I had an email from a lady looking for an antler wading staff for her husband. She wanted it to be a really special gift for him and ask for me to fit it with a silver disc with his initials on and also a 924 silver collar. I got the relevant materials from my suppliers and set about making the stick. I used a nice strong hazel shank to give him maximum support in the water and fitted a good sheet of lead to the base to give weight to the staff and to prevent it from floating away in the water. The stick was also longer than a normal thumb stick to aid assistance in deep water. The bottom of the stick was fitted with a rubber ferrule to prevent frightening the fish as a brass ferrule would make too much noise underwater. Finally the bottom was wrapped in plastic shrink-wrap to keep it all looking good and waterproofing the base.

The antler top was capped with buffalo horn as requested by my customer making this a really special gift for her man. Finally it had several coats of linseed oil to the shank and wax to the antler giving the stick a waterproofing. This can be redone once a season to keep the stick in tip-top condition.

Here are a few images of the stick

…and my happy customer’s comment to me after Christmas