08/26/2026
Happy Wood Stick Wednesday!🥍 This post truly fills me with happiness! A awhile back I was contacted about a “Martin’s Special” by a family member of master Stickmaker Herb Martin. Lisa VanEvery who is the great granddaughter of Herb Martin asked if I had one of his sticks and if she could acquire it from me. I sent he a picture of the unrestored stick, and she immediately said she would like it. I ended up working on it for her and did a restoration to preserve as originally as it was.
Herb started making sticks around 1925, and is credited as one of the first stick makers to bend and carve a narrower round top stick that became the standard for box lacrosse for decades. Herb’s sticks supplied stick for west coast lacrosse, teams like the New Westminster Salmonbellies and they exclusively ordered and played with his sticks. His craftsmanship was revered by many. So much so that his name became part of another great stickmaker’s history. Matthew Etienne paid tribute to Herb Martin by making his premier sticks with the name Etienne Martin stamped on them! I will follow up with a bit more history in a future post.
I can’t tell you how happy I was to get this stick done for Lisa, and have her reunited with a piece of her family history. I know Lisa will cherish it and use it to teach each other’s the power of the Creators Game, and what her great grandfather meant to the history of lacrosse!
