Well, I have no idea what i'm doing without talking to him... I'm hoping to pull this off relatively safely...

Another option would be to do a cold casting using resin mixed with metal powder. You would start by sculpting the ball of the cane, then make a mould in 2 or 3 pieces. Then you would coat the insides of the mould pieces with mould release, clamp them together and pour in the resin mix and leave to set. Once it has set you unclamp the mould and carefully remove the pieces to reveal your metal-looking ball, with the markings etc. from your original sculpt.

Or something along those lines. I haven't done it myself, but that seems to be the gist of the approach. There are lots of prop sites on the internet with tutorials or demos.

- Peter.

Yeah, could do that... A lot safer, but not quite the same as real metal- keep all my fingers, not quite the same as metal- decisions, decisions...

You could model it and print it 3D in Stainless Steel. Shapeways prints a variety of metals. It would look like cast metal. I've done this a lot and it's really awesome!!

good idea, that... i was also gonna take after you and model a ring and get it printed!

Make sure if you make a ring print it in sterling silver. I printed my first one in stainless steel, but it rusted. There are many grades of stainless steel, with varying amount of corrosion resistance. The one they print in rusts with contact to saltwater... like sweat. The stainless steel they print is extremely rugged and doesn't seem to corrode in most conditions, but being worn it won't do too well. I have printed numerous TARDIS Keys and they are awesome. Every TARDIS key I've bought that I put on a keychain (the pewter ones) bends, wears, and breaks. The stainless steel prints have proven to be perfect for the rough handling a key ring gets.

have you ever tried printing in their brass or bronze options, I can't afford gold...

I have used the bronze and it is very cool looking. I have not used the brass. Brass looks very cool and doesn't corrode, but it tarnishes and discolors. Brass is awesome for ancient looking things because it gets a patina, but if your looking for a bright metallic surface brass won't work.

The R2 builders use a product called Rub N Buff on their R2 heads that are styrene. From what I read it is a lot of work but the results are very nice. If you printed it in the cheaper plastic and then used the buffing compound it would probably look like real metal. I'm not sure how it would hold up on a cane since the coating is a type of wax that responds to heat. An R2 dome doesn't get handled a lot.

I've used Rub and Buff before on models, and one of the clocks hanging on my wall. It does look really nice, and is great for getting the coloring on the "high points" of something if it's textured. It will be really smooth and shiny if used on something like an R2 dome. But kenny_z is right; it does come off the more you handle the object, and a cane knob handle would probably have it rub off rather quickly. That is, unless you plan to just use it like Gene Barry did with his cane when he played Bat Masterson in the TV series of the same name. (More like a baton than a cane or walking stick: he usually carried the cane by the "wood" part, occasionally twirling it about and tucking it under his arm like the Brigadier used to do with his crop.)

Dino.

Hi guys... Sorry for complete silence, been busy with the Christmas-y festivities school and general stress and pressure.
sorry to say, that I honestly haven't worked on the project whatsoever. Its been irritating as I have been too busy with school work to ask my teacher about acid etching, and the one time we both had a spare moment at the end of class, my water leaked in my bag, drenching all my books and coursework...   I now cannot talk to him as he is in Germany on a school trip, and it's the end of term of Friday, so I won't see him for two weeks
I have decided I am going to try something a little different and make up the cane top like this:
I will probably use a laser cutter to do the engraving, i'm toying with the idea of engraving the backs of two large translucent red circular bead-plastic things...
this will probably get started over the Christmas holidays, so I will post updates then.
bye for now.

Improvise, adapt, and overcome - that's how we get by with problems like this. (At least that was our motto in all of the electronics shops I've worked in, both afloat and ashore.) And it looks like your new improvised design is going to turn out rather well, especially if you use that red bead plastic you mentioned. (I've probably seen the stuff and not known what it was, or it was called something different.) Either way, whether you use that or just plain wood (or a bit of brass round stock cut and polished into a nice thick disc), it's probably going to look rather well, going by your design drawing.

Dino.