Packable Walking Cane

A sturdy walking cane is a necessity for me. Unfortunately, when you sit down in a restaurant, theater, or fly on an airplane there's never any place to stow it conveniently. So, you lean it against a table, chair, or wall, and have to retrieve it from the floor when it ultimately gets knocked over -- often many times. On airplanes, since the flight attendants typically want you to stow your cane in the overhead bins, it is out of reach as soon as you get in your seat.

You can buy collapsible metal canes, but I've always found them to be uncomfortable and less than satisfactory. I like a sturdy cane that is made from wood, and since the only way I've ever found canes that really fit me is to make them, I decided to make a cane that could be packed away.

Supplies used were:

• 3/4 inch diameter dowel (3 feet long)
• wood of your selection for the handle
• short length of 3/4 inch brass tubing from my scrap pile
• one small screw
• small piece of scrap leather (optional)
• about 1 foot of nylon lacing (optional)
• 3/4 inch copper connectors from the plumbing aisle (see the photo -- 2 male, 2 female)
• gun bluing (optional)
• epoxy glue
• stain & varnish

Tools used:

• band saw
• lathe, shop knife, or special jig (explained in step 1)
• special jig for assembly (explained in step 2)

Since the cane will have 3 sections, cut your 3 foot dowel into three equal lengths.

One end of the top and bottom sections will need to be reduced in diameter to fit into the plumbing connectors. The middle section will need to have both ends reduced in diameter. The reason for this so that the plumbing connectors can fit flush with the shafts.

Obviously a lathe would make this an easy task, but since I don't have a lathe my choice was to whittle them down with a shop knife, or make a jig to reduce them accurately. I chose to make a jig so I could size them down using a band saw. Making this jig is not absolutely necessary, but it will help in making a quality joint.

Making the jig is simple (see photos 1 & 2). On the left of the jig is a stop to ensure the length of the reduced diameter is correct, and this jig is clamped down to my band saw table to control the depth of required removal (photo 3). The wooden stops along the length of the jig are used to align the dowel. Photo 4 shows the jig clamped and aligned to the saw table. To use it all I had to do was rotate the dowel as I fed it into the blade and continued to move the dowel in as I removed the material. I carefully measured the placement of the jig before clamping it down to ensure only the material I needed to remove was cut (which was about 1/16th inch).

Please note that you don't have to use this jig -- a lathe or shop knife can do the job, although the shop knife is more difficult to achieve a good result.

At this point is a good time to stain & varnish the shafts (either before or after you reduce the ends).

Rather than have shiny copper fittings, I wanted them to have more of an antique finish, so I used gun bluing to blacken them, then used metal polish to remove some of the bluing. Once I obtained the finish I was looking for I applied wax to protect the finish

Before epoxying the plumbing parts onto the shafts, you will need a way to ensure the shafts are aligned absolutely straight before the epoxy sets. You really don't want a cane that is not straight! Don't try to eyeball this -- a jig is necessary to ensure accuracy, because no matter how good your joints are, there will be a tiny amount of play in them at best. Using a jig will ensure that when the epoxy cures the shafts will all be in perfect alignment.

There are numerous ways to do this, but what I used was a section of aluminum angle from my scrap pile. I made 4 spacers from wood scraps to allow for clearance for the plumbing parts (photo 1). This allows the shafts to be aligned in a perfectly straight line. Once aligned, epoxy the plumbing parts to the shafts and let the epoxy fully cure. If necessary, lightly clamp the sections to the jig to keep them aligned while the glue sets. Remember to place the male & female parts so they can screw together.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of making this particular jig, you could make a simpler alignment jig by taking a straight piece of lumber and make relief cuts for the plumbing parts, then clamp the shafts down after making sure the parts are all aligned.

I made the handle out of a piece of stabilized buckeye burl, but any hardwood is good. After shaping the handle to fit your hand, drill a 3/4 inch hole in the bottom for mounting. Before gluing the handle to the shaft, adjust the length of the cane to suit you by trimming either or both ends for length. Then glue the handle on.

I like to add a small "clip" to my canes. The clip allows me to hook the cane to my pants pocket for times that I need to use both hands, such as standing at a counter paying for purchases. I made the clip from a piece of scrap copper pipe. Making it is fairly simple. Just take a piece of 3/4 inch copper tubing and cut away everything that doesn't look like a clip and bend it as shown in the photos. It is attached a couple of inches beneath the handle with a single screw. I antiqued the clip to match the plumbing parts.

I also like to line the shaft just beneath the handle with leather. If you wish to do this, punch holes in the leather and lace it on with nylon thread. The clip and the leather, of course, are optional.

The very last step is to attach a rubber foot to the cane. These feet can be found in the pharmacy aisle in most stores or on Amazon.

This cane allows me to disassemble & reassemble it quickly. At a restaurant I can disassemble it and place it in my lap or set it on a table, and on an airplane it fits easily in the seat pocket in front of me.