Making Hand Made Walking Sticks

Written by Kay Zetkin


Walking sticks are useful walking aids before walking aid innovations are introduced. Even now, walking sticks are still very much handy for disabled and elderly individuals.

Historically, hill men would never leave their houses without a stick to carry. Because ofrepparttar rugged environment,repparttar 143268 stick acted both as aid and companion. When sheep were already being herded,repparttar 143269 stick became a necessary and ready tool for catching and controllingrepparttar 143270 animals. This was whenrepparttar 143271 plain sticks came to be called as “Shepherd’s Crook”, a working tool and a walking aid forrepparttar 143272 hill men.

To be sturdy and durable,repparttar 143273 shepherds themselves form their crooks from sheep’s horn. In order to producerepparttar 143274 sheep’s horn crook, they are exposed torepparttar 143275 heat fromrepparttar 143276 peat fire so that their shape would bend and then, carve them with knife. Most fine selections of these hand-made horn handled crooks and walking sticks can be found in Scotland. There are crook makers that specialize on handcrafting these sturdy, elegant and durable walking sticks.

The hand-made walking sticks can be made from a variety of raw materials like Ram’s horn, Hazel shanks and buffalo horn. Ram’s horn is a traditional material used by crook makers, although, as of now, it is becoming increasingly scarce in a quality suitable for crook making. This may be due torepparttar 143277 changes in farming practice. Hazel shanks are gathered overrepparttar 143278 winter in woods, burnsides and lakeshores. Then, they are stored to dry, for use onrepparttar 143279 following year. Buffalo horns are now becoming favored material byrepparttar 143280 crook makers. Asian water Buffalo horns produces interesting colors and textures and become striking crafts when finished.

Powered Suits as Walking Aids

Written by Kay Zetkin


Now, persons that are disabled and impaired could say good bye to awkward crutches and cumbersome wheelchairs! Powered suits are now coming in style. There are teams of researchers particularly in Japan are developing “powered suits” that can support disabled or elderly individuals in their physical activities. Even individuals, who are not entirely disabled but have difficulty walking or performing actions such as standing up or sitting down have a special type of powered suit. Caregivers also have specially designed suits for boosting their strength and help them to perform physical tasks, such as lifting people they care for.

These suits are designed to work by supplementingrepparttar wearer’s own physical strength and can be used for everyday activities such as walking or for rehabilitation. Researchers from both industry and academia are continually improving their designs withrepparttar 143267 goal of making them available for practical use in care and rehabilitation situations.

Walking aids as a sort of powered suit are now being developed by a team of researchers inrepparttar 143268 University of Tsukuba, Japan, led by Professor Sankai Yoshiyuki. Two main components are featured in this suit. First, is a metal frame that externally supportsrepparttar 143269 legs and has motor and sensors, attached,repparttar 143270 second component is a regulator that is carried onrepparttar 143271 user’s back. The sensors affixed torepparttar 143272 surface ofrepparttar 143273 skin instantaneously pick uprepparttar 143274 faint electrical signals transmitted fromrepparttar 143275 brain torepparttar 143276 muscles, asrepparttar 143277 wearer starts to move. Then, it attempts to makerepparttar 143278 motor’s action complementrepparttar 143279 motion ofrepparttar 143280 wearer. The weight is not much of a burden torepparttar 143281 user sincerepparttar 143282 heel section is in contact withrepparttar 143283 ground, though it’s about 23 kilograms.

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