Salvaged-Reclaimed Bird's Eye Maple Wood Walking Cane with a Walnut Handle

Update: This Cane has been SOLD, and shipped to Leitchfield, Kentucky.

Cane Serial number #2006-15.
Height: 34.5”

Welcome Surfers:
If you are surfing looking for a special walking cane on the internet, go toward the bottom of this posting where you’ll find a list of canes that I have built that are ready to ship immediately. Also, there are links to several more customized canes that have already been sold to give you ideas for your own commissioned cane.

You can reach me by emailing to:
mark@decoustudio.com

Or you can visit the DeCou Website

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Project Story:

This is a cane that I built from Bird’s Eye Maple wood, heavily figured, and a laminate layer of walnut.

Several years ago I was involved in a flooring project where I reused maple flooring from an old decommissioned high school gymnasium in a small rural Kansas town. A manufacturing company bought the old school, ripped out the wood flooring, and several years later, I found myself installing it in a full house remodeling project.

So, as I was going through the huge piles of dusty strips of old flooring, once in awhile I would come across a bird’s eye maple, or curly maple, flooring board, and so I would gently push it off to the side, so that I could use it in a better way than just for flooring.

Over the years, I’ve built jewelry boxes, knife handles, and tool boxes, and used it for inlays, and all kinds of things with that wonderful maple flooring, as well as quite a few walking canes.

This cane has a tapered octagonal shaft, and is one of the more simple styles of canes that I build. Since the flooring is about 5/8” thick, I laminated a couple of maple layers together with a contrasting colored wood, such as walnut in this case.

The handle is Black Walnut.

There is a brass tube tip, with a replaceable rubber tip.

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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.

Finished Canes For Sale, Ready to Ship Now:

1. Hiking Stick: Red Birch Sapling
2. Carved Folk-Art Wood Spirit Cane
3. Carved Oak Leaf Cane w/ Scrimshaw Artwork
4. Red Oak/Black Lacquered Twisted Cane
5. Red Oak Twisted Cane
6. Black Walnut Twisted Cane
7. Red Oak Twisted Walking Cane
8. Scrimshaw Artwork Walnut Cane
9. Zebrawood & Walnut Tall Dress Cane
10. Walnut Ball-Top Dress Cane
11. Spalted Sycamore & Walnut Cane
12. Shepherd's Crook Walking Stick
13. Folk Art Carved Face Cane
14. Twisted Walnut Cane w/ Buffalo Horn Handle
15. Walnut Cane with Chrome Ball Knob
16. Twisted Walnut w/ Black Lacquer Cane w/ Buffalo Horn Handle
17. Carved Thumbstick Hiking Sticks
18. Twisted Black Lacquered Birch Cane w/ Buffalo Horn Handle
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New Cane Designs that are “In the Works”

1. Barak Obama for President 2008, Carved Bust Top Political Figure Collector Cane
2. Folk-Art Walking Cane with Carved Face of Christ, in Figured Bubinga, Antler Handle
3. American Eagle Carved Walking Cane for an Injured Iraqi War Air Force Veteran

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Folk Art Face Carved Canes

1. Sculpted Wood Spirit Face Cane
2. Folk-Art Wood Spirit Cane w/ Elk Antler Handle & Scrimshaw
3. Folk Art Mountain Man Face Cane
4. Shamrock Wood Spirit Irish-Theme Face Cane
5. Walnut Wood Spirit Face Cane with Antler & Turquoise
6. Collection of Face Carved Canes
7. Moses-Inspired Face Carved Cane w/ Antler & Turquoise
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Native American Theme Canes

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

1. Shepherd's Stick, Carved Border Collie Welsh-Style Dog Show Trial Stick
2. Carved Oak Leaf Walking Cane with Scrimshaw Artwork
3. Amazing Grace Music Notes Carved Cane
4. A Lady’s Elegant Red Long-Stem Rose Carved Cane
5. Prairie Fire Hand-Carved Hiking Thumb Sticks
6. A Folk-Art Carved Albatross Head & Snake Walnut Cane
7. Carved Folk-Art Walking Cane; 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' Story Stick with Scrimshaw Artwork
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Scrimshaw Artwork Canes

1. Scrimshaw Art Walking Cane: Floppy Eared Bunny Face & Walnut Barley Twist
2. Walnut & Curly Maple Cane with Scrimshaw
3. Scrimshaw Art Walnut Cane
4. Fancy Barley Twist with Scrimshaw Cane
5. Lady's Dress Cane, Red Oak, Walnut, Black Lacquer, & Scrimshaw Artwork of a Purple Cone Flower
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Natural Sapling/Limb Canes/Sticks

1. Naturally Twisted Tree Sapling Cane
2. Naturally Twisted Tree Sapling Walking Stick
3. Shepherd's Crook Hiking Stick
4. Black Locust Tree Sapling Walking Stick
5. Red BirchTree Sapling Hiking Stick
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Fancy Barley-Twist Style Dress Canes

1. White Oak Barley Twist Cane
2. Osage Orange Barley Twist Cane
3. Walnut & Figured Maple Barley Twist cane
4. Black Walnut and Spalted Sycamore Barley Twist
5. Red Oak Barley Twist with Black Lacquer
6. Red Oak Barley Twist with Walnut Handle
7. Dress Cane, Oak Barley Twist with Walnut Ring
8. Bryan's Cane, The Start of my Cane Journey
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Fancy Dress Style Canes

1. Mexican Bocote Wood, Elk Antler Handle with Hand-Wrought Fine Silver End Caps
2. Fancy Walking Cane, Camphor Burl, Maple, Bubinga, Whitetail Deer Antler, Inlays & Silver End Caps
3. Custom Dress-Up Walking Cane, Walnut shaft with a Camphor Burl Handle
4. Walnut & Buffalo Horn Twisted Cane
5. White Birch & Buffalo Horn Twisted Cane
6. Walnut Bamboo-Style Cane with Chrome Ball Top
7. Walnut & Buffalo Horn Dress Cane
8. Bird's Eye Maple Cane
9. Spalted Sycamore Walking Cane
10. Walnut Tall Knob Top Opera Cane
11. Zebrawood & Walnut Knob Top Opera Cane
12. Dress Cane Set, with several Material Options Shown
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What is Scrimshaw Artwork?:
A Scrimshaw Art Journey: What it is & How to Do it; Five Simple Steps to Success
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Click here to go to My Website page with Walking Canes

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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

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I have a few canes in stock at:

1. Hatman Jack’s Wichita Hat Works in Wichita, KS
2. Hutchinson Art Center in Hutchinson, KS
3. Cottonwood Mercantile in Cottonwood Falls, KS

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.”

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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.

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(This text, all photos, project design, and anything else you want to steal, is protected by copyright 2008, M.A.DeCou, all rights reserved and protected, ask permission first! Weblinks to this page are permitted)

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan