I injured my knee 10 years ago and I had to use a walking stick for a while, so I picked up a Irish Blackthorn Walking Stick. It is an outgrowth of the old Irish sheleghleigh (sp). The English when they took over Ireland were having issues being beaned by them, so they banned them. The Irish simply made the shaft longer and turned them into walking sticks, cannot ban walking sticks ya know. It is the root knob and root of the Blackthorn bush and it makes a very handsome and wicked walking stick.

When I no longer needed it, I had gotten the habit of using it and still use it to this day. I took some adhoc classes from an older Irish gentlemen who knew Irish Stick fighting, it is a wicked little art. So far I have used it on several dogs, and two skinheads who wisely backed down. They were trying to strong arm my nephew into joining their group at a carnival when I came looking for him. He was not impressed when he saw how they turned and hightailed it out, though he did say they ran pretty well for wearing those huge army boots.

Image borrowed from walking equipment.com