Walking stick

For other uses, seeWalking stick (disambiguation).

A walking stick

Awalking stick(also known as awalking cane,cane,walking staff,orstaff) is a device used primarily to aidwalking,provide postural stability or support, or assist in maintaining agood posture.Some designs also serve as afashion accessory,or are used forself-defense.

Walking sticks come in many shapes and sizes and some have becomecollector's items.People with disabilities may use some kinds of walking sticks as acrutchbut a walking cane is not designed for full weight support and is instead designed to help with balance. The walking stick has also historically been known to be used as aself defensiveweaponand may conceal aknifeorsword– as in aswordstickor swordcane.

Hikersuse walking sticks, also known astrekking poles,pilgrim's staffs,hiking poles, or hiking sticks, for a wide variety of purposes: as a support when going uphill or as a brake when going downhill; as a balance point when crossing streams, swamps, or other rough terrain; to feel for obstacles in the path; to test mud and water for depth; to enhance the cadence of striding, and as a defence against animals. Analpenstock,from its origins in mountaineering in theAlps,is equipped with a steel point and may carry a hook or ice axe on top. More ornate sticks may be adorned with small trinkets ormedallionsdepicting visited territory. Wooden walking-sticks are used for outdoor sports, healthy upper-body exercise, and even club, department, and family memorials. They can be individually handcrafted from a number of woods and may be personalised with wood carving or metal engraving plaques.

A collector of walking sticks is termed a rabologist.

Origin

A classic late 19th century walking cane, sometimes also called a dress cane

Around the 17th or 18th century, a walking stick became an essential part of the European gentleman'swardrobe.The fashion may have originated withLouis XIV,who favored a walking stick, possibly because he wore high heels.As a curator of theDetroit Institute of Artswrote about elaborate walking sticks in their collection:

There was almost no limit to the sums which people were then willing to spend upon them.Louis XIVhad a stick whose eagle knob was set with twenty-four diamonds. TheRegent of France,one of the outstanding rakes of the century, had a huge and famous diamond called "the Regent" set as the head of a walking stick. People of fashion spent as much as forty thousand francs a year on walking sticks.Voltaire,who considered that he lived a life free from fashionable nonsense, owned eighty sticks.Rousseau,a poor man and the apostle of the simple life, owned forty. Count Brühl,creator of the famous Brühl Terrace at Dresden, owned three hundred canes, each with a snuff-box to match, one for each of his three hundred suits.

The fashion spread across the Atlantic to America.Benjamin Franklinhad received as a gift a gold-headed walking stick from a French lady admirer when he was ambassador to France. Franklin wrote a codicil to his Will in 1789 bequeathing it toGeorge Washington.It is now in the collection of theSmithsonian Institution.

Accessories

• The most common accessory, before or after purchase or manufacture, is a hand strap, to prevent loss of the stick should the hand release its grip. These are often threaded through a hole drilled into the stick rather than tied around.
• A clip-on frame or similar device can be used to stand a stick against the top of a table.
• In cold climates, a metalliccleatmay be added to the foot of the cane. This dramatically increases traction on ice. The device is usually designed so it can be easily flipped to the side to prevent damage to indoor flooring.
• Different handles are available to match grips of varying sizes.
• Rubberferrulesgive extra traction on most surfaces.
• Nordic walkingpoles are extremely popular in Europe.Walking with two poles in the correct length radically reduces the stress to the knees, hips and back. These special poles come with straps resembling a fingerlessglove,durable metal tips for off-road and removable rubber tips for pavement and other hard surfaces.

Religious use

Orthodoxprotodeaconholding a walking stick. Portrait byIlya Repin,1877 (Tretyakov Gallery,Moscow).

Main article:Staff of office

Variousstaffs of officederived from walking sticks or staffs are used by both western and eastern Christian churches. In Islam the walking stick ('Asa) is considered asunnahand Muslims are encouraged to carry one. Theimamtraditionally delivers theKhutbahwhile leaning on a stick.

Types

A collection of various styles of walking sticks on display at theethnologymuseum Els Calderersrural manor,Sant Joan,Mallorca

Ashplant

a British or Irish walking stick made from theash tree.In theRoyal Tank Regiment,officers carry an ashplant walking stick in reference toWorld War Iwhen they were used to test the ground's firmness and suitability for tanks.

