i started work on this african staff and it's coming along nicely, i went for a hike with winston the other day after work and found the best piece of wood ever for the staff. it was pretty dirty but after some clean up it wasn't that bad. i went to work stripping off whatever bark was left and did some sanding to smooth out some of the knots. it has a natural handle built in, the way the stick curves in and ends right at a knot so it really feels like this stick was made to be a walking stick. so this is where i hit a snag on the african staff. i spent all day yesterday sanding the hell out of it, it had cracks all up and down the length of it so i used some wood filler and after everything was sanded off and super smooth i decided to put the african staff on hold and use this piece of wood for a walking stick to use on my hikes. I've always wanted one and this stick is just to nice looking now to use it for anything else. when i still had it in my head i was making the african staff i ended up cutting like 6 inches off the bottom and now when you hold it by the natural handle it's too short and doesn't meet the ground, so now i have to drill a hole in the top of the piece i cut out and drill a hole in the bottom of the staff, throw a peg in there, glue it all together and sand it all smooth again. problem fixed! i went on eBay and ordered a small compass that i'm going to set into the top of the walking stick, it's not the kind i was looking for, but i'll have to figure out how to make it work. i think if i glue it to the top and then add wood filler or something else that will sand down and look like wood after i stain it all around the compass it will look like the compass grew into a knot or something. i'll take some pics of the staff tonight and see if i can fix the bottom of it.