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
Balanites rotundifolia The wood is used as firewood and to make charcoal. It is fashioned into poles, tool handles, carvings, utensils (e.g. head rests, wooden spoons and combs). The leaves and shoots provide fodder for domestic animals in very arid areas. It is used for live fencing and the cut branches are used to make fences, it is also planted in soil conservation projects. There are no known medicinal applications. Balanites rotundifolia Balanites rotundifolia, known in Swahili as Mbamba ngoma is a spiny bush or small tree from eastern Africa and southern Arabia. It is a member of the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae.