Drying Rosebush Wood *Corrected

My grandparents 50th anniversary rose tree was blighted and so we had to cut it down. The trunk seems to be in decent shape however, and I was hoping to turn it into a walking cane, however I have never dried wood from scratch before. Currently keeping it dry, with decent airflow but I haven't debarked it yet. Not sure how to tell when it's ready to be worked with.

Any tips, tricks and advice from more experienced wood workers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

*Thanks to Jamie for correcting me.

I had to look that up. Rosewood, as woodworkers use the term, is a rare and valuable lumber from the genus dalbergia. That's not what you have. You have a narrow trunk from a rose bush. It is called a rose tree because it has been carefully trimmed and trained to have a trunk which is typically two or three feet tall. The trunk may be an inch or two in diameter. What you need from the folks here is advice about drying and using rose bush lumber, not rosewood lumber. All of that said, I'm afraid I don't know anything about processing rose bush sticks. Perhaps somebody will come along with more knowledge than I.

Well, now that I think about it, I do have some experience with making a walking stick. Here are two pics of one I made. The wood is white oak. A friend was pruning her trees, and we just picked out a branch which looked like a walking stick. It isn't straight, which I liked. But it feels strong enough. It is about 3/4" diameter at the bottom, and 1 1/4" diameter at the top, and the whole stick is about three and a half feet long. The bark was pretty loose, and I just stripped it off. The grip is jute twine. I wanted a knobbly texture, so I put 5-10 wraps on, then tied an overhand knot, put another few wraps on, another knot, and so on.

My esthetic here was very natural and rustic. I wasn't worried about the oak checking as it dried. Those cracks weren't going to detract from the look. So I never even checked to see what the water content of the stick was.

I didn't put a tip on this walking stick. There's not many woods much stronger than white oak. I figured it might wear down a bit with long usage, but that would be okay. I have no idea how hard rose branches are, but I suspect they're not as hard as white oak. I did find that one can purchase metal walking stick tips off the internet, if you think you need that.

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