I made some new friends! A couple approached me at an arts and crafts fair and asked if I would be interested in replacing the shaft on an old cane from 1894.
Apparently, the Kansas City Fire Department Insurance Company issued canes to patrons. The story goes that if you didn’t purchase the insurance, they wouldn’t put out your house if it caught on fire. Yikes!
Somehow the cane came into the possession of my new friend’s mother, who would use the cane handle to drive nails and kill bugs. He wanted to use the cane himself, but the shaft was around 29″ and he needed it to be nearly a foot longer.
Feast your eyes on this beauty.
We decided to replace the shaft with walnut because it’s dense and shouldn’t warp. I would have to turn a new one, which I was excited to get started on immediately. I picked up an old Folksy lathe a couple of years back and haven’t really used it for anything worthwhile.
When I got the wood down to about 2 inches thick, the whole thing started vibrating like a guitar string. I did some research and found out that it is common and I would need to get a “steady rest”. Steady rests get complicated and expensive quick. Instead, I got some casters and a 2×4 and DIY-ed.
I’m not saying the steady rest is pretty or quiet or will last a long time. The examples I saw online used roller blade wheels with bearings. I expected these to melt, but they didn’t. So that’s good.
Since the steady rest can move on an X and Y axis, I got the center of the shaft down to the correct diameter and snuck the steady rest right and snug on the wood. Problem solved.
After smoothing and sanding the shaft, I put 3 coats of shellac and 2 coats of polyurethane on the walnut. That’s right baby!
What I didn’t show is the hour of digging the old shaft wood out of the handle. The wood hardened as old wood does, but after much Dremeling and chipping, I got the majority of it out. I used some Flex glue to affix the new shaft and let it sit for a couple of days.
Pro Skub!
The grain looks good. The taper looks great. The transition between the handle and shaft couldn’t be better. Job well done I think.
When I passed the cane back to the owners, I could tell they were very pleased. An object like that is the epitome of an heirloom. Priceless. That’s the good stuff.
Leave a Reply