The STAFF. Multipurpose, Self-defence, Survival Tool (Scottish History and Myth)

i wanted to make a stick for a while already xd
also whats ur claymore from, i mean website or name ? =0

Cracking video, very interesting.

Loved your video! I’m an old man … 54 year MA student now 66 years old. I’ve lived most of my life on Taiwan sometimes Okinawa. I love Bo and Jo. I lived in a small Taoist community on a high mountain in Taiwan for a few very happy years where the JO was my only weapon of self defense against snakes. This is the best weapon for the modern age. You can’t deny an oldster their walking stick! I hope one day we can have an International Fellowship of the Staff and preserve the arts of our Ancestors both East and West.

– Today we shall learn how to defend yourself against someone armed with a piece of fresh fruit!
– How about someone armed with a pointed stick?
– Pointed stick? Oh ho ho, fresh fruit not good enough for ya, is it?!

next to the sword, the staff is my favorite weapon, i studied it in my twenties when i studied karate

As much as i love swords and spears and axes, something about seeing a show that has a staff wielder laying the hurt on someone is so satisfying, the staff is such a simple, elegant, effective, yet also lethal tool.

dear fandabi what is that your job is that allows you to walk to wilds

I live in rowan Co, north carolina, US

Apa khabar (how are you)?
I'm from Malaysia! Love your videos!

I once tried grabbing a stick to help me with a tramp I was on. I was young, unfit, and struggling. The teacher behind me told me it would slip and more likely hit me in the eye than actually be of use. Turns out trampers use hiking poles, a modern variation on the old walking stick. That teacher was a twat.

Is anyone else reminded of Mkvenner and the Nalsheen in the 40K universe with these videos?

What kind of sapling?

Hello, from America! Are you saying “Round Tree”? I’m sorry it’s a bit tough me to understand that specific word haha

Im not scottish... just some white kid from Canada. But i love staff, it was designed as wepon. The most brutal one at that. I want to get back into it. . So time to make one, oak is diffucult to find here we have birch, pine, willow, spruce in abundance what do u sujjest, would be the best. I just used what ever, i never had a actual staff.

thats bilbo baggins

I remember a documentary about one of the better preserved castles in the UK (in Wales iirc). They had basically slingstaffs set up on a horizontal shaft. To use there was a rope with a handle on one end. They would throw a plam sized stone probably 100 to 150 meters. A human powered trebuche.
A good walking stick is always handy. Even walking in a city environment.

You can tie a fine cord (Para Cord) to the rock on your sling to propel it over a large wide river and lodge on the other side as a guide rope to get you and and needed provisions across safety if the river is flowing fast or in very bad torrential conditions.

I enjoyed the video. I have been making blackthorn walking sticks this summer, I cut them in winter 2 years ago. I have some lovely ones. I found a large untouched copse of blackthorn near st boswells in the borders. I have just came across an amazing piece that I’d forgotten about, and it’s a 6’5” straight piece that has a natural handle on one end, but it’s too rare a piece of blackthorn to cut down into a short walking stick. It’s going to become a lovely staff. 👍🇬🇧

The ancient Israelites and Prophets such as Moses and Aaron used walking staffs.

Walking sticks are very useful for hikes in the woods

you've studied bujinkan bojutsu i think by how you move good job good video be sure you exhale on EVERY exertion. in combat if you do not do this you will be out of breath quickly. think about this rather then just blowing it off. its why after a movement you sound a wee bit out of breath

the sling thing is "hit or miss" no pun intended. often it wont release like that and will hit yourself or your staff.

Nice stick.

So simple yet so usefull for thousands of years

Recently I found myself permanently crippled and in need of a walking stick for the remainder of my time in this plane. This channel has made me realize that despite this, I can turn it into something useful. Thanks for what you do.

What's brown and sticky...?

I just made one and wrapped the handle with a leather strip i cut and some brass pins i keep just looking at it and playing with it because i think it looks so nice lmao

Hello, I have also been a hiker and made sticks. I never had luck with using the bare wood against the ground. It usually gets damaged quickly. Do you also use rubber furniture leg tips to protect the staff?

