| About Irish Blackthorn
Blackthorn is known as the European spiny plum (Prunus spinosa) with hard wood and small white flowers. Blackthorn is looked upon by some as the best wood for the shaft of a cane. If anyone to offer any fine cane maker a choice of shafts the most popular choice would always be this wood. It is a very hard, close-grained wood and if growing from the trunk of the tree or bush, is covered with very sharp, vicious spines. The most notable features of blackthorn wood are the deep reddish-black bark and the numerous knots, which are best when perfected by an excellent cane maker. An experienced cane maker will pick the perfect piece of blackthorn and perfect it into a perfect symmetrical shaft for a cane. This is a very time consuming process because of the meticulous job of rounding the knots into a shaft.
The there points that make a well made Blackthorn cane are:
- Thorns that are evenly spaced all around the cane.
- The cane must have a fine taper.
- The spurs cut close to the limb and small dimples are left behind each spur.
A simple blackthorn-knob stick (#892) has been the prized possession of many countryman in Europe especially in Ireland for many centuries. The cane is famous in the British Isles.
Buyer Beware!!
Our canes are guaranteed to be genuine woods. Some canes are passed off as blackthorn but are really made of Hawthorn (of a genus Crataegus a spring-flowering spiny shrub) this wood looks somewhat similar except that it does not have the same uniformity as Blackthorn.
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