Pimpin'

During a night out a flatmate of mine found this impressive leopard skinned wonder. A pimp cane! It was unfortunately broken beyond ducktape repair and I thought I'd have a look at it to determine how it failed. At first glance it's obviously made of strong, rigid material and shows little outer wear. Compressive loads would usually be put onto the top in the form of a part of somebody's weight, these could cause buckling within the stick perhaps while it pivots at the floor. On closer inspection, the stick contains two layers: An outer layer made from solid wood which is manufactured in two parts, and a weaker, strand like form of inner wood which has been torn out in patches and contains twisted fibres. Although a reasonably thin stick for it's length, the inner wood is built into both ends making the failure less likely to be a buckling. Further to this, the twist suggests that excessive torsion occured.

To fix the strength of the stick it would be best to either make the outer layer as one part, or use a stronger inner material.
Photo taken by Tom Corbett, Feb 2009
Post by Tom Corbett