How To Make A Custom Fancy Walking Cane

Step 9 Adding Side Dowels

Remove assembled cane from clamp. Lay the cane flat on it's side and with a pencil, along the length of the cane, mark the center of the cane 1" above and below the joints. Then across the width of the cane, mark 3/4" above and below each joint. This is where you will drill to insert the 1/4" side dowels. These dowels will cut into the inner dowel and hold all of the parts together should the glue fail to keep the different woods in place. This insures no movement will occur should the wood shrink or expand. You will not find this technique in cheaply made canes.

Using a 1/4" drill bit, indent the wood with the bit with machine turned OFF. Turn on machine and slowly drill through the cane. You may have some tear out on the exiting side of the cane, so you will want to have left extra thickness of wood to compensate for the repair of this.

Once the two holes are drilled, measure the 1/4" dowel, adding 1/8" on each side. Glue in place and allow to set 24 hrs.

Sand down the dowels and do your final shaping to remove tool marks and tear out. Start with 80, 100, 180, 220 grit and finish with 320 grit. Your cane should be looking quite nice by now and the next step of applying the finish will confirm all of your hard work.