It is for a customer in the antiques trade and it is a sword stick. Traditionally sword sticks were square or rectangular and were hidden inside a Malacca cane. Malacca is part of the palm family I believe and it has a pith in the middle which is a bit softer than the outside but both bits are fairly soft (but harder than Balsa wood) The danger when drilling a hole this length is coming out of the side as the wood flexes when you are drilling it. I hope to be able to shim it straight within a metal tube and then bore it in a straight line. Done at a low speed(less than 200 RPM) and doing about 3/8 inch at a time and clearing all the waste every time, with my fingers crossed and the wind in the right direction I hope to get a hole nearly a metre long tapering from 3/8 " to about 1/8 ". Malacca was used because it is so light in weight and that helps camoflauge the fact that a walking stick contains a sword. The customer has the fittings to put the catch and the handle on and a small brass ferrule at the bottom. If I can I will video it to show you the process.
Thanks for your suggestions, heated up some steel rod this morning and this afternoon I will make the end I hammered out yesterday into a spear point and the other end I will hammer and file into a mini shell type auger, I will then see what happens. If it all goes wrong I have wasted a Saturday, if it works I will have a tool for future use.