Imperial Creative Engineering > Costumes, Props and replicas
walking cane, spuda style
spudafett:
ok... so i've been carying around this ugly old man's cane for weeks now getting made fun of by my buddies at school and I'm tired of it. It's a cheapo walgreens fiberglass with rubber handle shepherds hook cane...
so I got on e-bay and started browsing for a fancier cane that I might like...
now some of you might know that I'm as big a fossil fanatic as I am star wars, probably more actually, blashphemy I know...
anyways, so I ran accross this:
there are actually several listed around e-bay right now. One for around $60.00 another around 200.00 and one even at 1000.000!
apparently they are pretty rare nowadays but were popular long ago when sailors would make them at sea and come ashore to trade them off for booze and women... ok I realy don't think that's true but it's what one listing said! ha...
basically they are the cleaned vertebrae of a shark or ray which have been drilled through the center and a steel rod is placed down them for stability and strength. Then a handle is placed on top and a tip on the bottom.
I just purchased a lot of loose shark vertebrae so I am going to attempt constructing my own from scratch!
I'm thinking I'll put a length of steel "all thread" through them and place a nut and washer at both ends to hold the vertebrae together and compact against each other. Then I'll purchase a cheap rubber tip to put on the bottom to cover the bolt at the base.
the handle is what has me vexed. I want to use this:
it's a pollished "jasper" sphere with crinoid fossil inclusions. If you don't know what a crinoid is, don't worry about it its not important... look it up if it intrests you so.... lol
anyway... I also want to use a peice of stingray leather to hold the ball onto the top of the cane as the handle...
stingray hide:
stingray is exceptionally vexing. There is little to no information on the net on how to work with it. It is a niche leather and is only worked by very few people worldwide with the majority of stingray hides coming from stingray farms in thiland. (I got my first stingray peice from an aunt who visited there, It's my wallet! I've had it for 5-6 years now and it shows absolutely NO sign of wear!)
If I can get a peice of stingray skin that is already tanned and preserved that is the way I want to do it... although it's more expensive I won't have to worry about preserving it...
the problem comes when you try sewing it onto something. The stingray hide is covered with tiny "pearls" of calcium carbonate scales. It is incredibly tough and is one reason the hide is so strong and lasts so long...
My thinking is that I will just use a two part epoxy glue and glue the hide strait onto the cane, wrapping it around the top inch and a half or so and then wrap a small part around the base of the polished fossil sphere... in essense holding everything together and hopefully giving me a sturdy handle on the cane...
it may come to the point though that I need to ancor the sphere in another way to the steel rod. I was thinking about using my dremel to bore a hole the same diameter as the rod into the sphere and epoxy it on that way, wrapping the hide around it as a back up....
any ideas guys? I'm wanting to have this idea fleshed out and pinned down before I go and purchase all the bits and peices...
I may wind up scrapping the entire fossil ball idea (the polished spheres are expensive) and put a wooden nob on it that is covered then by parts of that stingray skin hide... If I do it that way the polished diamond on the center of the hide will face directly upwards and the hide will be cut to fall down around the nob and overlap onto the cane slightly.... I might wind up just doing it this way as I think it will wind up being sturdier and easier (and cheaper) to make...
spudafett:
I forgot to post a picture of the vertebrae lot I purchased:
I love the organic look to it... they will have to be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide before and after I drill the holes through the center....
interesting point to anyone reading this, don't ever BLEACH bone... it destroys it's structure. Using hydrogen peroxide cleans it throughout and doesn't degrade the calcium make up of the bone. it also bleaches it very pearly white...
DocOutlands:
Wow!! When I get old and crippled, I'm hiring you to make my cane!
spudafett:
are you insinuating that I am old and crippled...? :'(
lol I feel it... that's for sure.
DocOutlands:
hehe - I never insinuate! I simply craft words so that the reader may draw their own conclusions!! ;D
I had a run-in with gout earlier this year that had me on an aluminum stick for a couple of weeks, so believe me, I'd like to put off that "crippled" part as long as possible!! Of course, I also intend/expect to live past my 120th birthday. Given the number of ancestors and relatives who have seen well past their 90th and 100th birthdays, well, it isn't *too* far-fetched.
Y'know, I've heard that studies show folks who "live for work" tend to die rather quickly after their retirement. A lot of it seems to revolve around the fact they have nothing else to occupy their time that used to be consumed by work. The retirees who tend to live longer and healthier are the folks who either have a pre-existing interest they are able to devote time to or folks who have a plan/activity they pick up after retiring. If hobby activities are a key to longer, healthier aging... I should see my 300th birthday easily.
;D
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