Hiking Staff: An Old Friend Gets a Few Mods

[BradGad]

My hiking staff is nothing fancy... 54 inches of hickory with a rubber foot and a leather thong for a wrist loop. After dozens -- maybe hundreds -- of outings, I've gotten quite attached to it, and was reluctant to make any changes. But I got over that a couple days ago, and made a few mods.

15 feet of international orange paracord gives it a more comfortable grip.

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A number of times, I've set the staff down and had trouble finding it in the leaf duff. This is especially the case when mushroom foraging: I'll put it down because I need two hands for foraging, and after moving around from shroom to shroom with my head down, sometimes I'm a tad disoriented when I stand up, and have to hunt around for my stick. It shows up in the leaves a lot better now.

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Because the wrist loop is made by putting the free end left after whipping the handle through the lanyard hole and tying a stopper knot, I can attach another cord to it behind the stopper knot, and reach out with the staff and use the lanyard as a noose to wrangle out-of-reach objects.

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I drilled a recess in the top of the staff and put in a military issue mini button compass. (Sorry for the blurry pic)

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Finally, some shallow notches in the bark give me a rough and ready yard stick. The far right notch is 3 feet from the end of the stick. The far left one is one foot below that. The close set notches measure off six inches.

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[Loogaroo]

Like it a lot. Second only to my knives my hiking staff is my favorite thing to have along.

[sotramk]

I love putting fancy knots , hitching's, and wraps on my staffs, but I have left more out in the woods than I care to admit
http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showth...g-stick!/page4

[rlh2]

Good mods.

[tree-ratsniper]

Cool mods! There was an article in the Backwoodsman a while back about a bamboo staff that the top was hollowed out for a small survival kit. I recall one made of pvc as well... I may try to whip one up someday when time allows.

[Panzer]

sotramk those staffs are wicked awesome! Nice work. I really like the turks head knots.

[DoglegJack]

Very nice and useful mods. I like it!

DLJack

[Loogaroo]

Cool mods! There was an article in the Backwoodsman a while back about a bamboo staff that the top was hollowed out for a small survival kit. I recall one made of pvc as well... I may try to whip one up someday when time allows.

[Crooked]

I personally do not carry a walking stick, although I've been considering working trekking poles into my routine that way I can flirt with different farm set-ups.

As far as a container on top of your hiking staff goes - when I was in the scouts it was popular to get a pill bottle and duct tape it to the top of your hiking staff. It is much smaller than the PVC which is its benefit and downfall. It was good for matches and a few compact survival items that you'd always have around. With a drill you could set the pill bottle flush with the top of your staff and no one would know it was there - we were just kids so we used duct tape. Food for thought.

Love the hiking staff photos and ingenuity in this thread.

-Crooked

[Faiaoga]

BradGad: Very nice post and good ideas, especially the bright-colored loop and the measuring marks. I have often used a staff but have been too lazy to make the modifications. Do you or other people ever put a large nail or spike into the bottom of a staff? I think it might be useful for traction or for (last resort) as a defensive weapon.
Faiaoga