Who amongst us hasn’t heard that before?  Well, after posting about my recently finished  knob end walking stick, my friend Mitch commented that he prefers a crooked handled stick.

For everyday use, I have to agree that the crooked handle is very practical and convenient, if not very ergonomic to my hand, …enter the ergonomic “derby style” handle.

Like the previous knob end, this handle is also made of holly.  The characteristic features of the derby shape are the horn and the hook.  What makes it an ergonomic derby is the shaping of the handle to optimize the grip for specifically either the left or the right hand.  As I have a bum left knee, I chose to shape it for a right hand grip.

As with the knob end stick, the parts are bubinga, water buffalo horn, holly and silver hardware.

The catalogs claim that the ergonomic derby handle is as comfortable as a handshake.  Personally, I find that a rather dubious analogy as I have had some very awkward and painful handshakes in my time.  Although I am pleased with the appearance of the handle, I’m not sure that it’s exactly what I want yet.  The more I use it, the more critical of it I have become.  It curves up a bit too much, and it lacks heft toward the hook end so that it fails to fill my hand in a way that satisfies my arthritic fingers.

Fortunately, I had the rare foresight to install the handle using 5/16″ threaded steel “ready rod”, without glue.  So when I get fed up with it, I can unscrew it from the stick, sculpt a replacement, and start the process all over again.

Cheers,
Tom