Walking stick
A walking stick or walking cane is a device used primarily to aid walking, provide postural stability or support, or assist in maintaining a good posture, but some designs also serve as a fashion accessory or are used for self-defense.
Walking sticks come in many shapes and sizes and some have become collector's items. People with disabilities may use some kinds of walking sticks as a crutch but a walking cane is not designed for full weight support and is instead designed to help with balance. The walking stick has also historically been known to be used as a Self-defensive weapon and may conceal a knife or sword – as in a swordstick or sword cane.
Hikers use walking sticks, also known as trekking poles, pilgrim's staffs, hiking poles, or hiking sticks, for a wide variety of purposes: to clear spider webs or to part thick bushes or grass obscuring their trail; as a support when going uphill or as a brake when going downhill; as a balance point when crossing streams, swamps, or other rough terrains; to feel for obstacles in the path; to test mud and puddles for depth; to enhance the cadence of striding, and as a defense against wild animals. Also known as an alpenstock, from its origins in mountaineering in the Alps, such a walking stick is equipped with a steel point and a hook or pick on top. One can improvise a walking stick from nearby felled wood. More ornate sticks are made for avid hikers and are often adorned with small trinkets or medallions depicting "conquered" territory. Wooden walking sticks are used for outdoor sports, healthy upper-body exercise, and even club, department, and family memorials. They can be individually handcrafted from a number of woods and may be personalized with wood carving or metal engraving plaques.
A collector of walking sticks is termed a rabologist.
Types
Ashplant
- an Irish walking stick made from the ash tree.
Blackthorn
- an Irish walking stick, or shillelagh, made from the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).
Devil's walking stick
- Made from Hercules plant. (Aralia spinosa)
Shooting stick
- It can fold out into a single-legged seat.
Supplejack
- Made from a tropical American vine, also serves as a cane. (Berchemia scandens)
Penang lawyer
- Made from Licuala. After the bark is removed with only a piece of glass, the stick is straightened by fire and polished. The fictional Dr. Mortimer owned one of these in The Hound of the Baskervilles. So did Fitzroy Simpson, the main suspect in "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" (1892), whose lead-weighted stick was initially assumed to be the murder weapon.
Makila
- Basque walking stick or staff, usually made from medlar wood. It often features a gold or silver foot and handle, which may conceal a steel blade. The Makila's elaborate engravings are actually carved into the living wood, then allowed to heal before harvesting.
Kebbie
- a rough Scottish walking stick, similar to an Irish shillelagh, with a hooked head.
Whangee
- Asian, made of bamboo, also a riding crop. Such a stick was owned by Charlie Chaplin's character "The Tramp".
Malacca
- Malay stick made of rattan palms. (Calamus palm)
Pike Staff
- Pointed at the end for slippery surfaces.
Scout staff
- Tall stick traditionally carried by Boy Scouts, which has a number of uses in an emergency
Waddy
- Australian Aboriginal walking stick or war club, about one meter in length, sometimes with a stone head affixed with string and beeswax.
Ziegenhainer
- Knotty German stick, made from [\European cornel, also used as a melee weapon by a duellist's second. The spiral groove caused by a parasitic vine was often imitated by its maker if not present.
| List of Spanking Implements |
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See "sting and thud" for more on this distinction. |
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