Iain sticks it to the opposition

Iain Paterson retired in 2014 after working for 50 years as a joiner, with DM Wallace, R Hope & Sons and, mostly, with Bennie Joiners. On retirement he was reluctant to throw all his tools in the skip, and instead turned his hand to fashioning rams’ horns and rare pieces of wood into walking sticks. His skill and dedication was rewarded at the recent Royal Highland Show at Ingliston where he won Best Crook or Walking Stick, and Best Shepherd’s Crook, Walking Stick or piece of woodwork, and was voted overall show champion with the combination of best horn crook, wood crook, horn stick and wood stick.

“It was quite something to take in,” he admitted. "It's really special to win all three. That's not been done for a long time as far as I know. I was delighted.

“I have had a bit of success at shows across the UK in the past, and I've won one or two classes at the Royal Highland before, but the best in the world are showing at the Royal Highland so it’s very rare to win more than one or two. So to come away winning all three classes and the overall champion is quite special.”

The Borderer had little interest in walking sticks when working as a joiner, but he admitted that it has become such good fun that his wife is putting her foot down about allowing any more stick stands to appear in the house.

“I think I've probably made more than 150 sticks maybe in the nine years I've been doing it, but she knows I enjoy it,” he said. “I was a joiner all my working life, but after I retired I had a heart attack so I couldn't do any heavy lifting. I needed something to do so I started making walking sticks, and I've just loved it

“You have to find some good material to start with and need to get good straight shanks, so it can occupy your time looking for things a bit different, and then you can get to work on creating something. There’s a lot of work in the carving. I’d guess that if you were on it all the time it would take about 18 to 20 hours or so to do one. But it depends on what you're working with. Rams’ horns are harder because they need to be boiled, flattened and bulked into shape, and when you start carving the things onto the front, that or a buffalo horn would probably take maybe 25 hours or more working on it straight.

“But I just do bits here and there over time and just enjoy doing it. It’s keeping my hand in with my tools and when you create a finished article it gives you a sense of achievement.”

Iain works closely with another Kelso man who took up the skill in retirement, Jim Currie; well known in the town for managing the Kelso pool and teaching generations of people to swim. The duo are now teaching others the skills of stick-making at the Kelso Men’s Shed and are preparing for an influx of the world’s best carvers to Kelso and the Border Union Show, on 28 and 29 July.

“It has been a bit of a dying art, so we’re trying to keep it going,” Iain added. “Young kids are not really interested, it’s more something for older people, because as we get older there is something quite nice about having a good quality walking stick that has been carved to help you along on those walks. And we still get farmers wanting a walking stick for going to the sales.

“Jim Currie and myself have a class at the Kelso show, and we get all the world champions coming up to Kelso, so it's always a great show - one of the biggest shows in Britain. We had over 460 sticks in last year, and some of the English boys were saying it's the best show they’d ever been at.

“They’ve also asked us to do a stick-making demonstration on the Friday, so that will be good fun showing how we do it and how we get some of the designs that we do.”

He added: “It was very nice to win a first prize and be champion at the Royal Highland, but I do it for the enjoyment. It’s good fun.”