davepolaschek

I blogged the progress of building this cane as I was recovering from back surgery, and now it’s finished. Ash, a narrow strip of granadillo, white grain filler on the handle, and 7 coats of Tru-Oil to finish it. The diameter of the shaft is close to 1¼ inches (31mm).

I'm giving it to an acquaintance from the local farmers market this afternoon, who saw me with my cane on August 29, and said that he’d like one like it, so I made two. The other is still unfinished, but I’ll wrap it up over the next week or so.

#project

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Today’s 90 minutes of shop time started with some shaping of the handle. I dry fit the shaft into the handle, and then shaped the piece of granadillo so all the curves were smooth.

Then I got out the mallet, and pounded the live oak peg through the holes in the handle and the shaft. They were ¼ inch (6mm) holes, with the one in the shaft offset by 1mm toward the shoulder of the joint. As you can see, I mushroomed the last bit of the peg pretty severely.

The pointy end of the peg got bent somewhat by its trip through the holes. Note that I tapered only the first ¼ to ⅜ inch of the peg, and then soaked it for about a half-hour in almost-boiling water. That softened the peg enough that I had some problems driving it home. I'm not sure if I recommend that or not, but Elia Bizzarri did study boiled joints and I think they're a solid thing, but maybe don't combine well with drawboring.

The tenon on the cane shaft was intentionally a bit long. After getting the joint together, I added some small wedges (of soft maple, I think) to fill gaps.

I also filled the tiny gaps around the peg with ash sawdust and CA glue.

Also filled around the tenon.

And after some sanding to clean things up, I put another coat of oil on everything. I can still see a few spots where there’s open grain, so I think I need at least 3-4 more coats of Tru-Oil before I can call this done.

Overall, I think it’s looking pretty good, though.

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I finished up the carving on the shaft. Going to keep it simple, with just a single set of lines, rather than full checkering. Sanded with 220 grit to take out any dings or such that accumulated while I was carving, then a coat of Tru-Oil. Note that the shaft appears darker than the handle. My expectation is that the colors will converge as I get more fine wood dust into the open grain of the shaft as I oil, then sand back with 0000 steel wool.

As for the handle, just some of the steel wool, then another coat of oil. There are a couple spots in the end grain that I’m not completely happy with the grain-filling so far, but I’m hoping that’ll get better as I put on more coats of oil.

Tomorrow is the joinery, I think.

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It’s getting into the home stretch, I think. I sanded off (using 220 grit) the excess white grain-filler, then hit the handle with a coat of Tru-Oil, trying to avoid the areas that will be part of the joint, though I’ll be doing some carving / shaping there, so a little oil won’t be the end of the world.

The handle will get smoothed with 0000 steel wool tomorrow, then another coat of Tru-Oil. I’m hoping for 8-10 coats, since that’s where it really starts to shine, based on previous experience. This probably means I’m going to need to get out to the shop two or three times a day the rest of this week. I’m thinking I’ll do the joinery on Wednesday, so I can get a few coats of finish on the areas of the handle and shaft I’ll be carving so they meet up smoothly.

Then I set up the shaft of the cane in the carving vise, and put two horizontal grooves around the top of the shaft, and connected them with lines in one direction using gunstock checkering tools. I haven’t decided if I’m going to complete the checkering tomorrow or what exactly, but even this will be a nice decorative touch. The lines were spaced with an 18lpi tool.

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After section 11, I got asked by some woodworking friends about how one grips a cane, and how the physics of the joint work. Specifically:

How does one grab that, hand behind the shaft or does one wrap the index finger around the front portion?

And:

I've never required the need for a cane, but my two cents for what it's worth: regarding the question asked by Mr. Splinter, it would seem to me that the cane should be held with the hand centered over the shaft. This would reduce or eliminate the handle being pushed down on one side, thus this lever action might loosen the joint, or elongate the mortise. What do you think?

I answered as follows:

On my cane, I grip it as I described earlier, with my index finger either pointing down the shaft, or slightly ahead of it. One gal I know holds her cane “backwards” so the heel of her hand is directly over the shaft. It works for her, but I find it hugely uncomfortable.

As for torque on the joint, yes, that’s a possibility, but I’m drawboring the joint, so the shoulder around the tenon should be tight against the cheeks of the mortise, and I’ll stick wedges around the tenon to take up any looseness in the mortise before I drive in the drawbore peg. That’s the same technique I used on mine, and with almost a decade of on and off use, plus moving from MN to NM and having all the wood shrink from the dry, the joint is still rock solid.

