I gathered a bunch of nice branches of vaying sizes and did the same thing - trimmed, debarked, and cleaned up all the edges. We used them with the Beaver Scouts to make hobby horses, that they could either use as a hiking stick or toy. I keep eyeing the one I made for myself as a sample, because I really like the staff. It's the perfect height, weight and thickness. I may just disassemble it one of these days. (The horse head is made out of an old wool sock and cotton batten, and is a little too big for the end of a hiking staff for my liking.)

I didn't use hiking sticks for years. After my first down/up of the Grand Canyon I started using them. I like the novelty of a wood staff, (something about the my imagination of being a 12th Level character in a Sword & Magic movie)but I find wood staffs are not my style. I didn't like how I could collapse a pole with just downward pressure until I found Black Diamond poles with their FlickLock mechanism. Love em. I'm also a trail runner too, so being able to collapse and strap to or shove in a pack for a small, light footprint means something to me.

This thread has inspired me to make myself a hiking staff for Christmas.

I found a great branch a couple of years ago but used it to make a hobby horse at Scout camp. It 's been collecting dust so tonight I put it out of it's misary by cutting the head off of it.

The horse head was made out of a cotton sock, so I left part of it on there, thinking that it could make a good bit of tinder. It's held in place by a dab of glue and about 10 feet of twiney rope, which I also left on. I unwound part of the rope and re-wrapped it around:

-6 strike anywhere matches, sealed in a ziplock bag
-2 condoms (it's a prototype. I'll probably swap these out for something more dependable)
-1 good wire saw
-about 4 feet of duct tape'

Just below this rope, I wrapped 3 feet of leather lace and then secured a bear bell in a little mess bag to the rope, and silenced it with a toonie (Canadian $2 coin).

This weekend I'll add some paracord (to hide the duct tape, make it even more robust kit-wise) and some beads to pretty it up.

It's only half done, but my son likes it so much that he wants to kill his hobby horse now too.