Cubicle-nosed Mohawk pig hiking staff completed;-)

 Here´s my most recent hiking staff completed and close up. Top is a detail of the cubicle - nosed Mohawk pig that is intended to be a Celtic boar as a crown and handle-fitting. You can guide a length of paracord through the hole and make a loop that way to harvest apples and the like. The design makes the bristles also good for prying.

 The tip is tempered spring steel and makes a good choice when digging for roots.

I also fitted a leaf forged from bearing bronze.

The stick is made from fire-hardened blackthorn. It will get a jasper inlay into the gnarled part.

I personally like it;-).

I want a Ciupaga! - Interesting Information on a traditional Eastern European tool

Willi ([edit]: Willy, Willi was his father*ggg*) has one. He made it himself, and it serves him well as a support.

But only but recently I came across some info on it, and BOY, is it interesting! I am speaking of the Polish, Ukranian, Carpathian Ciupaga, Fokos or "Her Grace Sokyra", the walking axe. I came across this blog:
with a load of interesting input.



For instance, "The skillful Woodsman manual", a treasury of woodcraft tradition in Carpathian culture. Not so technically, but rather culturally interesting.

And, a really great picture of the "Sokyra" or "Her grace Sokyra", which also played a central role in traditional "axe" dance.:


Visit the blog, it´s well worth it!

Coming to think about it, I still have a piece of metal for an axe head...;-)

Most interesting, however, is that in traditional German  miner´s attire there is a so-called "Fahrstock" or "Steigerstock" (miner´s stick) with a stylized or even functional axehead as a handle, of about the same size as the Ciupaga / Sokyra / Fokos and with quite a similar function. The axeheads are even now seldom available in good quality and mostly made from brass or bronze. At this site I found this carving of a "Bergmann" in the attire of the Erzgebirge region:
 
 The site is www.erzgebirgsschnitzer.de.

Well worth a visit in itself, but off topic for now. The so-called "Westfälischer Häckel" (Westfalian hatchet, after the region I come from) is another version even closer to the Sokyra. In the Ruhr region, there was a massive immigration of Polish people working in the mines and connected industries, and their culture had a very thorough impression on the culture. So I guess the Ciupaga in this manner found a place in the mining culture of this country.

The same might hold true for the regions "Erzgebirge" and the "Mansfeld" region.

Also, in Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy, there is a morphological variant, the "Sapie" or "Griesbeil", a woodfloating or -catching hook, sometimes with a hammer. From what I heard, it was often also mounted to a walking stick, and has a close connection to the Kuk ice-axe from WWI which was in use also in early European alpinism. This tool had a pick and shovel blade and a spike to aid in climbing. Rural versions often had a hatchet and pick blade to go with the spike.

All in all, this is a fascinating topic and you have certainly not seen the last of it!;-)

A walking cane for my mother

 This is a walking cane for my mother. She´s getting older, and has some severe arthrosis in her knees, and, even though she would never admit it, she could use a kind of support. She never would use an orthopaedic cane, so I tricked her into using one by making her something she´d rather use instead.

 I put a stag antler handle on it set with a blood agate.

The wood is vine-infested alder buckthorn, and I put a stainless steel tip on it. I really like the colour of the wood.

I hope this stick will prove itself helpful for her. I owe her a lot, and since I cannot always lend an arm, I hope this can support her when she needs it. She has done it for me, too, when I was a kid, after all.