I've hand-rubbed oil into every wood we sell, and here's the honest truth: they'll all hold you up. Every shaft that leaves this workshop is solid hardwood, tested well past anything a walk to the mailbox will ask of it. What changes from wood to wood is weight, color, and the way it feels in your hand after a mile.
Red oak is the workhorse — light, strong, and honest-looking, with a grain you can read from across the room. Hickory is the toughest thing we stock; farmers used it for tool handles for a reason. If you're hard on your gear, hickory forgives you.
Cherry and walnut are the dress woods. Cherry starts a soft amber and deepens with every year in the sun — it's the only cane that gets more handsome as it ages. Walnut is darker, a little heavier, and feels like a good piece of furniture because, frankly, it is.
My advice after all these years: pick the one you'll be proud to reach for. A cane you like is a cane you'll use, and a cane you use is the one doing its job. If you're torn, call us — describing two woods over the phone is one of the genuine pleasures of this job.