Seasoning and Storing

Having cut some suitable walking sticks and trimmed opf the side shoots, bundled them carefully and got them home safely they must be seasoned. A walking sticks shank at 25mm thick and cut in the winter mounths normally takes one year to season, when the walking sticks were cut at any other time of the year it takes a extra few months to season correctly. A walking sticks that has be dug up from the ground( a root handle) it takes up to two years to season depending on the size of the handle, to reduce the risk of spliting, the ends should be seales with a couple of coatd of varish or knotting liquid.

Before you bundle the walking sticks up give them a coat of woodworm oil, then tie them up top to bottom in bundles of 5 or 6 and put them in a airy shed ( a opened sided shed is ideal, a heated workshop is to warm). Each stick maker has ther own way of storing walking sticks, some on there flat and others vertically, the beat way of all is suspending them from the beams of roofs. This lets air around the walking sticks and prevents them from bending and also damp from the ground.