Attaching gossamer gear tips to poles?

I had the broken bottom section from a typical aluminum trekking pole and cut it off so I had 3" of aluminum shaft left sticking up from the plastic tip. I cut a bamboo staff off at the joint, leaving the hollow section open. I just glued the aluminum shaft in with silicone adhesive. Epoxy would be good if the fit was relatively tight, but the silicone was fine. I assume you get some shock absorption with it too. You could use polyurethane (Gorilla) glue too.

If the shaft is thick enough at the top, all you need to do to mount a strap is to bore a hole straight through and slip a loop of webbing through with a fat knot on the other side. For a thinner shaft you could lash the loop on, like whipping a rope end.

My version wasn't any lighter than a typical aluminum pole, but the natural material had a nice feel. If you can find bamboo of the quality of the old cross country ski poles you might end up with a fairly light pole.

So, for you male-male connection, a section of aluminum pole or perhaps a golf club shaft should do the trick. A chunk of old ski pole shaft might work too. I'm think that as tapered end would be best to naturally fit into the pole tips.

BTW, you can buy replacement tips from Black Diamond too.

I like the strap idea, that's more or less what I was thinking of doing. I'll probably put on a 3/4 inch webbing strap and not bother with a grip and see how that goes. I find the strap more important than the grip for the way I use poles.

It's interesting that yours weighed as much as aluminum poles – other reports I read were giving weights in the range of 4-5 ounces per pole, which would be half the weight of my current aluminum poles. I guess I'll see what I find at walmart. Maybe I'll walk in there with my scale tomorrow. ;)

I'm still not sure what I'll use as a double male, unless I get black diamond tips – I don't think any golf clubs will seat fully into the GG tips. But I'll try a long bolt or threaded rod. An alternative would be to cut the end off of the aluminum poles and epoxy a bolt into that, then epoxy that whole assembly onto the GG tip.

Do you remember which silicone adhesive you used? Although I think I'm gonna try gorilla glue epoxy anyway, because I don't have anything appropriate in the house, and if I'm gonna buy something I might as well get really strong stuff. The gorilla glue epoxy is also advertised as gap-filling, which is essentially my application.

I used these tips with golf driver shafts. Just jammed them in with some two-part epoxy. fit perfectly. Very solid.

David, did the shafts go all the way into the poles? If not, how much have you used them? I just don't trust the plastic on the tips to be load-bearing. I have a golf driver shaft, but it only seats in about an inch. It feels solid if I jam it in there, but I just don't trust it.