How Walking Sticks are made

Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. How Walking Sticks are made.

How Walking Sticks are made.

Sticks are manufactured both from large timber of from two to six feet girth, and from small underwood of about the thickness of a man's thumb. The timber, which is chiefly beech, is first sawed into battens of about three feet in length and as many inches in width; and from each of these battens two square sticks, with square heads are afterwards cut in opposite directions, so that the middle portion is waste wood. The corners of each are afterwards rounded off by a planing process called "trapping," and the square head is reduced, by a small saw, to a curve or rectangular bend, so as to form a handle. When the sticks are brought in this way to the exact size and pattern, they are polished with great care, are finely varnished, and packed in boxes or bundles for the market. Many sawn sticks, however, are supplied with bone and horn handles, which are fastened on with glue; and then of course there is less wood waste, as a larger number of them may be cut from one batten.

A very different process takes place in the manufacture of sticks from small underwood, in which there is no sawing required. The rough unfashioned sticks, which are generally of hazel, ash, oak and thorn, are cut with a bill in the same way as kidney bean sticks, and are brought to the factory in large bavins or bundles, piled on a timber tug. There must of course, be some little care in their selection, yet it is evident that the woodmen are not very particular on this score, for they have in general an ungainly appearance; and many are so crooked and rough, that no drover or country boy would think it worth while to polish the like of them with his knife. Having arrived at this place, however, their numerous excrescences are soon pruned away, and their ugliness converted into elegance. When sufficiently seasoned and fit for working, they are first laid to soak in wet sand, and rendered more tough and pliable; a workman then takes them one by one, and securing them with an iron stock, bends them skillfully this way and that, so as to bring out their natural crooks, and render them at last all straight even rods. If they are not required to be knotted, they next go to the "trapper," who puts them through a kind of circular plane, which takes off knots, and renders them uniformly smooth and round. The most important process of all is that of giving them their elegantly curved handles, for which purpose they are passed over to the "crooker." Every child knows that if we bend a tough stick moderately when the pressure is discontinued, it will soon fly back, more or less, to its former position; and if we bend it very much, it will break. Now the crooker professes to accomplish the miracle of bending a stick as it might be an iron wire, so that it shall neither break nor "backen." To prevent the breaking, the wood is rendered pliant by further soaking in wet sand; and a flexible band of metal is clamped down firmly to that portion of the stick that will form the outside of the curve; the top end is then fitted into a grooved iron shoulder which determines the size of the crook, the other end being brought round so as to point in the opposite direction; the metal band during this process binding with increasing tightness against the stretching fibers of the wood, so that they cannot snap or give way under the strain. The crook having been made, the next thing is to fix it, or remove from the fibers the reaction of elasticity, which would otherwise, on the cessation of the bending force, cause it to backen more or less, and undo the work. In the old process of crooking by steam, as timber bending is effected, the stick was merely left till it was cold to acquire a permanent set; but in the new process, a more permanent set is given by turning the handle about briskly over a jet of gas. The sticks being now fashioned, it only remains to polish and stain or varnish them; and they are sometimes scorched or burned brown, and carved with foliage, animal heads and other devices.—Chambers' Journal.

Flowering of the Victoria Regia in the Open Air.—Joseph Mager, Esq., has succeeded in flowering the Victoria lily, in his pond in England. The pond is perfectly open, but the water is heated by hot water pipes coming from a boiler near the pond, carefully concealed. The seeds of the Victoria were planted in May last, and the first flower was produced Sept. 10th. Afterwards seven other flowers opened. The plant has eight leaves, of which the largest is five feet two inches in diameter. Mr. Mager has also succeeded in flowering a large number of other tropical lilies in his pond.

Jute, a material largely used in combination with hemp, for making cordage, sacking, mats, and carpets, is produced in India to the extent of 300,000 tuns per annum. The scarcity of fuel prevents its manufacture on the spot, except by the rudest and most primitive means, so that the bulk of the growth is sent to Great Britain.

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This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19180/pg19180-images.html

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