A family member uses a wooden cane with a curved end like the stereotypical shepherd's crook, an open semicircle.
There is no grip on it and the wood is uncomfortable to lean on all day.
What might you put on the end to use as a soft yet firm grip? I thought of a sock or a scrap of clothing but it would slide too much.
I find that riding gloves—such as worn by bicyclists—with a padded palm and open finger-tips and thumb are good for absorbing pressure from supporting yourself with your hands on a hard surface (handlebars and cane, for example) for long times.
43 word sentence, whew!
My glove(s) are leather with a web (netting) back. They are secured with a velcro strap across the back of the glove
Like this:… 
They are made for the purpose unlike any other accessory or material. Some are high tech,too.
Good luck.
There are flocking kits available with which you could try to convert the cane handle to a softer or non-slip grip, but even the cheapest is not very cheap.
My hack solution is to
wear a cotton glove indoors or in summer
or a leather glove outdoors
My second solution is to use electrical heat-shrink tubing which can be obtained in quite large diameter, for example 40mm shrinking with heat to 20mm. The rubber covering won't be very thick but might make the cane more comfortable to hold.
I found that a yoga mat makes a decent grip. A rectangular section can be cut out and glued to the handle and held in place with tightly wrapped string while the glue dries. For yoga mat being glued to wood, I would suggest a gel-type super glue. If the end result is too hard, adding a softer layer on top would help--surfaces that are soft+harder tend to feel good when they take a lot of pressure.
