On Aug 20, 8:49*am, "john hamilton" wrote:
Have been asked for advice on making a folding wooden walking stick for a
large heavy man. So its got to be something a bit stronger than usual. Was
thinking of something like using 2 inches (5cm) by 3/4 inche (2cm) in cross
section size.

I searched and read the preferred wood for making aircraft is Douglas Fir,
so i thought that would be good for this stick. (good strength to weight
ratio) but I guess that is difficult to buy already cut to size here in
London. U.K.? Would some kind of building grade plywood be stronger, I
wonder?

The tricky part would be some *self-locking* hinge. Does such a hinge now
exist? I remember very many years ago seeing such a thing (I think on
something agricultural). *Would be grateful if anyone had advice on this.
Thanks.

I don't know of anything that would work - doesn't mean there isn't
one, just that a walking stick presents a lot of problems. Not much
cross sectional area, round and not square, could be subject to fairly
high stress and if it fails there's a _huge_ problem.

What about modeling your cane after one of the folding canes already
on the market? The typical ones have nesting aluminum sections that
are held together by an elastic cord.

The two most likely approaches:
- wrap wood veneers around a store bought cane and then gussy it up
- start with metal tube sections and cut solid wood to fit the tubes.
Cut a piece of wood in half, use a core box bit to hollow out the two
sections, then epoxy the two pieces back together around the tube and
turn it on a lathe.

Either way, inlays and metal banding would dress it up and strengthen
the connection points.

R