I kind of got the message when I recently presented Mrs Pablo with my latest spoon creation. “Oh, that’s nice. Another spoon.” Now I can take a hint. I’ve only made 6 after all. Time to try my hand at something else. A kuksa; a bowl; a chair; a wardrobe? No. I think I’ll hone my skills before trying something more advanced.

I’ve been using a tracking stick for a while and bought an excellent one from an instructor on the Shadowhawk course. So here was the challenge. To make another tracking stick, but all my own work.

What I really wanted to do was practice some carving and integrate that into the stick, so I found a dead straight piece of hazel and carved around the outline of a feather drawn into the stick. Not having any specialist carving blades I reverted to the Bark River PSK. The edge is extremely sharp and thin enough to do the intricate work. The point is also thin which helped. Once again, I found the handle a bit slippery, and my hand cramped up on occasions due to the handle’s small size, but all in all I managed quite adequately.

Reasonably content with the carving, I ordered a Silva button compass (the diameter was the only one that fitted the top of the stick) with a view to unashamedly copying the design of the stick I’d purchased on the course with the compass set into the top of the stick. I hollowed out the top of the stick very carefully with the tip of the crooked knife I use for the spoons plus the PSK. I also ordered an Alpine ferrule to fit the bottom of the stick. The ferrule’s diameter was too big as it turned out, as stupidly I’d already pointed the stick so I had to make a few adjustments.

I’ve made it a rule to do all crafts in the woods, but now I had a bit of a problem finishing off the stick. I tried to find some pine resin to fit the ferrule and compass, but not finding any in the local woods, I had to resort to “No More Nails!” Hardly a bushcraft solution, but I didn’t want to ruin the stick at this stage.

I carved some ruler marks into the stick and finished the whole thing off with a coat of dark wood stain primarily to hide the adjustments of fitting the ferrule.

The final result. One tracking stick ready to go.

Now, I wonder how many of these I can do before Mrs P says, “Oh, another stick.”

Pablo.

PS The last (at the moment) in the mini series of Useful Plants and Fungi has now been uploaded to Pablo’s Videos (You Tube).