“What do you make of it, Watson?”
“Why should I make anything of it? The fellow came to see you!”
“Ah! But what kind of a fellow? Let me hear you reconstruct him – from his walking stick – by our usual method of elementary observation!”

‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (B. Rathbone, N. Bruce, 1939).

In this posting, we’ll be looking at the history, styles, designs, types, anatomy and function of walking sticks, an aide and accessory so old that it goes far into prehistoric times. So – as Pierce Brosnan said in “Around the World in 80 Days”: ‘I trust you have some stout shoes? We may do a little walking!‘.

What Is a Walking Stick?

A walking stick is a mobility-aid or fashion accessory which has existed since time immemorial. It has lasted in one form or another for literally thousands of years, and they continue to be manufactured in the modern world, for everything from looking stylish, to keeping your balance, for hiking, camping, and mountain-climbing.

A standard walking stick varies considerably in length, anywhere from about 30 to 45 inches. Some sticks can be five or six feet in length! But, where do they come from?

A History of Walking Sticks

Walking sticks of every size, shape and description have existed for millennia. Every culture and civilisation, from Ancient Rome to Ancient China, pre-Columbian America and the Middle East.

For much of history, a walking stick was…simply…a stick. A branch of convenient length, thickness and strength, which could be cut, shaved and modified to be used as a mobility aid.

Walking sticks as we might recognise them today, started becoming a thing in the 1500s and 1600s. Since medieval times, it had been de-rigeur for gentlemen to carry a sword while out in public, as a means of self-defense. However, this started being seen as confrontational, and by the 1600s, was no longer socially acceptable, unless it was part of military dress-uniform or other similar situations.

In a time when most people walked everywhere, unless they owned a horse and carriage, or a boat and lived near a major river, walking sticks naturally took the place of the sword in polite society. Remember also, that paved roads (with the exception of the Ancient Romans, perhaps) are a relatively modern phenomenon. Muddy tracks, cobblestones, and dirt or grassy roads were the norm for much of human history. Using a stick while walking helped you keep your balance while navigating pot-holes, ruts and gullies worn into the road by other travelers.

Some people, such as the elderly, the infirm or those suffering from some permanent injury or disability, might well have carried a stick for purely practical purposes, to help them move around, but increasingly, carrying a walking stick was seen largely as being a fashion accessory. Much like how you might carry around your smartphone today, back in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s, carrying around a walking-stick was done for both practical, and fashionable reasons. Having a flashy walking stick, possibly made of rare or expensive materials, was seen as a status-symbol, and they lent an air of superiority and higher social standing to the user.

Apart from this, with most people walking everywhere, a stick was useful on a practical level. Carrying a stick took some of the pressure and wear off of your shoes and feet – important, when you might well be walking for several hours every day. Having something to lean or rest on, was important for the purpose of personal comfort.

The Anatomy of a Walking Stick

A classic walking stick was typically comprised of four parts. I’ll go through each one in detail and give a bit of their history.

The Shaft

The shaft is the length of wood which makes up the walking-stick’s body. Traditionally, shafts were made out of a wide variety of wood, such as oak, blackthorn, etc. Some sticks were made of brass, some were even made of ivory – the long tusks of the narwhal were a popular material for making walking-sticks.

In some instances, walking sticks were made out of more unusual substances. A popular material for shafts was rattan cane, which was both strong, and flexible. They were particularly popular in the Far East, but also in Britain; such a type of cane is mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes novel “The Hound of the Baskervilles“.

The Handle

The handle, or grip of the walking stick is the area at the top, grasped by the user’s hand. Some walking sticks had very plain, curved wooden handles, which were simply the end of the shaft being bent over to create a hook. However, from the 1600s onwards, and even into the modern day – handles made of a wide variety of materials have been popular.

Handles have been made of brass, silver, ivory, glass, pool-balls, horn, tusk, bits of pipe…almost anything and everything imaginable. During the 1700s and 1800s, silver, brass, wood, bone and ivory were the most popular materials for making walking stick handles.

Handle shapes were as varied as their materials. The handle might be a simple knob, a hook, or the T-shaped derby-style handle. Handles in the form of an upturned L, which were sometimes made in the form of animal or bird-heads, such as dogs, eagle, rabbits and almost anything else imaginable, were also very popular.

The Collar

The collar is the ring directly underneath the handle, where it joins to the shaft. Not every walking stick has a collar, and not all collars are functional. Some exist purely for aesthetic reasons. Popular collar materials were silver, brass and ivory.

The Ferrule

The ferrule is the end-cap, foot, or base, right at the bottom of the walking-stick. It serves two purposes – to protect the end of the shaft, and to provide the user of the stick with grip, to stop the base of the walking stick from sliding around.

Interesting fact: Ferrule lengths varied over history. As a rule – the longer your ferrule is, the older your stick is. The shorter your ferrule is, the more modern your stick is!

