Let's start with a nice photo of wild honeysuckle I made:
What does this have to do with walking sticks?
Bear with me.
Honeysuckle is a climber; it spirals its way up using the support of just about anything it can find:
When it gets older, the vines harden and become less flexible:
It will still hold on tight, and the young tree it is on will grow, and be "strangled" by the vines. This explains honeysuckle's other name, which is woodbine:
Eventually, the tree will look like this:
There is a very old tradition in my region of The Netherlands of making walking sticks out of this deformed wood. In the local dialect these are called goastok:
They were relatively rare because of the small chance of finding a suitable piece of wood. Owning one was a sign of distinction and tradition, and they were mainly used on special occasions.
I am determined to make one myself some day, as soon as I find a nicely strangled tree.
No, I didn't have to wait years between making these photos; I found these stages of strangulation all on the same day. Unfortunately, the best one wasn't thick and strong enough yet to use.