As I am a self confessed tight git I try to keep costs as low as possible and found a few trips to the local B&Q yielded a couple of canes that would be suitable. You can see the difference in thickness in the shot below.
You can see the cane tapers from around 15mm at the boss end to around 22mm at the handle end. I was quite lucky in the fact that one of the canes was very thick and almost solid at the handle end.
As the canes had been stored outside they were quite damp so I wanted to take all the moisture out to strength and stiffen the cane as well as preserving it over time. This was achieved by holding the cane over an open flame (gas hob) and starting from the centre and by rotating the cane and moving the flame to the end you can chase out the moisture. This took quite a long time as it’s surprising how much moisture the cane contained. One point to note here and a useful tip given to me by Paul Cook is to make sure the internal node is pierced as if not the cane expands a little too much and it will split making it much weaker I did this by using a thin metal rod I had knocking about in the garage.
After the moisture was removed I started the straightening the cane again this involves heating the cane until its fairly hot I found this was too hot to handle with bare hands and gently bring in into shape I did this by bending it over my knee. It surprising how little effort is needed to straighten the cane when it’s hot and if you’re struggling to straighten it the cane needs to be heated more.
Finally when the cane is straight and sturdy I moved the cane over an open flame holding it around and inch from the flame tip to give the effect I was looking for.
I then added silk whipping and sealed them with PVA before 4 coats of outdoor varnish to protect the whippings. I used a fitting from an old rod from the car boot as a finishing touch on the handle and I have to say I am rather proud of the results.
I'll add a picture of the finish result when I get home.
Edit....final pics now added