Now, you might ask – why?

Remember when I said further up, that one of the main uses for walking sticks was to navigate terrible roads and paths, to help you keep your balance, and stop you from falling over? Well – because roads were, as a rule, unpaved until recent times – it was very common for a walking-stick to sink into the mud or slop or ooze, especially if you had to put weight on it. This was disadvantageous, because the mud and gunk would get all over the bottom half of your stick…eewww…!!

But also – the mud, or more specifically, the water and moisture, would damage the wood of which your stick was made. Constant exposure to water and mud would cause the wood to swell and crack, and for the end of the stick to wear down. To prevent this, or at least, to minimise it, ferrules were added to the bottom of sticks, and they were made much longer (up to six or eight inches, in some cases!) so as to protect as much of the stick as possible.

As paved roads and pavements became more common, the necessity to protect so much of the lower half of the stick was reduced, and so walking stick ferrules generally get shorter and shorter. In the modern era, most ferrules aren’t more than an inch or two long, compared with four or eight inches, in times past.

The Purpose of Carrying a Stick

While the most common reason for carrying a walking stick was either as a fashion-accessory, or as a mobility aid of some variety, there were many other reasons for carrying one, and these expanded throughout the centuries.

Self-Defense

One of the most common reasons why people carry walking sticks, even into the modern era – is for the purposes of self-defense. State-run police-forces did not become a regular thing until the early 1800s, Because of this, carrying a walking stick when you went out served as both a fashion accessory, but also as a personal defense weapon. With the right skills, someone could disarm or disable an attacker with very little effort.

The heyday for sticks used for personal defense was the Victorian era. A method of self defense was developed during this time, known as “singlestick fighting”. It was a series of classes and courses, which you could take to learn how to defend yourself – using a single walking stick – hence the name. Singlestick fighting was incredibly popular – and photographic manuals existed, demonstrating how to disarm someone, how to trip someone up, how to duck, block and parry an attacker’s movements, and how to turn disadvantages (such as having a shorter stick) into an advantage.

Along with the art of singlestick fighting, walking stick manufacturers also made sticks with self-defense capabilities built into them – usually, these were custom-ordered walking sticks, made specifically to a client’s needs. Walking sticks with spring-loaded bayonets, walking sticks with lead-shot inside the handle, and most famously – walking-sticks with swords or daggers inside the handle (“swordsticks”), were particularly common.

Gadget Sticks

Also called “systems sticks”, a gadget stick was a walking stick which served at least two functions. Gadget sticks varied from the mundane, to the fantastic, and everything in between. Gadget sticks had all kinds of additional accessories added into them – compasses, watches, whiskey-flasks hidden inside the shafts, telescopes, and even firearms – Valentin Zhukovsky, in the James Bond films, has a walking-stick with a built-in rifle.

Gadget-sticks were immensely popular, and today, a really unusual, or elaborate gadget-stick can be worth several hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. The more intricate and complicated it is, the more desirable it becomes, and the more value it retains.

While some gadget-sticks had gadgets inside them purely for the fun of it (a whiskey-flask, a compass, a watch, etc, etc), some gadget-sticks were manufactured specifically for particular occupations. For example, an explorer or a surveyor’s stick might have a telescope, a yardstick, a spirit-level and a compass. A doctor’s stick might have pill-boxes and a thermometer. A writer’s stick might have space for pens, spare nibs and a bottle of ink.

The End of the Walking Stick

The walking stick as an aid for mobility has never disappeared, and some people still collect and use antique and vintage sticks for walking on a regular basis. Others still buy their sticks brand-new and use them every day. A friend of mine has carried the same curved wooden walking stick for years, to help with the bodily imbalance caused by his back issues.

But the days of carrying a walking stick as a fashion accessory does seem to have died away. While some people do still uphold this, they do tend to be a minority. The fact is that a walking stick is seldom practical as an accessory in the modern world. We have so many other things to think about and carry – phones, chargers, earphones, tablets, laptops…the last thing we need to carry around is a purely decorative piece of wood.

Quite apart from anything else, one of the main reasons why walking sticks started dying out as a fashion accessory is due to the advancements in transportation.

Prior to the late 1800s, most people walked almost everywhere. Carriages were expensive, trains didn’t reach all places, and bicycles were rare. Because of this, walking was the main mode of transport, which meant that carrying a walking stick, either to aid with balance, to help ease the pressure on one’s feet, or simply as an accessory – was considered acceptable.

However, once cars became popular, and people started doing much less walking in general, sticks fell by the wayside as being impractical and unnecessary. Their popularity continued through the 20th century, but they started being seen increasingly as being more of mobility aid, and more for older people than younger people, and less as a fashion accessory than they once were, which all contributed to their general lack of use in the modern world.