Ash and hazel and blackthorn walking sticks are produced at Classic Canes using the centuries-old 'coppice-with-standards' forestry system. Beneath an upper canopy of maturing timber trees, smaller ash trees are cut at a height of approximately 120cm (4'). Each tree produces new shoots, which are just above the nibbling height of the woodlands' population of wild roe deer. Over the next few years, these shoots grow to the correct height and diameter to form raw material for walking sticks. Often part of the original tree is cut with the walking stick; turned the other way up, this becomes the handle for a knobstick. Straight sections of wood become hiking poles, and those with a natural 'V' in the wood become thumbsticks.

The coppicing system is also very friendly to nature. It forms an ideal habitat for woodland birds, small mammals, butterflies, other insects and wildflowers to flourish. The Classic Canes woodlands contain many interesting sights, from greater spotted and green woodpeckers to unusual orchids!

December, January and early February are spent coppicing our ash, hazel and blackthorn and cutting walking sticks. We hope for a good harvest this year, and will be coppicing a new area of hazel for the first time. It will take around four years for the coppiced trees to grow the shoots that will be the raw material for walking sticks. They will then need a year in our drying rooms before being made into walking sticks...in about 2016/2017!