On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 9:35:40 AM UTC-4, Danny D. wrote:
dadiOH wrote, on Wed, 01 Apr 2015 08:20:36 -0400:

I don't walk that much but it has been YEARS since I changed my cane
tip. But a factor as important as distance is the surface upon which it
is being used...carpet/wood is one thing, a road is another.

This road isn't paved, per se. It's small rocks pressed into tar. They
have a name for it, but it escapes me at the moment. When they retop it,
there are bits of tar gravel for months, all over the cars. So it's a
rough surface.

Since you don't need anything up the sides of the cane, these Soap Box Derby brake pads could be cut into circles, then drilled for a flat head machine screw which could be screwed into a threaded insert epoxied into the bottom of the cane.

http://www.soapboxracing.com/browse.cfm/4,9.html

These brake pads are made of conveyor belt material and are about 1/2" thick. Any similar material should work.

You can see the brake being applied if you look under this car in the following picture. The pad is screwed to a 3" x 3" steel plate at the bottom of a steel shaft.

http://bubbaracing.pbworks.com/f/Img_5715.jpg

A single pad is used to bring 255 lb cars travelling at 25-30 MPH to a stop via downward pressure on the road. They last 15 races or more depending on the road surface. I imagine that they would last a very long time with the relatively tiny amount of pressure - and no real drag - of a walking stick..