Don't Miss January 6th Free Hair Stick Draw!!
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These rustic hair sticks are a terrific inexpensive gift for someone with long hair. They have been used by women and men to put their hair up for millennia and are reputed to do less damage to hair than most other hair accessories.
Ours are carved primarily from spotted alder wood although we have smaller quantities of other types of wood available. Currently, there are two different cross-section profiles available: Round or triangular. I do experiment around trying to create other interesting designs. We have three colours available: Natural is a very light coloured wood, redwood, which is an orange-brown stain and dark walnut stain. All sticks have one blunt pointed end while the other end can have various treatments: 45-degree slant, conical pointed and rounded. My carving skills are limited but I'm willing to consider other treatments.
Quality Speckled Alder Hair Sticks
Speckled Alder is primarily used to make twig furniture or burned as firewood. It does turn out to be an excellent choice for making hair sticks especially the rustic style I make here. It is light and strong. The way branches and buds occur on the stems gives the finished hair sticks a noticeable wiggle. The wood is not quite straight, which will hold your hair better. I have found the wood to be comparatively easy to carve and takes pigment as well as the best woods I have available. Best of all I can access, for my purposes, unlimited quantities.
Hair stick blanks are cut in the bush green at about nine inches in length. After carving, drying, sanding and finishing the sticks are about seven inches in length. The process takes about three to four weeks. I keep rotating stocks of these and can send out most orders within three or four days. Triangular cross-section sticks have proven to hold hard to hold hair better than other types of hair sticks. They are a bit more difficult to make but they are worth the effort. To order click on the green "Order Now" button below and fill out the needed information. If you would like to see more photos of these beautiful hair sticks click on the slideshow below the order button.
Round Profile: Price 6.00 CDN plus shipping
Triangular Profile: Price 7.00 CDN plus shipping
Be advised that this section is still under construction
Black Willow
Black willow is an interesting kind of wood that I can get in significant quantities. It has interlocking grain which gives it exceptional flexibility and strength for such a lightweight wood. It is used in traditional native basketry, crafts, and medicine. Before the advent of plastics, it was used to make artificial limbs. Today is mainly used to make lightweight crates. It's qualities make it an excellent choice for hair sticks in spite of the fact that it does present some challenges. The interlocking grain makes it a little more difficult to carve compared to other soft hardwoods. It also causes the wood to dry unevenly and to overcome that I allow my stock to dry longer than other types of wood in my stock. If I don't do that it can cause splotchy result when using wood stain. I have been able to get consistent good result as long as I work carefully.
Birch
Photos to come
The broad majority of the birch on and around my property is either white birch or grey birch. White birch is a little bit softer than soft maple and grey birch is softer than that. I try to select the white birch primarily and I can tell the difference while I'm carving. The young growth I harvest though is visually almost identical. Both are good choices for making hair sticks. White birch is used in cabinetry and is a quality wood. Yellow birch is a premium hardwood but I don't have access to any of that at this point in time.
Round Profile: Price 8.00 CDN plus shipping
Triangular Profile: Price 9.00 CDN plus shipping
Be advised that this section is still under construction
Maple
Maple is a common well-recognized quality hardwood. Soft maple is the kind used mostly for cabinets. It is close-grained, strong and durable. It glues well and stains well. It is also reasonably easy to carve and machine. I have access to sufficient for my needs. Although it isn't cheap, it can be purchased at lumberyards easily enough.
Wild Black Cherry
Wild black cherry grows extensively in my neck of the woods. I feel blessed because the wood can be absolutely gorgeous. It is similar in grain pattern and hardness to soft maple. The sapwood is a bit darker and can have a bit of a pinkish hue when compared to maple. The heartwood is a rich reddish brown and it can have dark spots and streaks throughout. Not only that it is often attacked by a fungus that causes burls and other defects which yields beautiful and interesting grain patterns. Unfortunately, the wood from the burls in a poor choice for hair sticks but will be used on other projects elsewhere on this site. I currently have two colours available. Natural and a cherry stain which minimally enhances the grain. I hope to offer a more traditional cherry stain in the future but I haven't found a good source yet. I will not put a cherry finish on other kinds of woods like some manufacturers do unless a client specifically requests it and is aware that the underlying wood is a different species. Maple. birch and probably even alder can be stained to look like cherry but I have no reason or desire to deceive anyone.
Applewood
Applewood is a beautiful close-grained hardwood that is very had and very strong. It is harder than hard maple and almost as hard as hickory. The sapwood is cream coloured while the heartwood is significantly darker. It can have the occasional dark spot or streak. No heartwood has had a chance to develop in these sticks at this point in their growth. I do have access to some material because apple trees were planted all over this area by the original settlers. Most of those trees are very old and overgrown. I prune some of them in the fall and the bulk of my material comes from that source. I also have an agreement with someone with a small apple orchard to glean through his prunings at the end of the season. There is a restriction on how much I can lay my hands on but so far I have more than enough.
Round Profile: Price 10.00 CDN plus shipping
Triangular Profile: Price 12.00 CDN plus shipping
Specialty Wood Hair Sticks
Be advised that this section is still under construction
Red Osier Dogwood
Red Osier Dogwood is an ornamental shrub which has very distinctive bright red winter bark. If the wood sticks are harvested when the colour is at its peak some of the redness is retained even after drying and finishing. It is used in basketry because of its flexibility and colour. I made these as an experiment and the results speak for themselves. I leave the reddish-brown bark on, carving only the ends. The sticks are lightly sanded and finished so they don't catch strands of hair when being inserted. They are only available with the slant end treatment shown. At this point in time, I am only able to produce a very small quantity of this unique product. The wood sticks can only be harvested early in the spring and local brush clearing by the township has greatly reduced the amount of useable material available.
Bark on slant end: Price 12.00 CDN plus shipping
American Elm
Photos to come
American Elm was once a very common tree in North America until the arrival of Dutch Elm disease which decimated the population. They are slowly making a comeback with resistant cultivars. I have access to small quantities of elm growing on the sides of the road (that get destroyed regularly every time the township brushes out the ditches). I am considering offering these because another tree is under siege by a new threat in North America. We stand to lose most of the Ash population due to the arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer an invasive species that is doing a great deal of damage right now. I am considering offering both types of wood in hair sticks for a special price that will include a donation to a conservation organization working to turn the tide against this threat to our forests.
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