A couple days ago I got bored waiting for a separate project's glue to dry so this was birthed in response. Sticks are such a common thing that no one ever thinks much of them, but you can turn a broken tree branch into a sturdy, dependable aid in a matter of hours.

Step 1: Prep

Materials:

A nice and sturdy stick
Wood filler
Sand paper (50, 80, 100, 150)
Rope or lanyard

Tools:

Jig saw/ any hand held saw
Palm/Orbital Sander
Chisel or an object with a sharp end that can scrap of bark

Step 2: Search and Rescue

Go into your backyard or if you don't have one then any woodsy area and look for a stick that's at least about an inch thick. Give it a little bend, put some pressure on it to test its strength. Obviously you don't want hit against a tree or stomp on it repeatedly but you do want to make sure its strong enough to hold part of your weight without strain. Once you find a stick that looks pretty and is nice and strong it's time to get to work.

Step 3: Woof

Hehe bark, woof, get it... hehe yup I just did that ;). So now you've got to remove the surface extremities.

Chop off the little stubs on the stick either with an ax or a jig saw, though an ax will get the job done just fine
After that start removing the bark, again I just used my ax to peel all of the bark off, easy peasy

Step 4: Get Sandy (that's Right I Did It Again (; )

Hehe I crack myself up. Anyway now it's time to tackle the bulk of the project, sanding. You've got to take your time with this, don't skimp on the sanding. Make sure you get all damaged wood off, especially rotten wood. You'll know if there is some rotten wood if this gross brown stuff starts building up on your sand paper (pictured above).

I started with 50 grit to removed all of the dirty and damaged wood. I spent a good couple hours on this, part of this step includes sanding away all the black spots on the wood, get'em out
This should take a couple hours

Step 5: Taco Time!!!

Reward yourself with some delicious tacos, you deserve it, You've just spent the past like 5 hours sanding :)!

Step 6: Back to Work

Now you've got to fill in the cracks. For the small cracks I put gorilla glue in the cracks and then just covered it with saw dust from the earlier sanding of the stick. For larger cracks I used wood filler which I suggest you use as well since the gorrilla glue method does not work as well with larger cracks.

Step 7: Stain

After you've sanded the sick stain it. You can use a simple oil or get some color on wither way it'll still be cool. I used linseed oil to keep out moisture. Make sure to coat it with some form over water resistant stain or oil cause, surprise, sometimes nature gets a little wet ;).

Step 8: Walk

GO OUT AND HAVE FUN WALKINGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I don't have pictures of the finished product I made it as a gift for my teacher but I hope this was helpful :)

Introduction: Walking Stick