| 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 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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