Blackthorn

an Irish walking stick, orshillelagh,made from theblackthorn(Prunus spinosa).

Shooting stick

It can fold out into a single-legged seat.

Supplejack

Made from a tropical American vine, also serves as a cane.

Penang lawyer

Made fromLicuala.After the bark was removed with only a piece of glass, the stick was straightened by fire and polished. The fictional Dr. Mortimer owned one of these inThe Hound of the Baskervilles.So did Fitzroy Simpson, the main suspect in "The Adventure of Silver Blaze"(1892), whose lead weighted stick was initially assumed to be the murder weapon.

Makila(or makhila)

Basquewalking stick or staff, usually made frommedlarwood. It often features a gold or silver foot and handle, which may conceal a steel blade. The Makila's elaborate engravings are actually carved into the living wood, then allowed to heal before harvesting.

Kebbie

a rough Scottish walking stick, similar to an Irish shillelagh, with a hooked head.

Whangee

Asian, made of bamboo, also ariding crop.Such a stick was owned byCharlie Chaplin's characterThe Tramp.

Malacca

Malay stick made ofrattan palms.

Pike staff

Pointed at the end for slippery surfaces.

Scout staff

Tall stick traditionally carried byBoy Scouts,which has a number of uses

Waddy

Australian Aboriginalwalking stick or war club, about one metre in length, sometimes with a stone head affixed with string and beeswax.

Ziegenhainer

Knotty German stick, made fromEuropean cornel,also used as amelee weaponby a duellist's second. The spiral groove caused by a parasitic vine was often imitated by its maker if not present.

American "walking canes"

In North America, a walking cane is a walking stick with a curved top much like a shepherd's staff, but shorter. Thus, although they are called "canes", they are usually made of more modern material other thancane,such as wood, metal or carbon fiber.

In modern times, walking sticks are usually only seen with formal attire. Retractable canes that reveal such properties as hidden compartments,poolsticks, or blades are popular among collectors. Handles have been made from many substances, both natural and manmade. Carved and decorated canes have turned the functional into the fantastic.

An unidentified woman in asoda fountain,pouring distilled alcohol into her drink from a walking stick duringProhibition in the United States,circa 1922. Some walking canes, known as smuggler or flask canes, are crafted to hold and conceal a glass vial or flask ofliquoraccessible from the handle

The idea of a fancy cane as a fashion accessory to go with top hat and tails has been popularized in many song-and-dance acts, especially byFred Astairein several of his films and songs such asTop Hat, White Tie and TailsandPuttin' On the Ritz,where he exhorts, "Come, let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks or umbrellas in their mitts." He danced with a cane frequently.

Some canes, known as "tippling canes" or "tipplers", have hollowed-out compartments near the top whereflasksorvialsofalcoholcould be hidden and sprung out on demand.

When used as a mobility or stability aid, canes are generally used in the hand opposite the injury or weakness. This may appear counter-intuitive, but this allows the cane to be used for stability in a way that lets the user shift much of their weight onto the cane and away from their weaker side as they walk. Personal preference, or a need to hold the cane in their dominant hand, means some cane users choose to hold the cane on their injured side.

In the U.S. Congress in 1856,Charles Sumnerof Massachusetts criticizedStephen A. Douglasof Illinois andAndrew Butlerof South Carolina for theKansas–Nebraska Act.When a relative of Andrew Butler,Preston Brooks,heard of it, he felt that Sumner's behavior demanded retaliation, and beat him senseless on the floor of the Senate with agutta-perchawalking cane.Although this event is commonly known as "the caning of Senator Charles Sumner",it was not acaningin the normal (especially British) sense of formalcorporal punishmentwith a much more flexible and usually thinner rattan.

See also

• Cane gun
• Canne de combat
• Crutch
• Nordic walking
• Pace stick
• Shillelagh (club)
• Swordstick
• Umbrella stand

External links

• Walking-Stick Papers(Robert Cortes Holliday, 1918) – Project Gutenberg ebook
• Walking Stick & Cane HistoryPublished with permission
• Self-Defence with a Walking Stick(Pearson's Magazine, January 1901)