Hare-headed walking stick

[Whittling]

G'day all,

I was at a friend's house last month and noticed a walking stick which really caught my eye. The handle was shaped like the head of a hare with the ears forming the grip. The hare was made of some sort of melamine or plastic but I really liked the design so I asked if I could borrow it to make a pattern.

The attached is part of the process and end result. I just finished it today. Hope you like it.

[joeyjons]

I like it Can i ask what sort of timber it is? I haven't really done any carving before but seeing that i'm shed-less at the moment i need something to do, or at least try!

[Whittling]

G'day Joe,

The hare is carved in Jelutong. The spacers are Jarrah and Huon pine and the shaft is more Jarrah. The sanding and shaping of the Jarrah shaft is not something you want to try in the kitchen! The Jelutong hare was carved at the kitchen table using a 3-bladed pocket knife and 3 chisels.

If you're looking for a simple project, take a look at the Golf Ball Carving thread here too.

[joeyjons]

Thanks Whittling
I did see those, very cool.

[schaf]

Good one Whittling.

[artme]

Now I like that!!!

Hares, wolves, snakes - we are developing a real menagerie.

[Woodwould]

A lovely bit of work!

[Frank&Earnest]

Very nice, I like the clean and strong lines of the carving. Do you expect Jelutong to withstand actual use of the stick or is it just for decoration?

[Whittling]

I use Jelutong a lot for stick handles. Usually they are the 'knob' sort, carved caricature heads etc but I've done others as well. In almost 300 sticks, I've never had one fail yet. The 'ears' on the hare may look delicate, but there is actually quite a bit of wood material there and the grain runs horizontally of course. I'm not anticipating any structrual problems.

Of course if you are going to put a lot of weight on a stick, really use it rather than just walk with it, then something more robust may be called for. Something more ergonomically shaped than a hare head. I usually use beech for handles like that ie the wolf head stick I posted earlier, although I have used just about every kind of timber I could lay my hands on at one time or another.

[Sebastiaan56]

Looks great Whittling. I love the detail.