Parker Kinney of Jay crafts each unique walking stick with care.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

JAY – Parker Kinney lined up several thin layers of white ash and cherry wood Monday on a work table. He squeezed a line of honey-gold colored “high tech” glue on each one. Then he took a plastic spatula and spread the liquid on the wood strips.

“We’re in good shape,” Kinney said, as he placed each one on top of the other in a custom mold. “I try like the Dickens’ to get these lined up.”

Before he started the gluing process, he had cut nine strips of wood about one-eighth of an inch thick and about 2 inches wide and about 4 feet long.

He likes to have layers of contrasting wood when he makes his canes and walking sticks. For this cane, he has cut the strips of cherry wood shorter than the ash to make the weight of the cane lighter. The darker wood is sandwiched between three layers of lighter wood on top and bottom. The ash stabilizes the cherry, Kinney said.

The 67-year-old Jay native likes the wood to be dried out enough so that it won’t shrink or warp and wet enough so it’s not brittle. An assortment of finished canes and walking sticks stand in corners and along walls, hang above a work bench and rest on makeshift shelves in the workshop. Some have T-handles. Others are sticks with a custom flare. There are even ones made from tree branches.

Now that the layers are together, he takes a tool that Tony Doiron made for him and places the square stocked stick with an attached strap and hook over them.

He takes a C-clamp from the shelf and places it on top of the tool and tightens. He repeats the process several times. He then pulls the hook over the end layers to create a rounded cane top in the mold. He gritted his teeth as he tightened the turnbuckle. It wasn’t quite the way he wanted it. He fiddled with it more until he had it just the way he wanted it.

“It’s coming together,” he said. “It’s pretty good.”

He looks at it from different angles.

“Yeah, that looks all right,” he said.

It would take about 24 hours or less to cure. The glue would expand to some degree, he said, and fill in any voids. He had taken a cane from the mold prior to putting the new one in. It looked like a bunch of rough layers of wood glued together until he ran it through a planer to even them out. Then he used a router to round the rough edges.

“Ten years ago, I came out of the hospital and the doctor said start walking,” Kinney said, who has a history of heart problems. He made himself a laminated walking cane out of many thin layers of wood glued together. The bottom is now worn down at an angle due to the many miles he walked. He’s retired that one in the shop but still walks.

One of his prized walking sticks is made out of curly maple, which resembles “rings of pearl” with lighter shades of wood contrasting with darker rings up the length of the stick. Though he gives most of his canes and sticks away to those who need one, he occasionally sells some between $15 and $40 depending on quality. But the curly maple stick would go for $100, he said. “It’s as unique as hell,” he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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