a much wider choice of material to use. A good woodworker can make the join pretty unnoticable. Or it can be incorporated in a carving pattern, or covered with a decorative band of metal, another wood, etc.

But you do need to make it very solid. Often both pieces are drilled out in the center, and a metal rod or L-shaped piece is inserted inside to make sure the joint is sturdy. You can even drill a hole through the whole stick & insert a metal rod inside. This allows you to use woods that might otherwise be too soft, or to make a thinner hardwood cane. But the increased weight may be a problem.

It can take a lot of hours of work to do this, but the result will be beautiful, personalized for your friend, and very functional.

6

How thick does it need to be? Let’s do some math, shall we?

OK, my “Mechanics of Materials”, by Beer, Johnston, and DeWolf lists Red oak has having a maximum compression stress of 6.8 ksi.

We’ll go with the large estimate of the weight at 275 lbs-f. We can use the simple formula for determining stress, [symbol]s[/symbol] = P/A. P is the load (in lbs-f), A is the area (in in[sup]2[/sup], and [symbol]s[/symbol] is the stress, in psi.

Putting in values of 6.8 ksi for sigma, and 275 lbs-f for P, we arrive that A must be 0.04 in[sup]2[/sup] or larger. Assumimg a round shape for the cane, and knowing that the area of a circle is A = [symbol]p[/symbol]r[sup2[/sup], we arrive that r, the radius, must be at least 0.11 in. This means that your cane should, in theory, only need to be a quarter of an inch thick to support the weight of your friend…I certainly don’t think this is true, but I think that six times that thickness (1.5 in) should be sufficient.

And this, my friends, is why we can’t always assuem everything we would like to assume when solving strengh of materials problems. Sure, a quarter-inch thick cane would support that, if it didn’t have a tendancy to bed, creating a lot of shear, which has a lower maximum stress. Also, the wood isn’t perfect, that maximum stress is just an average of statistical sampling, and so on and so on.

7

Make it tall enough.

8

Ash and oak are your best bet… tough, shock resistant, inexpensive, not difficult to get or to work. If you are in an area where you can get a small log, that’s the way to go.
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Find an ash or red oak or white oak log, very straight, around 10" in diameter would be fine, and maybe 4’ long (It’s okay if it’s green/wet). Use your trusty mallet and wedges to split the log as nearly in half as you can, starting at one end like splitting firewood. Then split a half into a quarter, and work down from there with your trusty hatchet and then a sharp knife (green wood will be much easier at this point). Work at it 'til it seems satisfactory.
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Using cleaved wood like this will ensure that the grain runs true from end to end, making for a stronger stick. Also cheap, as you can use firewood. You will have lots of material left over, too.
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There are lots of great books on working green wood, and being in Maine, I can get the materials cheap or free most of the time. If you want to seriously get into it, I’ll send you some good reading materials.

9

Hammerbach - go ahead an email me some reading materials…I’m always interested in wood working books. Also, I was planning on using the method you are talking about…with a log. I happen to have several large logs 5+ feet each of white oak. [from when I built the treehouse]

Thanks for the thickness verification bouv, I’ll need that.

And t-bonham thanks for the support. I’m looking forward to the hours of work…It’s always nice to see a finished product wrought from my own hands. Also the designs I’m planning should be really nice…

Maybe my wife will let me get that floor Lathe I’ve been eyeing at wood workers warehouse…:slight_smile:

10

I have made several canes or hiking sticks from various materials.

I personally like Holly. If you can find a sapling or branch that is the appropriate thickness (.75 - 1 inch diameter) you can get a great looking stick. If you are really lucky, you will get a root ball that will allow you to make a handle for it otherwise you will have to join one on. Holly is vitrually unbreakable but might be a bit bendy for a heavy person.

Hazel is easy to work with and very strong, it also grows very straight.

Ash is nice and easy to work

Willow is great and easy to bend so you can bend a handle on it.

There are ornamental cabbages that you can grow to use the dried stems as a cane

Hawthorn is beautiful and very strong

Beech is great and easy to bend and looks good if you finish it well.

I am crap at truning wood so I prefer to just use branches that have a constant thickness (again .75 - 1 inch diameter) Wood is very strong and will take a lot of weight. Sometimes I will use a whole sapling If I can get away with it as I like to use the root ball. I want to make a staff like Gandalf’s in the first Lord Of The Rings someday.

For handles, you need to take care as the user will be relying on it for support. You can buy nice pieces of pre-formed wood from woodworking supply companies so you could go for something exotic for the handle. Deer antler makes a very nice handle. A bent handle will look great and be as strong as the rest of the wood. I have had the most success with Willow.

If your friend does not want to admit that he needs a cane (My mother was like this and wouldn’t carry a waking stick for years) My brother came up with the idea of getting a metal hiking stick - one of the variable hieght types, with a cork covered handle - and fixing the parts of an unbrella to it. Now it looked like she was carrying an umbrella but at least had the strength of a cane.

Put a good ferrule on it too - one of those big rubber feet may look ugly but they grip well and again this is now his main support so function may be more important than form.

You need to think about how the user will use it. If he needs to look respectable eg business meetings, an old man of the woods style stick may be out of place but he could always keep the medical one for those situations.

11

Sage advice Pergau. As for looks, I want it to look distinguishing. I want people to say…thats an awefully nice cane…I want it to be so nice that is takes away from the reason he needs to use it.

I’m going on a hike this weekend to search for the perfect wood…Root balls are out because of the frost line, and I’m looking for a solid one piece cane…no add ons except for the ferrule.

12

I don’t have anything to email (although a search on “working green wood” will find a plethora of info), but I do have a good book or two, particularly Green Woodwork, Working with wood the natural way, by Mike Abbot. Book rate postage is cheap, and I’ll send it to you so long as you promise to send it back eventually. Encouraging the arts, and all that.

13

Thats one tough book to find and buy in the US but I did it…I’m a little peculiar about reference books…I’d probably not want to send it back if you know what I mean :wink: Thank you very mcuh for turning me onto this guy…Whats a craftsman he is. I actually called a buddy of mine, a local ship wright to see if he heard of Mike Abbott and the guy is well known to wood working professionals. So Thanks a lot, I paid for the over night deliver so I’ll have it sometime Thursday morning…Very excited to start !

14

Excellent! Let me know if you need help finding/restoring tools. Most are flea market finds (drawknife, spokeshaves, etc) but some are hard to find (spoon drills). If you are creative and conident, you can make or modify almost anything to suit you. Good luck!

15

SLIGHT HIJACK
sorry, i hate jerks who try to derail an OP, but in this case, i would feel remiss not to.
i can’t help on the wood, but, i would like to recommend your making something for your friend along the lines of a staff (Moses-like). when my mother had her stroke 5 years ago, the physical therapist gave her a staff. she said that it was a million times more beneficial than a cane and that a cane could also be more dangerous to the person using it.
on top of that, a staff WOULD definitely draw attention away from your friend’s condition, give you an opportunity to be really creative, and it might give a certain je ne se quois (sp?) to your friend.

of course, it might only make people think that he is a dork.