I would be a little concerned about the joint if he were going to take the cane to somewhere soupy like Houston or Nawlins after it was built here in the desert, but the monsoon this summer has kept our dewpoints above the mid-40s all summer, so the wood is not as bone-dry as usual.

The only way I can think of to make the joint more solid would be to boil the joint, but that’s a one-and-done technique, and I don’t trust myself to get it perfect on the first try. I will be boiling the (live oak) trenail that will be holding the joint together (along with some glue), and as that dries, it should try to straighten out and pull the joint even more tightly together.

But yeah, in a perfect world, (along with the spherical cows and frictionless floors from my freshman physics course) the weight from your arm would be in a mostly straight line down the shaft. Then again, I’m overbuilding this fairly seriously, and it’s not as if it’s a completely original design.

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90 minutes in the shop this morning, but quite a bit of progress.

First, I shaped the handle a bit more. When Greg tried it on Friday, we made marks where the handle felt “too big” to him, and I removed those marks with the small spokeshave. No photos.

Next, I trimmed the cane shaft to the proper length, then thinned the end a bit so the tip would fit on the shaft.

Then I grabbed a scrap to hold the handle and put it in my carving vise. I mixed up some white grain-filler, and applied it with nitrile gloves, rubbing first with the grain, then across the grain.

I didn’t get the open pores completely filled, but once this coat dries, I’ll sand back with some 0000 steel wool, then start applying oil, sanding lightly (again with 0000 steel wool) between each coat, which should finish filling the grain with wood dust and oil.

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About two hours more work (for two handles) mostly with a spokeshave and a knife, but also with some rasp work and a pencil to mark what I want to do at each step, as it’s easy to lose track of what I’m doing otherwise.

I am taking both handles along to today’s Eldorado Farmers Market to see which the guy prefers. The one pictured here has a slight waist in the middle when viewed from the top, which makes a bigger difference in how it feels than I expected. The pencil will go along as well, so I can mark the correct length on the shaft that goes with the handle he picks.

The carving vise that’s doing almost all of my workholding as I work on the handles is the cheap Chinese green carving vise that a ton of people sell in slightly different shades of green (or sometimes red). They go for about $180 post-tariff-madness, but there are deals to be found if you search a lot. “Patternmakers carving vise” is the search term I used, and it tells me that Taylor Toolworks has the best price today, at $150.

P.s. The granadillo layer on this handle has the grain running perpendicular to the grain of the handle. I don’t think it’ll make any difference in strength, but the appearance of the two will differ a little. I’ll see if anyone notices…

P.p.s Nobody did notice.

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This morning’s progress was marking the position for the hole in the tenon,

Then offsetting it by 1mm or so towards the shoulder

And drilling it out (not shown). The idea behind drawboring is that when a wooden pin is driven through the slightly offset holes in the handle and shaft, the pin will pull the shaft into the handle quite tightly. Tightly enough that the pin usually can't be removed without destroying something. This ensures a solid fit between the two parts of a cane.

Once that was done, it was time to start shaping the handle. This is rasp, knife, and spokeshave work. I also had to take a break to fill some of the open grain with thin CA glue.

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Another hour, some more progress. I started rounding the shafts with my homemade spokeshave, but that’s set for a pretty rough cut, and I was getting some chatter, especially when working against the grain. So after finishing with that, I got out the big HNT Gordon shave, which I keep set fairly fine, and went over them again. Not quite as smooth as a baby’s butt, but I got almost all the chatter out.

Both cane shafts are still 4 feet long for now, but I think the plan for my next shop session is to start carving some designs on these, though I also have some handle shaping I could work on.

Note: The shafts are about 1¼ inch at this point.

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Next up, making the shafts rounder, but first, done quick fine-tuning of the tenons with a float. I had aimed to make the mortises slightly larger at the bottom than the top, so mostly this is a matter of inserting the tenon into the mortise and seeing what rubs, then making the tenon a tiny bit smaller from that point down.

Eventually, things fit together.

Then I mark lines on the four sides of the shaft. Somewhere between ¼ and ⅓ of the width.

Then I set the shaft in a jig I have that holds it at a 45°︎ angle, and plane each corner down to the lines. When I hit the lines, it’s pretty close to octagonal.

Tomorrow, or maybe later today, I’ll hold the shafts in my carving vise, and use a spokeshave to make them rounder.

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