Routered Walking Sticks

It's easy to forget how versatile routers are, which, of course, is why this site exists. Among other things, they are excellent dowel makers and work especially well for making big dowels.

I've made a lot of dowels from 2x's using a 3/4 round-over bit to create 1-1/2 diameter dowels. Too, some of those dowels are strangely shaped, as the pictures suggest.

For example, for the walking stick resting on my table saw under it's own power (a 3/8" thick, 1-1/2" diameter magnet with a pull force of nearly one hundred pounds). I call it The Poor Man's Metal Detector. It was inspired by a buddy who chases meteorites.

Anyway, the long sections are done using the 3/4" round over. Other, smaller round over bits cut down on sanding the smaller sections. In the end, there is a lot of sanding, but it goes quickly, for the most part.

Other sticks are more simple and can be done, for the most part, on a router table, to avoid the usual lines left when the bearing rides on the first cut (making the dowel less round and more oval shaped).

Sometimes, we forget routers are excellent dowel makers. They work especially well for making big dowels. I've made a lot of dowels from 2x's using a 3/4 round-over bit to create 1-1/2 diameter dowels. Too, some of those dowels are strangely shaped, as the pictures suggest.

For example, for the walking stick resting on my table saw under it's own power (a 3/8" thick, 1-1/2" diameter magnet with a pull force of nearly one hundred pounds). I call it The Poor Man's Metal Detector. It was inspired by a buddy who chases meteorites.

Anyway, the long sections are done using the 3/4" round over. Other, smaller round over bits cut down on sanding the smaller sections. In the end, there is a lot of sanding, but it goes quickly, for the most part.

Other sticks are more simple and can be done, for the most part, on a router table, to avoid the usual lines left when the bearing rides on the first cut (making the dowel less round and more oval shaped).

- The stick with the shifting colors and stippling (dragon skin?) has a copper plated cap. Here, it's unfinished because it's missing the paracord wrap at the joint of the copper plated cap and the stick top.

- The self supporting [on an iron bed] stick is, of course, unfinished in the photo.

- The Dream Stick was a 2x6. The strings, now visible from the side, where they go through many holes, will be hidden by thin leather cord wrapped only around the two sections that separate.

- The laminated Snake is, of course, just that - a home made 2x made by laminating light and dark woods, then cutting the shape, the routering it all over and sanding and sanding and sanding (thanks be for spindle sanders).

- I call the bottom stick the Forager. It is the first walking stick I ever made. It, now, lives with the ex, since I made it for her. It was designed with the idea we could hang shopping bags from the notches and use the end notch to pull branches down for gleaning.

I above the standard rubber ends people put on nice sticks. I see beautiful work, then they slide what is nothing more than a floor protector off a sixties table on the bottom. To get the smooth flow and still have a nice rubber base, I use rubber stoppers. I just drill a hole through them, slightly smaller than a deck screw, then drill a hole in the bottom of the stick and run it on.

The rubber stoppers can be sanded to follow the lines of the stick.