My favorite hiking staff is one that I made a couple of years ago. I took a 1 in dowel, put on a rubber cane/crutch bottom, installed a ball top (wooden round curtain rod end), wrapped the handle with 25 feet of para cord and stained the whole thing. I keep it in my jeep and use it a lot when I'm groundhog hunting.

I've got a couple of commercial staffs that do pretty good, but they almost seem too lightweight.