Smart questions
Smart answers
Smart people
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Member Login
Remember Me
Forgot Password?
Join Us!

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips now!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
Join Eng-Tips
*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

LINK TO THIS FORUM!

Add Stickiness To Your Site By Linking To This Professionally Managed Technical Forum.
Just copy and paste the
code below into your site.

Eng-Tips LinkedIn® Group

Partner With Us!

"Best Of Breed" Forums Add Stickiness To Your Site
Partner Button
(Download This Button Today!)

Feedback

"...Dudes! Great site. You've saved me hours and hours...and I have just started using your site. I've already passed your URL onto my entire company. Keep up the awesome work. Bingo-bango..."
More...

Geography

Where in the world do Eng-Tips members come from?
Click Here To Find Out!

Eng-Tips Shirts!

Get Eng-Tips Swag
Get your
Eng-Tips Forums
SWAG here!
Home > Forums > Materials Engineers > Materials > Wood design and engineering Forum

What is the best wood for a hiking staff?Helpful Member! 

thread337-325147
Read More Threads Like This One
tomwalz (Materials)
3 Jul 12 14:02
What is the best wood for a hiking staff?

Strongest, toughest, prettiest, most comfortable, etc. If you were going to build a hiking staff, what would you use? Weight is somewhat of an issue. Ability to hold up while beating down brush and blackberries is also an issue. It would be nice if it would take fittings for bear bells, etc.

Thanks,

Tom

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

JAE (Structural)
3 Jul 12 15:52
Aluminum?
MiketheEngineer (Structural)
3 Jul 12 15:56
Ash - they make baseball bats from that.

Other than that - who cares?? Find something that fits your needs and go with it. I would stay away from the pines - they seem to warp and wane too much. Some kind of hardwood makes sense to me
woodman88 (Structural)
3 Jul 12 16:06
The cheapest wood you can find with a sg equal to or greater than 0.5.

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

TomDOT (Materials)
3 Jul 12 16:19
Hickory is a good choice, or (white) ash, or maple. I like to wipe down with thinned linseed oil. Let it cure a few days after that. Might need a couple of applications for any end-grain (ends, knots.)
dhengr (Structural)
3 Jul 12 16:37
And, the little boy tree asked the daddy tree... who was my mother?
The daddy tree said... your mother was a fine piece of ash. smile
dik (Structural)
3 Jul 12 18:57
When I was in Scouts, my staff was Chestnut... strong, hard, and light. You may have difficulty in finding same.

Dik
msquared48 (Structural)
4 Jul 12 17:09
Don't listen to JAE. He gets hit quite often by lightening...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
dik (Structural)
4 Jul 12 19:19
at least he didn't recommend Ironwood!

Dik
hokie66 (Structural)
4 Jul 12 19:31
Actually, Australian Ironbark makes an excellent staff, albeit a bit heavy.
JAE (Structural)
4 Jul 12 21:22
sorry... I was a bit snarky.

It seems that you'd need the lightest weight hardwood that you can find. Most of the wood books I have don't include a lot of the hardwood varieties to check on that but an online search for hardwoods might turn up something.

Alternatively you could paint nice brown wood grain on the aluminum.
Helpful Member!  ornerynorsk (Industrial)
26 Jul 12 15:55
Diamond willow is THE material to use, if you can find it.

See the attachment regarding bear bells, Tom.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

msquared48 (Structural)
26 Jul 12 18:43
Balsa wood - it's real light.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
dik (Structural)
26 Jul 12 21:05
ornery... I wish I could send you two stars...

Dik
MikeHalloran (Mechanical)
26 Jul 12 22:00
Balsa is also soft, unless you wrap it with FRP.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

dik (Structural)
27 Jul 12 11:00
The heartwood is harder, and is often used for carved signs... but it's still soft... Maybe clad it with JAE's aluminum and paint wood grain...

Dik
msquared48 (Structural)
27 Jul 12 17:59
Balsa is much lighter so the staff carrying the staff will not get overstressed. Cannot say the same for the staff carried when used in the vertical mode though.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
TomDOT (Materials)
30 Jul 12 8:06
Diamond willow looks like a nice structural shape :)
abusementpark (Structural)
6 Aug 12 22:17
Remember the old boy scout adage:

Carry of a stick of spruce and the snakes will vamoose.
Carry of a stick of birch and the snakes will lurk.
dik (Structural)
6 Aug 12 22:22
Never heard the expression.
TomDOT (Materials)
7 Aug 12 8:20
Never heard of it either. Although I would probably go for birch if it worked. I like snakes.
Read More Threads Like This One

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!

Back To Forum

Back To Wood design and engineering

Close Box

Join Eng-Tips® Today!

Join your peers on the Internet's largest technical engineering professional community.
It's easy to join and it's free.

Here's Why Members Love Eng-Tips Forums:

Register now while it's still free!

Already a member? Close this window and log in.

Join Us             Close