The Wanestorff Cane Company, based out of Bristol, UK currently makes walking canes. The canes are handcrafted from various hardwoods and are considered to be high quality.

The company established in 1815 by Robert Wanestorff, and its earliest cane products were made specifically for the Swiss who were going to Africa for the beginnings of Swiss involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The canes were re-sold by the Swiss to the slave merchants in Africa and were at the time considered well made disciplinary tools with which to beat slaves. The specific design which was popular had a wide and smooth top of a polish stone and about 3/4 of the way down the cane was a molded finger grip. The user would turn the cane over, hold it by the grip and use the top to apply a beating. The stone ensured that the cane was especially impactful and the wide design prevented lasting deep damage.

A few of these canes went to the Americas, and later during the British colonization of Africa and India they were held in high esteem by British military officers, who would carry them as a kind of symbol of superiority.

Apparently Herman Goring even owned one as a wallhanging conversation piece and was once known to lament the indiscriminate bombing campaign taken against the UK for a worry that “that wonderful cane work shop.” might be destroyed.