Not practical... Mtn Ash - extremely strong, relatively light, can crush skulls etc. Would break your stick in a second. Get a point (hardened metal) in the ground contact portion, just 1/2 " clear of the wood. makes a very good persuader of large beasts (think Canada - Cougars, bears etc) Ash is one of the few sticks that might help against a bear if needed (run is first plan) I know of one black bear who was killed by an Ash stick. Marshal arts are great against Humans but not animals... Beware! It might be useful against smaller critters - maybe. Animals are vastly superior to humans as a foe.

I walked the beach today and collected Pacific Ocean drift wood that is 100s of year's old to make a walking stick. After this video, I am going to create a business.

men: nice stick! Tell us the Story
women: did you just watch a Video about Men and a Stick? YESSS i have.

I was helping find a dead body at a lake near my city, and found a good stick (I still have it in my car trunk) to gently push the geese away when they tried to attack us. It was early Spring, they had lain eggs, and they get a little cranky when they're trying to hatch eggs.

If I might ask, why did you leave your sticks behind in New Zealand and in Malaysia? Problem with transporting back to Scotland? Airline regulations? I really enjoy your videos. Thank you.

Very good! Thank you for sharing.

Grounding, also.

Though I don't suscribe to coming from a monkey... and millions or hundred thousands of years, since I wasn't there

I can safely say what I know...

Working Shepherd Staffs and the design has been around for millenniums.

Do you think that's far enough.

Then of courses spears, pikes, etc.

Function:
Walking support
Rescue
Defense
Fishing
Vaulting
Measuring

Oak is a good choice. Very good vid.

It is such a guy thing.

Good vid.

Boys normally beat each other with sticks. Lol

I use my ax handle to measure wood size.

Axeman

Greetings from BC Canada. I was born and raised in Yorkshire and spent many years travelling around Scotland. I was always impressed with the mythology associated with the Rowan tree especially in its spiritual protective power. indeed when our son was born we named him Rowan. I have several staffs propped against the side of my house including one from the forest of Mayenne in France (of Oak) The toughest material I have on my property is Douglas (Vine) Maple, the challenge is to find a straight piece. I also have a decent one of Douglas Fir and two Hazel ones from Yorkshire. Thanks for the video!

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

I know this is an older video, but I wanted to say this is an excellent example of quality content. Many thanks.
I also make my own walking sticks for bushcraft. Living in Ireland, mine are inspired by the Shillelagh.

Old stick wearin’ out. Salt cedar, tamarisk stave, good and straight. Lookin’ at Gambel oak, New Mexico Locust, or Siberian Elm now. Needs to be the right stave. Got to be patient.

Thanks!

There was a 7th generation royal Chinese doctor in Hong Kong, who was a siheng or senior kungfu brother to Bruce Lee's master Wong Shun Leung, he's passed away now, and with him 7 generations of knowledge, he cured cancer on a daily basis, laid hands on old people dying of heart failure and just charged them up, brought them back. He had a staff, just like yours, it was from the ground to my chin (I'm 6'1"), about the same thickness as yours. He told me when he was about 15 years old, he caught a dock koolie shoplifting in his father's convenience store, punched him in the nose, and the guy, an adult, came back with all his mates. These were dock workers with metal hooks, we called them koolie hooks in Hong Kong Cantonese but I later learned in the USA they call them cowboy hooks, for tossing hay bales and such. They didn't know the boy was a 7th generation Chinese medicine and kungfu master who later in life mastered 9 different styles, including teaching the famous kicks to Bruce Lee, no one knew where he learned them and thought he just came up with them on his own. No. There were 24 consecutive kicks and Bruce Lee only learned 3 of them. These koolies attacked the boy in concert together and he beat them all, 1 against 69 strong muscular men with cowboy hooks, and he with nothing but that staff. Later when the police came, it happened in front of his family's convenience store, it's not like he could run away even after beating them, they couldn't believe it. They didn't know that he already had his 10,000 hours of practice since about age 7, 2 hours in the morning before school, 2 hours after.

