i too have a wooden staff i use. i purchased it at cold steel's parking lot sale. some type of chinese wood - according to their website, but now no longer available. i think no longer available due to the relatively high shipping cost in comparison to the staff itself. i also saw something like it on several martial art websites.

edited - it is 'wax wood'.

mine is unvarnished as wet is not an issue where i hike.

i have a copper 'plumbing' cap epoxyied (sp?) to the bottom.

and i have it wrapped top and bottom as seen here:

http://www.backpacking.net/makegear.html

"hiking staff"

i have grown to like mine and use it every time i go out.

the question i have is: what type and size hook do you use? i had thought about that but wasn't sure if the hook would get in the way or catch on someone's hand if we were using the staff to pull someone up an incline.

thanks,
bsmith