Canes made of wood washers and paper washers

What a dexterity !

These paper washers

We may read in an article, dated 1882, about the manufacturing of canes made of paper washers : first, we need a good die cutter, made of steel, with two cutting concentric peripheries; the measures of the first one are 13 to 18 mm, and for the second one 4 to 5 mm. With this tool, we may obtain paper washers cut out from 15 to 20 sheets note-books. The small washers parcks are pierced by the smaller cutting periphery.

The canes made of paper washers were used at least in the beginning of the XIX th century. As said H. d'Allemagne: ... "during the first years of the French Restauration, when passions were the most flaming"..."It is in that time that appeared the hammer canes which were named mineralogist cane. Although, nearly all the canes having a hammer as handle, have a shaft made of paper washers, horn washers or other washers. It gives them a high flexibility, so more strenght to knock; moreover, these canes made of washers are often in printed paper, sometimes a newspaperl. I was lucky enough to find one of these canes that was in piteous condition, the rust on the rod had literally made to pieces the washers; however, as a large part of them remain intact, one of them looking as some sort of big confetti miraculously kept the date of the year, 1814, an evidence of the year it was born. In the barraks, the soldiers of the 14/18 war adopted the technic, using old reshaped rifle rods as central rod and using the "l'auto journal" for the washers. The newspaper had the advantage to be stronger than orthers, which enabled - on the quantity - some more thickness.

Here is an example of these fantastic paper canes. This one has been made by German reservists who, day after day, piled up paper washers on a metal rod.