LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Project Information

-------------------------

This Custom Walking Cane has been SOLD

Email for more information: mark@decoustudio.com

-------------------

Specs & Description:
- Serial Number: #2009-05
- Height: 37.25 inches (can easily shorten a little if needed)

- Shaft: Barley Twisted Ebonized Red Oak, with Red Mahogany Overtoned Stain
- Handle: Kansas Shed Elk Antler, with Burled Walnut Accent Ring under the Antler.
- Front Inlay: The front of the handle features a synthetic mother-of-pearl cap with a Composite Malachite colored ring.
- Back Inlay: The back of the handle features an inlay of crushed authentic Arizona Turquoise Stone.
- Tip: Brass Ferrule with replaceable rubber tip

----------------------------------------

Cane Sample Slideshow: To hear Music, click the Speaker Icon



---------------------------------------------

More Walking Sticks & Canes:
If you go to my Mark DeCou Website you won't find very many canes pictured there. I do realize that I need to invest in improving my website, but until that is accomplished, here are few more of my canes posted at lumberjocks, thanks for your patience.

Handmade Finished Canes For Sale, Ready to Ship Now:

ETSY.com Online Shop Inventory: Click Here to Visit my Cane Inventory Page

Some Cane that are Unsold:
  1. Folk-Art Carved Wood Spirit Hiking Stick, Serial N0. 2009-06
  2. Folk-Art Carved Pirate Face Cane -Serial No. 2005-16
  3. Folk-Art Carved Mountain Man Face Cane -Serial No. 2006-03
  4. Fancy Barley Twisted Ebonized Oak & Elk Antler Cane, Serial No. 2009-05
  5. Rustic Natural Walking Stick, Nanny McPhee Movie Inspired, Serial No. 2009-07
  6. Fancy Dress Cane, Curly Ambrosia Maple Handle with Black Spiral Shaft, Serial No. 2008-21
  7. Fancy Dress Cane, Walnut Bamboo Inspired Shaft, Buffalo Horn Laminated Handle, Serial No. 2008-23
  8. Scrimshaw Artwork Walnut Cane -Serial No. 2008-08
  9. Red Oak/Black Lacquered Twisted Cane -Serial No. 2008-14
  10. Red Oak Barley Twist Walking Cane -Serial No. 2008-15
  11. Walnut Ball-Top Dress Cane -Serial No. 2008-06
  12. Walnut Cane with Chrome Ball Knob -Serial No. 2008-20
  13. Carved Thumbstick Hiking Sticks with Composite Malachite -Serial No. 2008-24

-
-

Folk Art & Pop-Art Carved Canes
  1. Bishop's Carved Walnut Crosier
  2. Nascar's Jimmie Johnson Themed Walking Cane
  3. Carved Oak Leaf Walking Stick
  4. Folk-Art Smiling Wood Spirit Face Cane w/ Elk Antler Handle
  5. Folk-Art Carved Wood Spirit Hiking Stick
  6. Folk-Art Pirate Carved Face Cane w/ Deer Antler Handle
  7. Cartoon Character Taz, Folk Art One-of-a-kind Art Cane
  8. Sculpted Wood Spirit Face Cane
  9. Folk-Art Wood Spirit Cane w/ Elk Antler Handle & Scrimshaw
  10. Folk Art Mountain Man Face Cane
  11. Shamrock Wood Spirit Irish-Theme Face Cane
  12. Walnut Wood Spirit Face Cane with Antler & Turquoise
  13. Collection of Face Carved Canes
  14. Moses-Inspired Face Carved Cane w/ Antler & Turquoise
  15. Shepherd's Stick, Carved Border Collie Welsh-Style Dog Show Trial Stick
  16. Carved Oak Leaf Walking Cane with Scrimshaw Artwork
  17. Amazing Grace Music Notes Carved Cane
  18. A Lady's Elegant Red Long-Stem Rose Carved Cane
  19. Prairie Fire Hand-Carved Hiking Thumb Sticks
  20. A Folk-Art Carved Albatross Head & Snake Walnut Cane
  21. Carved Folk-Art Walking Cane; 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' Story Stick with Scrimshaw Artwork-
    -

