[Halfpint]

Actually a piece of steel pipe wouldn't be all that `bad'. {GRIN!} What you'd need to do would be to find a shop where you could get a `crook' bent on one end and then have them carefully weld up and grind smooth the open ends. Finally you'd have to find some of that foam tubing like they are now using for the `handlebars' on lawnmowers and slip a fairly long piece over it such that it covers the `crook' and a fair ways down the shaft. (I'd even go as far as having it `powdercoated' in either a nice gloss black or maybe even a walnut coloured finish before I slipped the `grip' on it.) The one I have was actually `faux' woodgrained to look like a nice `tight' Thornwood and while the foam grip doesn't go much farther down the shaft than the `drop' of the `crook'. (I also have a `bill' on the end of the `crook' similar to those one finds on the better `defensive' canes.) I haven't had any problems being able to hold it just about anywhere along the shaft. Oh, and everyone who's seen it and did know that it *was* a piece of iron pipe always complemented me upon the `nice cane' I had. {GRIN!} (The `goblin' I recently *used* it on didn't have very much to say until he came to in the ER and then all he could comment about was that "Suddenly a ton of bricks came out of nowhere!" *and* "He didn't know if he was *ever* going to be able to `have sex' again." {CHORTLE!} [The old `eight ball into left pocket' and chin meeting `unmoveable object' maneuver... {SNICKER}]) For your purposes the extra length probably wouldn't be all that `outlandish' and letting the `grip' material come down the shaft would just make it look a bit less `sinister' and more like a short shepherds `walking crook' which I've been seeing more of recently when I *do* get out and do a bit of `exercise walking'.