Battle Sticks
So my 5 year old likes to play fight, or "battle" as he calls it. Usually it involves me or his mom getting whacked with a toy sword or something. To tide him over before going out trick or treating, I figured I'd make a couple of training sticks out of pvc pipe and a bit of pipe insulation. I put on my lacross gloves and hockey shin pads and we went into the back yard and I let him have at me. The boy cheats a little with his score keeping and calling his hits but for the most part he tagged me legitimately. I guess I'm out of practice.
A Bevy of Blanks
Weather was still good so I decided to cut a bunch of stick blanks. 4 ash wood, 2 yellowheart, and 2 Indonesian kayu. Slowly building up the armory. 
Yellowheart Sticks
Yesterday morning I bought some short hardwood boards, including a piece of yellowheart. I was quite anxious to work with the yellowheart and the weather today was perfect for working outside. I figured there may not be too many more days I can take advantage of before winter, so I spent this morning shaping two sticks out of this board and I even have a blank for one more. The one on the left I'm keeping for myself and the other one I will either try to sell or keep it as a spare. My stick has a narrow leading edge, which makes for a great indexing reference and it fits nicely in the hand. The other stick has a rounded rectangular profile. Once I finished sanding them and putting on a coat of tung oil, they came out to a gorgeous golden colour. The wood was pretty hard, but it wasn't too bad to work with at all. I like it.
Lead Headed Training Club
I had one last scrap piece of hickory left over from the original board I purchased a few months ago. It was 32" long, which was too short for a full walking stick, but I was inspired today after looking at other people's knot work to just make myself a light club with a lead knob on one end and cover the knob with a turkshead, just like on a bullwhip.
The resulting club isn't too heavy but it's very comfortable for doing shoulder mobility and light wrist/grip strength exercises. It's long enough to be able to do some Irish stick movement practice with as well. And, ultimately, it's a stick with a hunk of lead on the end. What's not to like? No way I'd want to get hit with this thing, that's for sure.
As for the knot, it's my first try at an 8 bight. With two passes, it is just right for the foundation size...just. Problem is, my colour choice did not turn out quite as I had expected. The shape of the knob, the length of the handle and its being made out of wood, plus the red nylon makes the whole thing look like a giant match stick. Not what I was intending at all.
So, it's a dorky looking training tool, but it works.
Birch Sticks
A friend of mine had some pieces of birch he was saving for bow making and he decided he wanted to use one for some sticks instead. The piece I used had lost a big chunk along about a quarter of one end but I managed to get two 38" walking sticks and two 28" straight sticks. One of the straight sticks has a weird little taper on one end because it came out of the section that had lost some wood, but it's long enough.
Got to use my cheap bench top belt sander and it really helps, but making an even cylinder shape is pretty tough with just hand tools and no lathe. Even so, they came out okay.
The density of this birch seems a little less than the hickory I was using for my previous batch of sticks so I'm not sure how well they will take being banged around. However I am pretty happy with the walking stick's overall shape. The blank had a wide rectangular shape so I shaved off the edges along most of the length to make it more square but left the knob end wide. It has a nice feel for a practice stick.