re: Rounding the shafts

Thanks folks!

A cane isn’t all that hard of a project. But I discovered a lot of things I had done in the wrong order when I made the one for myself back in 2016, and I’m trying to correct all of those and document things this time around. I think I’m doing ok so far, though I can’t decide whether I should shape the handles or start carving the shafts today. But it’s a couple hours from when I can head out to the shop for the day, so I’ll hopefully figure it out.

Splint, I think I’m keeping a hand-tool finish, but with the carving I’m planning, there may be some sandpaper involved before I’m done yet, especially on the handle. But even working against the grain, I can get a pretty good finish with my shaves.

Steve, at an inch, I think you’ve dropped to supporting about 300# rather than 500 for an inch and a quarter. The strength goes up really fast once you get larger than an inch diameter. I see almost zero grain runout on the cane shafts, so that helps me believe they’ll be strong enough, but it would be horrible to have a cane snap on someone who’s depending on it.