The Staff of Shed-a-roth ...

Imagine if you will an object of unspeakable power, crafted in the depths of hell (my wife's name for my shed) it wields so much energy it's very fibres are cracked and warped.


Behold ! The Staff of Shed-a-Roth -

Scared yet ? What do you mean no ?

Okay so it's not some kind of ancient artifact capable of levelling a small city, it was meant to be a handle for my digging hoe, I cut down a section of Eucalyptus, which I've been coppicing, however it started to crack and warp more or less straight away, so I wondered what to do with it, even though it's cracked and only slightly warped, so I figured I'd make a prop for Halloween.


Big cracks started to appear in various places -

It's still in one piece, despite the cracks.

All I've done is carve some stuff into it, and added a twist that runs from the bottom of it to almost the top, the idea being that the spiral will channel the energy from the earth up the staff and into the person holding it, see I've put some thought into it.


The twist -

It's quite easy to do this.

I haven't been too accurate with the detailing on the staff, it's only a bit of fun, but I have been experimenting with adding this kind of barley twist type design onto some wood working projects I've been doing.

Another twist, this time on the top of the staff - 

This is done the same way as the other twist detail.

The two different twist designs (I use the term designs loosely) are done with various sized rasp files, then different grades of sand paper.

The other little details I did using the various carving bits I have for my multi-tool (think dremel-ish) to be honest I haven't used the wood carving bits that much, manly because I kind of like doing things by hand where possible, and because I'm not that good at using the power tool method of carving (yet)

The other little details - 

Spirals - 

Could do with being neater.

The skulls - 

I definitely need more practice with the carving bits.

Initially I thought the length of wood was going to split into bits, but it has settled down now and is actually quite strong.

The cracks haven't got any bigger - 

They seem to fit in with the theme of it.

 

I like the way the cracks seem to fit into the theme of the staff, overall I'm quite pleased with it, seeing as it nearly ended up on the fire, and it's only a bit of fun. 

I especially like the twists, so much so that when I do get a length of wood for a hoe handle I'm going to carve a twist into it, for no other reason than I can, might do something similar to the other gardening tools I have.

Thanks for reading, and Beware The Staff of Shed-a-Roth.