Written by: Ben DeFrank
After deciding on which type of material and the style of
tip you want your cane to have the last factor to consider is the Handle
Style. Now depending on your preferred
material and cane tip style your choice for handle style could be limited since
certain styles will only work well with a specific material or tip. The Handle Styles we will go over today are:
Tourist, Fritz, Derby, Contour, and Offset(Hypalon).
Tourist style handle are probably one of the first images of
canes that come to mind. They have a
unique shape which causes these canes to look like candy canes or Shepard
crooks. This design is one of the
earliest that was used with canes and can be found on all materials of single
tip canes.
Fritz handles were designed by a German Count in the 18th
century and was designed to make cane use by someone suffering from Arthritis
more bearable. When looking at these
canes you might think that it resembles the shape of the letter T when looking
at it from the side. Fritz handles are
found all materials of single tip canes and can even be used on a folding cane
designed for Travel.
Derby style handles are very similar to the Fritz handle and
offer many of the same benefits. The
difference between these two can be found at the end of the cane while the
Fritz handle is straighter the Derby handle canes are rounded at the end. Derby handles like the fritz handles are
found on all materials of canes as well as folding canes.
Contour handles are different from most other styles as they
are designed to fit specifically in either your right or left hand. The handle style is contoured to fit
completely in your palm fitting your hand like a glove and distributing weight
evenly across the entire palm. These
contour handles are found on wood and lucite canes and even a few travel canes.
Offset canes also referred to as a Hypalon grip makes the
cane look very similar to a question mark.
This handle style comes with a padded foam grip and is one of the newest
trends to be seen with cane handles.
This is the only style of handle you will find with quad canes but they
are also seen or aluminum canes