It took about 10-12 ft of the 4mm cane to wrap my handle. Narrower cane will take more wraps, therefore a longer piece.
I put my cane in a large mug and covered it with water. Then I nuked it for 1.5 minutes and let it set for 15 minutes before trying to wrap with it. Worked well that way. The cane was flexible enough to wrap, but still did not have the lateral flexibility to do the fancy stuff with. I tried soaking it longer to get the lateral flexibility and it didn't work. I just had really wet cane. :)