The bark may then be taken off with a sharp knife, but care must be taken not to split or chip the wood. Knots may be trimmed at the same time, and the root knobs turned into grotesque shapes. There are no rules that can be given to guide one when carving the roots into handles, since their forms are governed by the outlines of the roots, these often being very suggestive of themselves. The group of heads shown in Figs. 8, 9, 10, and 11 will illustrate what I mean. Figs. 8 and 9 show the rough stick, Figs. 10 and 11 the finished heads.
One or two points should receive considerable attention when designing the handles. If the stick is to be a fancy one to be carried and swung in the hand, the roots can be carved into grotesque or fancy forms. But if for use, the handle should be round and smooth, so as to fit comfortably in the hand. The head of a dog, or a swan or goose, forms an appropriate design for a stick that is to be held on the arm when lighting a match, or when wishing to have both hands free. The crutch and hook are also comfortable forms.
Wooden handles are given touches of rich brown by applying a red-hot iron to the parts to be colored.
All sticks with the rough bark left on should be neatly trimmed naked around the neck of the handle, and the whole lightly gone over with fine sand or emery paper. The cane should then receive several dressings of boiled linseed-oil and be left to dry. When dry, a coat of shellac varnish is applied. Oak canes look best when carefully barked in hot water, the loose bark being removed by rubbing with coarse canvas, and the cane then dried, dressed with boiled linseed-oil, again dried, then polished, and varnished with shellac or furniture varnish, and again polished.
Dogwood and Osage orange sticks can be stained black by brushing them over with a hot and strong decoction of logwood and nut gall. When this is thoroughly dried, brush them over with vinegar in which a few rusty nails have been steeped for two or three days. Some persons use ink for a black stain, others introduce “drop black” in the varnish; a brown or mahogany stain may be obtained by adding some “dragon’s-blood” to the varnish. The lower ends of the sticks should be guarded from excessive wear by a neat brass ferrule; these are cheaper to purchase at a hardware store than to make, though I have often used brass thimbles and tailors’ steel thimbles as a substitute. These can be fastened by means of hot shellac, or with a brass pin driven into a hole in the thimble and passing through the wood of the stick.