Native American Indian Theme Folk-Art Canes
  1. Apache Chief Geronimo Folk-Art Face Cane
  2. Folk Art Native American Face Cane Set
  3. Apache Chief Cochise Folk-Art Face Cane
  4. Folk Art Carved Cane of Shoshone Chief
  5. Indian Guides Chief Big-Red-Cloud Hiking Stick
  6. Apache Chief Cochise #2 Folk-Art Face Cane
    -
    -

Scrimshaw Artwork Canes
  1. Scrimshaw Art Trophy Buck Deer Head
  2. Scrimshaw Art Walking Cane: Praying Mantis Insect
  3. Scrimshaw Art Walking Cane: Floppy Eared Bunny Face & Walnut Barley Twist
  4. Big & Tall Barley Twisted Oak with Scrimshawn Handle
  5. Walnut & Curly Maple Cane with Scrimshaw
  6. Scrimshaw Art Walnut Cane
  7. Fancy Barley Twist with Scrimshaw Cane
  8. Lady's Dress Cane, Red Oak, Walnut, Black Lacquer, & Scrimshaw Artwork of a Purple Cone Flower
    -
    -

Natural Sapling/Limb Canes/Sticks
  1. Folk-Art Carved Wood Spirit Hiking Stick
  2. Nanny McPhee Movie-Inspired Crooked Walking Stick
  3. Naturally Twisted Tree Sapling Cane
  4. Naturally Twisted Tree Sapling Walking Stick
  5. Shepherd's Crook Hiking Stick
  6. Black Locust Tree Sapling Walking Stick
  7. Red BirchTree Sapling Hiking Stick
    -
    -

Fancy Barley-Twist Style Dress Canes
  1. Fancy Barley Twisted Ebonized Oak & Elk Antler Cane, Serial No. 2009-05
  2. Big & Tall Walnut & Maple Barley Twist Custom Cane
  3. Big & Tall Red Oak and Antler with Scrimshaw Monogram
  4. White Oak Barley Twist Cane
  5. Osage Orange Barley Twist Cane
  6. Walnut & Figured Maple Barley Twist cane
  7. Black Walnut and Spalted Sycamore Barley Twist
  8. Red Oak Barley Twist with Black Lacquer
  9. Red Oak Barley Twist with Walnut Handle
  10. Dress Cane, Oak Barley Twist with Walnut Ring
  11. Bryan's Cane, The Start of my Cane Journey
    -
    -

Fancy Dress Style Canes
  1. Pink Ivory and Elk Antler Dress Walking Stick
  2. Coiled Ribbon Twisted Spalted White Oak with Walnut Handle
  3. Polished Black Steer Horn Upright Walking Stick
  4. Mexican Bocote Wood, Elk Antler Handle with Hand-Wrought Fine Silver End Caps
  5. Fancy Walking Cane, Camphor Burl, Maple, Bubinga, Whitetail Deer Antler, Inlays & Silver End Caps
  6. Custom Dress-Up Walking Cane, Walnut shaft with a Camphor Burl Handle
  7. Walnut & Buffalo Horn Twisted Cane
  8. White Birch & Buffalo Horn Twisted Cane
  9. Walnut Bamboo-Style Cane with Chrome Ball Top
  10. Walnut & Buffalo Horn Dress Cane
  11. Bird's Eye Maple Cane
  12. Spalted Sycamore Walking Cane
  13. Walnut Tall Knob Top Opera Cane
  14. Zebrawood & Walnut Knob Top Opera Cane
  15. Dress Cane Set, with several Material Options Shown
    -
    -

What is Scrimshaw Artwork?:
A Scrimshaw Art Journey: What it is & How to Do it; Five Simple Steps to Success
-
-
-
Click here to go to My Website page with Walking Canes

I usually have a few canes in stock at:
  1. Hatman Jack's Wichita Hat Works in Wichita, Kansas
  2. Hutchinson Art Center in Hutchinson, Kansas
  3. Prairie Past Times Antiques & Crafts in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas

You can contact these gallery stores directly and see what they still have in stock. They will ship to you if you buy something. If you prefer, you can also email me, as I keep fairly current on what is "unsold."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Background: My Cane Making Story:

I enjoy sculpting walking canes. Some folks call them Folk-Art Canes, while others call them Artisan Canes, some call them Carved Canes, while others call them Walking Sticks. There is quite a bit of argument about whether something should be called Sculpture or Carving. They could be considered Functional-Art, which is the type of work that I am usually drawn to. No matter what these canes are called, they seem to bring joy to the owners, and I have been asked to make quite a few of them in the past 5-6 years.

