076 - A nose-in market stick. The handle is burr elm and the shank is turned bird's-eye maple.
The burr elm handle is a rich red-brown colour. The neck and shoulder are mostly free of actual burr pattern, though the grain is attractive and pretty "wild" in places. This area is therefore strong enough not to require any additional reinforcement.
The nose contains some heavily burred material which, as always, comes with its share of holes. These have been filled with epoxy resin and the vertical portion of the nose has been reinforced internally with a stainless steel rod, capped off with this roundel of black and copper-filled epoxy resin.
The spacer between handle and shank consists of a sandwich of black buffalo horn with a thin piece of reclaimed white plastic as the filling.
Then we come to the shank. I don't normally use ready-turned shanks, but I was prepared to make an exception in this case. I obtained a few of these when I had the chance last year, because the wood is quite exceptional and really makes the most of this technique. In fact I needed to reduce the diameter slightly and this was done by hand, using abrasives. This also got rid of the very rough surface left by the turner's chisels.
This bird's-eye maple is full of fantastic grain effects which shift and change with the light. From left to right:
"Frogspawn" - the distinguishing feature of bird's-eye maple, nicely echoing the patterns in the burr elm handle.
"Flame" - light and dark satin bands which come and go as the lighting angle changes. This pattern is often seen on the maple backs and necks of violins and similar instruments.
"Fiddling" - this is what you get when the surface cuts through the peaks and troughs of the wavy grain.
And don't ask me what the last one's called, but it's an effect typical of maple, sycamore, beech and some other woods.
I would expect the colour to mellow somewhat as the freshly-worked surfaces react to exposure to light.