Hickory hickory and woods that are harder, but the combination of strength, toughness, hardness, and stiffness found in hickory wood is not found in any other commercial wood. It is used for tool handles, bows, wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, golf club shafts (sometimes still called "hickory stick", even though made of steel or graphite), the bottom of skis, walking sticks, and for punitive use as a switch (like hazel), and especially as a cane-like hickory stick in schools and use by parents. Paddles are often made from hickory. This property of hickory wood has left a trace in
Drum stick still in significant numbers, of oak. Drumsticks of the traditional form are also made from metal, carbon fibre and other modern materials. The tip or bead is the part most often used to strike the instrument. Originally and still commonly of the same piece of wood as the rest of the stick, sticks with nylon tips have also been available since 1958, originally conceived by Jonathan Humphrey and Joe Calato in Niagara Falls, NY. In the 1970s, an acetal tip was introduced, designed by Ken Drinan and Paul Kiersted. Tips of whatever material are of various shapes, including acorn, barrel,