I started making canes on the request of a nice married couple I met on a church-building short-term mission trip to Mexico City in the early 1990's. Several years after our trip, their son-in-law was diagnosed with bone cancer, and so they wanted to get him a specially made cane that he would enjoy using. They had heard from others that I had quit my corporate office job and started doing woodworking full-time. So, they contacted me to make his cane.



Sadly, I also built him a casket, another first for me, about a year later



Since the time I did that first Cane for Bryan, I have enjoyed the work on the canes that I have been able to make, but more importantly, the people that I have been able to meet and help along the journey. I do make a bunch of unique items and furniture, but without a doubt, I receive more correspondence and thank-you cards from cane customers than any of the other items I make, combined. So, they are fun for me to build, and I look forward to each new person and situation.

To keep a handle on all of the memories, I engrave a small serial number on each brass cane tip, and then I keep a detailed database log of each cane, customer, and situation. The list always brings me warm memories each time I scan it and remember the folks that have supported my work over the years, and vice versa.

------------------------------------------------

Still Want to See more of my work?

Start with each of these links, and they will take you to other organized lists of my other niche products:

  1. Custom Knives
  2. Custom Art-Furniture I've Built
  3. Artisan Hat Making Tools

-------------------------------------------------

(This text, all photos, project design, are protected by copyright 2007-2009, M.A.DeCou, all rights reserved and protected, ask permission first! Weblinks to this page are permitted)

Gallery

Comments

· Registered
Joined
·
176 Posts
A great job you've done, and you help people too, how rewarding.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
9,145 Posts
Mark Another great looking cane.

Good job there buddy.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
366 Posts
you have such great photos to go along with your amazing canes.
do you have to edit you photos to get the white background, or are you shooting into a well lit white background?
 

· Registered
Joined
·
703 Posts
Darryl: the photos are sort of luck. I wait for a lightly overcast day without much wind. The overcast gives me natural light so that I don't have to use the flash, as the flash seems to ruin every photo I take. Then, I use a white posterboard as a backdrop, and adjust the "Brightness" setting on the camera to accomodate the amount of overcastness of the clouds. If I get too much "Brightness" setting, the details seem to get washed out. If I get the "Brightness" set right, the white background seems to blur out great, and I still get the detail border of the object, which is necessary to get a good photo. Note, in the first photo above, the antler handle is not well defined with white background and sort of disappears badly. This is the best I could get, even after shooting about 50 photos trying to get something that represented how good the handle actually looks. In the end, nothing I did seemed to do justice to the Antler.

So, I set up the photography "event" outside, thus the no wind rule, as wind blows my backdrop panels around, and moves the cane, and shakes the camera that is sitting on a tripod. If any of that happens, the shutter seems to catch blurry photos.

When all of that comes together, I use the self-timer feature and click the "button." I take about three different photos for every shot I think I want with three different camera settings, and then when I go in and check them, usually about 1/3rd of the photos are reasonable for use. It takes much longer than it should, but I have taken literally thousands of photos, about 40Gig's worth, and this is the process I have developed. I have tried black backgrounds, and that doesn't seem to get picked up by the digital camera well, and everything is fuzzy.

If it is raining, or sunny, or windy, or I don't have time to wait for better conditions, then I have to ship without getting useable photos for the postings and my brochures, and the opportunity to "post" the proof of the project is lost, which happens more than I would like it to.

I guess it is sort of like trying to plan a bombing run in WWII. I honestly check the forecast often when I know I need some photos, and then you "go" and hope for the best, checking for casualties and effectiveness later.

M
 

· Registered
Joined
·
2 Posts
Mark,

I'm a fan, awesome work, and excellent writing. I really appreciate the time you put into your work describing the how too!

Best Regards, Cov
 

· Registered
Joined
·
366 Posts
well even if you don't get every shot you want, the majority look great.
I'm no photographer, so I take several shots of each of my projects and weed out the blurry crappy shots. I do like how you capture the white background though. I'm going to have to play around with my camera settings a bit next time around.

Thanks for the explanation.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
158 Posts
I was going to ask you about your pictures.They really come out well.I can't seem to do well on my own shots so I wait till I have a few peices and head off to the photographer at least he is pretty reasonable on price.
Great cane,as usuall!!!!
 

· Registered
Joined
·
186 Posts
Awesome cane!!
 
Top