get a piece of oak from the lumber yard and carve that. get one that has the grain running down the length of the wood for strength

or try maple, walnut, cherry, etc

So I was carving two pieces of wood ( it's either ash or oak) in an attempt to make a walking stick for my grandfather and a wooden sword for myself, and long story short they turned up today underneath a lot of snow. The wood is tough but the top seems blackish grey, a few places are wet (dark brown), and there are some cracks. What do I do? I so far scraped some of the bad wood out and dried them.