Helps to know how to use them.
Helps to have the strength, coordination and balance to wield one against an attacker.
Helps to have one that lends itself to the particular owner's ability to make use of it as a defensive tool.
I've long been a collector of various canes, sticks, staffs, walking sticks, etc.
They actually came in handy when I found myself needing one for support when I was going through a 6 month course of chemo, and then whenever a problem might flare up with my left hip & knee. (No damage to the hip or knee, aside from the usual accumulation of things that have occurred during what my doctor charitably called my "rough & tumble life".) She rather made it sound like some age-related arthritis, and some ilium remodeling at one spot, were something akin to a badge of honor of having been active.
I still like to collect them, and occasional take one out for a spin, especially if I'm doing something where I'm not going to be armed with a retirement CCW.
One of my early stout walking sticks actually prevented me from breaking an ankle while hiking underground in a cave (alone, of course, but it was when I was a younger, less cautious man
). That one only gets taken out when I'm going to be off the pavement, and outside town, as it has a pointed steel spike on the business end ... but it does usually reside close to one or another doorways in our home.
I rather expect that as I reach my 70's & 80's, I'll probably find them of more practical benefit.
