I think I will make a Staff

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There are at least a couple staff carvers at the beach. One of them does very intricate beautiful carving work - total art, spending probably more than 100 hours on each one. He’s gifted them to some of his friends and donated some to art auctions or as prizes for annual beach games etc. Another makes more practical ones that he carves typically using only a very basic Olfa utility knife aka a box cutter. His staffs aren’t as intricate but still rather impressive for something carved with a box cutter. He sometimes uses them to practice spinning - for fire spinning.

Both of them use drift wood Or a limb from a tree in the rainforest at the back of the beach.

Anyways, why ironwood? (Besides that it’s readily available to you) You’d think it would be too heavy to be a useful tool to carry for any length of time.. 8.6lbs.. 86% the weight of a 10lb sledge! Bit heavy to be racing around chasing after sheep with, no?

I like your staff a lot. Well proportioned simple elegance.

The urge came over me to make a staff and my mind immediately went to ironwood. In the brush one of the most useful tools is a machete. In clearing the brush many years ago, I would come across these trees and they were difficult to cut. The machete basically bounced right off them.

As far as weight, the final weight will be determined at the end. Some of the weight is the water trapped inside the wood. It needs to dry out. Months of drying.

Life is about doing. One begins and experiments and over time improves upon the experiment. One can sit in front of a book or (today computer screen) and theorize all day long. But the rubber-meets-the-road in actually trying something new for the first time.

At the moment, after sanding, the staff feels good. And that is what matters.

That's way cool. Nice.

I love gadgets. It is one of my special interest. Several years back I bought an electronic moisture meter. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It has sat tucked away in a cabinet drawer for over 10 years collecting dust.

The staff needs to vent it's moisture slowly. It needs to dry out. I noticed several lateral cracks beginning to form on the staff, most likely due to wood moisture content.

So last night it came to me that I had a moisture meter somewhere. I searched the house this morning and after a half hour I found it.

I measured the moisture content in a crack near the root ball. I did this on wood type 4 setting. It gave me a reading of 21.5%. Now the end goal is for the wood to reach an equilibrium moisture content (EMC). For normal inside home environments of 68 deg F and 40% RH, this would work out to an EMC of 7.7%. So it has a long ways to go before it reaches equilibrium.

After that I can repair the cracks, re-sand, and finish by applying oil. I really like the feel of this staff.

I wonder how effective it would be at clubbing a bear should the need present itself.

There isn't bears in my region. All we have is Mountain Lions. I had a large tree next to my driveway that had its bark shredded by a mountain lion.

I measured the moisture content in the staff today. It gave me a reading of 12.5%. So it looks like it is drying out quite nicely.

Bears showed up in my yard but the Catahoula treed them.Papa bear, mama bear and the two cubs.

My aunt lived on the east coast. A bear and its three cubs showed up at her house. She thought the cubs were cute and fed them. BIG MISTAKE.
The next year, the cubs were grown and they stopped by for a visit and wanted to be feed. Now she didn't know what to do.

They are adorable when little, a potential menace when grown.They like it when people have bird feeders out, full trash cans or beehives.Its a bear buffet.They were coming for the ripe pears on my tree ,but the dogs saved the pears.
They have even gotten into people’s houses here.Talk about a mess.

The wood in the staff is now dried out. I weighed it this morning and the staff now weighs 4.2 pounds. I have a little piece of the ironwood that I used as a test sample. When I first cut it, and placed it in water, it immediately went to the bottom. Now that the sample has dried, it floats. Interesting!

So today I will repair the lateral splits in the wood caused by drying I will use wood glue. After the glue dries, I will give it a final sanding.