It takes an old salt to enjoy decorative ropework, but fortunately that age-old maritime art is not lost with ex-Navy guys like Charlie around. A collector of decorative canes for many years, Charlie was inspired by an old dilapidated cane he ran across in an antique store a number of years ago. Its knotwork was frayed and dirty, but Charlie was able to see its beauty.

After doing some research, he began studying the art of tying the complex "fancy work" that seamen used to decorate shipboard items in earlier times, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when whalers and other large vessels spent extended periods at sea.

Today Charlie enjoys finding canes that are suited to knotwork adornments and turning them into enjoyable (and usable) works of art using the traditional folk art methods of the old mariners. The canes vary in their composition according to their sources, but all fancy work is done in traditional cotton cord coated with a protective finish when completed.

Canes can be custom made to the exact length and specifications you desire. Each is hand decorated and unique. Prices vary depending upon the cane chosen. If you have a favorite cane in your own collection, let us customize it for you.

Copyright 2007, Bluewater Design