We use a 8-9' staff in Wing Chun but I prefer this length, ground to chin, about the diameter of the thumb's last digit, it's more maneuverable, fast, and speed kills. The best old staff master in Hong Kong passed away over a generation ago, but his staff was similar to this, only just a bit longer, similar to the wikipedia page on the quarter staff as the length of one's height, plus two hands' grip or 8", which is exactly what this old sifu had. The longer a staff, the more it favours thrusting attacks and less nimble it becomes for strikes.

In Sanskrit, the walking staff is called a dandha, the rod of chastisement, and is the origin of the sceptre of kings. A crown doth not a king make. "The king protects! The king protects! The king protects!" Bhishma, Mahabharata, 5th Veda. Specifically, to avenge the blood of the innocent and to judge the wicked. The Bible's whole armour of God and breastplate of judgement specifically means, to avenge the innocent and punish the wicked. Wikipedia's page on the quarterstaff cites historical sources as early as the 15th century and calls the quarterstaff the national symbol of England. In Ireland it's the shillelagh, same thing, and a knotted staff or mace, is the symbol of Herakles, which is still used today symbolically in court rooms by fake judges with a wooden hammer or gavel. The Chinese word for doctor or professor 博 begins with the walking staff radical 十 when enlarged, and the Shaolin Grand Abbot traditionally is called 方丈 which means "quarter staff". Lubu's weapon was called 方天畫戟 or the square heaven cleaving glaive, and this first word 方 or "square", actually means the 4 corners of the earth as opposed to the 8 directions, so the grand abbot is he who has walked from north, south, east, and west over the length and breadth of the earth, because as Alan Watts put it, "There are only 2 kinds of books in libraries, those about other books, and those about reality." The world is not in books, it's out there, and only in the expensive academy of experience is all wisdom truly gleaned. Hence we have the etymology of sabaton or boot, as related to Sabbath, sabbatical, holiday, holy day, pilgrimage, and zapatos in Spanish or shoes, to walk one's boots or shoes threadbare and through on sabbatical across the earth, in quest of knowledge, shabbat, Bethsheba, to see the Shiva stones, the obelisks, the grave stones, the battlefields. The second word 丈 simultaneously means, husband, man, 10 feet, or a stride, and is a picture glyph of a man 人 walking with a staff. A battle is also 仗 again, a man, walking with a staff, and when you tie a knife, a bullock knife, a messurs, a dirk, such as in the movie Musa which means Warrior, you get a 戈 or a battleax, halberd, glaive, race, pike, etc, and is found in all the important words like 錢money，國country，武martial. The Hindu pushups are all called dandha, and the English expression to dive headlong, originates from this practice of showing reverence, not merely by kneeling, or genuflecting, or "worshipping" as the Bible puts it, which is to kowtow, forehead to the ground, but full prostration body and four limbs and head on the ground, to dive headlong, something Christians used to do long ago. Like a staff. I used in Taiwan a staff just like that of iron wood to pick up a bamboo viper that had crawled in the bathroom plumbing pipes in the hot summer into my bathroom, and took him out and set him free, because he did not bite me when I stumbled into the bathroom in the middle of the night even though my hand was 4 inches from his mouth when I turned the light on only because an angel warned me with a loud voice in my mind. They call it the 100 foot snake, because if he bites you, you have 100 steps left. They have an idiom, 打草驚蛇　beat grass frighten snakes. The old manuals unanimously agree the quarter staff is among the best of weapons and many argue that it is the best weapon. Miyamoto Musashi an undefeated swordsman in 1500's Japan, not only stated he was only ever defeated once by a man with a staff, but to his most famous duel with Sasaki Kojiro, he fought and won with only a wooden "sword" they called it, but it was carved ad lib from a rowing oar on his way to the fight and was therefore really a staff.

I would definitely carry a good dirk, dagger, smatchet, xiphos, rondel etc, the type to carve that staff, but also quickly tie it on, or lock it in place with a pin, because it's a great weapon, but you're not going to stop a bear without tying that blade to the end of it.

Thanks again Tom

Amazing how much you can learn from a video about sticks!