My first "official" staff consisted of a good straight white oak limb. I only stripped off enough bark for a good handle area and left the other bark on the staff. It's in the third year of curring.

Another fun project was to purchase a couple of wooden dowels (3/4" & 1"). I then picked up a couple of rubber replacement cane bottoms along with two round knobs to use as handles (these were orginally wooden curtain rod ends). The first staff uses the 1" dowel and is 5 1/2 feet. The handle is wrapped with para cord. The second is the 3/4" dowel cut to 3 feet and used as a cane. Both have a good coat of poly and seem to work out great. Both projects cost about $15 total.

Kev