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<blockquote data-quote="mtngunr" data-source="post: 4337013" data-attributes="member: 46104"><p>I few others I have made for self defense, the obviously more used one accompanied me when I lived in rough wintered Harlem and South Bronx, and served well by only standing and waiting when young toughs would scope me out and I scoped right back while giving them a good view of the stick and them deciding there were easier pickings elsewhere.</p><p></p><p>I formerly had a connection in the north UK who harvested the rough blackthorn and cured them in a heated barn for a year where I bought bulk lots and shaped the rootball and finished them, but US Customs siezed the last batch as they were unfinished, as if a pest would have been in them after a year of heat, and where, had they been sprayed with varnish, they would have been fine.</p><p>Blackthorn is a legend in light and strong, as any Irishman knows, and "loaded" sticks with ball drilled and lead poured in are common, but illegal in most US jurisdictions. It is not a perfect stick, the bark can loosen and flake off, but still a classic. I gravitated to crooked canes for convenience and utility as mentioned prior. These are about 38" long for reach, and about 1" diameter up high. They also have tapered brass tips hiding under the rubber tips, the rubber coming off for social interactions.</p><p></p><p>Blackthorn is quite expensive in straight larger diameters, it must be harvested from thickets in the winter, often the bark gnawed by deer, and every knot on the shaft represents a 2" long thorn. Its fruit, called sloes, gives us sloe gin.</p><p></p><p>PS- it common today to find finished blackthorn where bark painted a "classic" black, which can hide a multitude of sins including bore holes. The true classic black came not from paint, but from a peasant curing process where the blackthorn was cured by wrapping in manure and stuffed up the chimney for a year. The winter harvest while the sap is down and the lengthy slow curing are required to prevent cracks/checks, and almost no rootball is free of at least a small check or two filled with putty prior to finish.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://postimg.cc/QVNMRNzN" target="_blank"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/BZH1PXcF/20241002-084527.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://postimg.cc/vcgGs4ty" target="_blank"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/3J9N2pyk/20241002-084944.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://postimg.cc/PP4Jcs6n" target="_blank"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/9Q39DcZ0/20241002-085008.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mtngunr, post: 4337013, member: 46104"] I few others I have made for self defense, the obviously more used one accompanied me when I lived in rough wintered Harlem and South Bronx, and served well by only standing and waiting when young toughs would scope me out and I scoped right back while giving them a good view of the stick and them deciding there were easier pickings elsewhere. I formerly had a connection in the north UK who harvested the rough blackthorn and cured them in a heated barn for a year where I bought bulk lots and shaped the rootball and finished them, but US Customs siezed the last batch as they were unfinished, as if a pest would have been in them after a year of heat, and where, had they been sprayed with varnish, they would have been fine. Blackthorn is a legend in light and strong, as any Irishman knows, and "loaded" sticks with ball drilled and lead poured in are common, but illegal in most US jurisdictions. It is not a perfect stick, the bark can loosen and flake off, but still a classic. I gravitated to crooked canes for convenience and utility as mentioned prior. These are about 38" long for reach, and about 1" diameter up high. They also have tapered brass tips hiding under the rubber tips, the rubber coming off for social interactions. Blackthorn is quite expensive in straight larger diameters, it must be harvested from thickets in the winter, often the bark gnawed by deer, and every knot on the shaft represents a 2" long thorn. Its fruit, called sloes, gives us sloe gin. PS- it common today to find finished blackthorn where bark painted a "classic" black, which can hide a multitude of sins including bore holes. The true classic black came not from paint, but from a peasant curing process where the blackthorn was cured by wrapping in manure and stuffed up the chimney for a year. The winter harvest while the sap is down and the lengthy slow curing are required to prevent cracks/checks, and almost no rootball is free of at least a small check or two filled with putty prior to finish. [URL='https://postimg.cc/QVNMRNzN'][IMG]https://i.postimg.cc/BZH1PXcF/20241002-084527.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL='https://postimg.cc/vcgGs4ty'][IMG]https://i.postimg.cc/3J9N2pyk/20241002-084944.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL='https://postimg.cc/PP4Jcs6n'][IMG]https://i.postimg.cc/9Q39DcZ0/20241002-085008.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [/QUOTE]
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