Stick forms

Reference pages on the major stick and stave forms — the shape of the object rather than the wood it's made from.

• Escrima, arnis, and kali

  The Filipino paired-stick martial-arts tradition — rattan in training, kamagong in earnest, and one of the most distinctive stick-and-stave practices in the world.

• The bo staff

  The six-foot Japanese long staff — the standard weapon of bojutsu, the Okinawan kobudo tradition, and one of the most thoroughly-codified stave forms in the world.

• The jo and hanbo

  The four-foot Japanese medium staff and the three-foot half-staff — the close-range counterparts to the bo, used in jodo, aikido, and several classical jujutsu lineages.

• The shepherd's crook

  The Welsh, Scottish, and English upland working stick — long, hooked, ash-shafted, and continuously made by hand for working sheep-handlers across the British and Irish hill country.

• The thumb-stick

  The long Y-forked walking stick of the Scottish and Welsh uplands — found in the field, not shaped at the bench, and the canonical hill-walker's stick of the British and Irish working tradition.

• The walking cane

  Distinct from the walking stick: the gentleman's tradition, the four canonical handles, and the urban-dress register that ran from 1830 to 1939 and substantially retreated thereafter.