It was a day in November during Wisconsin's deer hunting season, and I had been slowly following a deer path through a thick stand of mixed oak and pine trees when I came to another path that crossed the one I was following. It looked like a good place to stop and wait to see if a buck might come along, so I backed off about 50 yards into some cover where I was partially hidden but still had a good view of the paths. A large white oak tree offered a backrest so I sat down, placed my rifle across my lap and took out the sandwich I had packed for lunch.
The gods of the hunt did not smile on me that day but I didn't leave empty-handed. While sitting against that oak I had noticed a small sapling, about 3" at the base and roughly 12' tall that had an unusual twist near the bottom. It seemed to me that there must be something I could do - should do with that unique shape, but what? And then it came to me. I was looking at the makings of a medieval walking staff; one that Merlin himself would have been proud to lean on. Using the folding saw I carried in my pack it took only minutes to cut the sapling into the rough shape I wanted.
Back at my work bench there really wasn't much that needed to be done to get it to the shape I'd envisioned. All I had to do was remove a few small branches, use a file to shorten some protrusions and to round the top. When that was done I used fine grit sandpaper to smooth the entire shaft, and then applied a coat of semi-gloss stain. To complete the project I leather-wrapped the location where it felt natural and comfortable to grip the staff, and finished it off with brass upholstery tacks, both to hold the leather in place and to add color.
For the next few years the staff mostly stood against a wall in what I called my medieval room, which I had converted from a sun porch. My sister would occasionally visit and upon seeing the staff asked if I had named it. When told that I hadn't, she said that it wanted to be called Moses, and Moses is what it has been referred to ever since.
Once I took Moses with me to a renaissance faire in southern Wisconsin. I had gone to the faire often and knew that there was a competition held for unique, hand made walking staffs. When I arrived I was told that I could not enter Moses because it was largely in its natural condition, and that I hadn't done much in the way of creativity. I couldn't disagree; there were some beautifully hand-carved staffs with inlays of all sorts.
In 2008 when Maribel and I moved to Peru we had to dispose of most of our possessions, but I was determined that Moses was going to Peru with us. We had made a custom cardboard box for it and padded it securely. Upon arriving at the airport we were told that there was a limit to the number of bags/items we could check in and that we were one item over. There was no way we could consolidate any of the bags so the obvious candidate to stay behind was Moses. But Moses didn't stay behind, and the curious fact is that neither Maribel or me remembers how the situation was resolved. Maribel vaguely remembers some discussion about shipping Moses as 'cargo', but how that happened or if it happened is a mystery to this day.
In July of 2017 we moved back to the states. Not wanting to go through another luggage situation at the airport I reluctantly agreed to leave Moses behind. When I returned to Chiclayo last month it had been five years since I had seen Moses, and I was determined that he was going to come back with me. To eliminate any potential airport problems I took drastic action...I cut Moses in half. The two halves fit nicely in my duffel bag style luggage and arrived in Georgia without a scratch.
I had made the cut on an angle so that I could drill two 1/4" holes at the location of the cut and insert wood dowels into the holes, after putting wood glue in the holes and across the cut. It came together perfectly.
This is the head of Moses. The photo doesn't really bring out the detail of the face.
This is the full length view. If you enlarge the photo and look closely you can see the cut at about the half-way point. Incidentally, the tree that Moses is leaning against is an estimated 240 year old water oak.
Two days ago Moses acquired a friend. Maribel and I were in an antique shop where we spotted this wooden ball fitted with overlays of tin and brass. It appears to be old and is definitely hand-made but as to when, where and who made it we have no clue and probably never will. It looked so Moses-like that we had to buy it. We haven't named it yet and until that happens we'll probably continue referring to it as "the ball."
No comments:
Post a Comment