I have a bad right knee and must use a cane. I bought one at the local farm store for $ 13. With the assistance of the store I researched what type of wood the cane was made of. It is part of the locust family that is grown only overseas. On the hardness scale it is right up there with oak and hickory. This was long ago so I cannot recall the name of the tree, but any Orscheln farm store can help you. With years of baton training during my 30 years as a deputy sheriff, I feel confident in it's defensive use. Any hard wood cane, or the hard plastic ones mentioned in the first post, would suffice as a defensive cane. Study the use of a police baton and you can easily learn what points on the body to hit without causing death.