A staff that has been in the waiting for a long, long time. Started in December of 2020, after the first handful of lines were done, it was put on hold until after I had finished moving to England. And then, after getting to England, an assortment of other items by that time had also accumulated in the "to be finished after I move" pile, and those were slowly worked through as well. And finally, in 2025, the staff returns to the workbench, ready to be worked on anew.
Bruce. A large, solid staff. Gifted to me by friends up in The Pas, it was offered to me ready-peeled and waiting to be carved. It felt... big. But like... Little John from Robin Hood type of big. Like Fezzik in The Princess Bride big. Just... a large staff for a large person. And so, it got its name, a name that felt befitting. A name that was etched into the side in big block letters, because that just felt right. I created the letters in masking tape first, then attached them to the staff and traced them to make sure the size and shape were consistent, because trying to freehand uniform letters on a curved cylinder is basically impossible without doing so. And this staff needed it there. A staff with wide, heavy linework befitting of the feel. And now that its waiting has ended, we will see what becomes of this beast.
And the carving began. We started from where we left off, carving out the letters etched years ago. I carefully deepend the lines so that I could pop and carve out the wood without splintering pieces of the lettering off, and it worked a charm. The carving beginning anew.
Immediately, my mind went where it needed to go. A large man. A big staff, which would look perfectly in place stickfighting as a quarterstaff by someone like this. Though you really wouldn't want to, because it's carved nicely, and you'd dent it. It's not a hardwood like hickory or ash, and isn't actually meant to take large impacts. Though, being not a hardwood like hickory or ash, it has dried significantly lighter than either of those others ever could have. A staff that can be easily walked with by anyone! But, it does need some magic with it, as with most of my staves. The Staff of Strength. A staff that imbues its user with strength, power, endurance, and those types of attributes. Of course with the usual safeties, there's a 'me' imbued with it, to keep watch that it isn't used for bad, and otherwise... Bruce, the Staff of Strength.
So with the name finished, and the mindset prepared, I began to carve the linework. Large, wide sweeping lines, following the example set years ago. Beginning under the start of BRUCE, we curved around, split the linework off into additional vines here and there, and began to work our way downwards.
And the carving continued. We alternated between carving out the planned lines and etching the next ones in, until we had the design fully planned, and about half of the lines carved out. And with the remainder of the lines, we moved on to painting. I wanted the linework with more of a stained finish, a leather brown colour, rather than an opaque smooth paint like I usually do. I happened to have a leather brown acrylic paint, so I added water to turn it into a watercolour wash, and used that to paint inside the linework, avoiding painting the edges, much like I did with the Staff of Zeus. And with only one layer of this watered down paint, I'm quite happy with how the colour turned out. It could have been a slight bit more red, like standard tanned leather, the rough underside of it type of style, but I'm pretty happy with this.
Aaaand after it fully dried, and I tried rubbing it with a reddish leather, I came to several conclusions (see pic #6 on the right). 1. As it stands, it looks like the brown was added with a pencil crayon or something. 2. The smooth leather side up is much better than rough side up. 3. It appears that opaque is the way to go, given I love the look of leather laid into there, 4. I can't do the entire thing in leather, because I don't have even remotely that much of that shade, and it would be a little too "extra", and 5. I'm glad I started smoothing it down, because that first paint both sealed the wood grain for the next paint layer, and smoothing it down both smoothed and finished that process. So all in all, I would consider that first paint layer an surprise success, even though it'll be covered. It made for a surface sealer, aaand now I've got to hunt for a paint of *that* specific colour of leather. I have a big ol' bag of scraps that was gifted to me in The Pas, and could compare the various shades to find my favourite one.
More to follow after I obtain said paint
Finished Month xx, 2025 or 2026
