Heka the Staff

I found this flat sycamore root in the shallow waters below a dam deep in the Central Texas wood. The wood is woobly but sturdy. Here's a picture of it flopped down on the grass in my backyard.

At 53 inches long, this root will by my largest piece to date. Even though I love the texture of its flaky bark, the goal is to preserve only the shape.

The only time I use the dremel on this staff is to remove two nodules of subroots that fell away long ago. The rest of the smoothing is completed by sandpaper and elbow grease.

Various stages of bark removal, and then final result shown lying across the corner of my worktable (in the dappled shade of a Bradford pear tree). I removed the first layer with 60-grit sandpaper, then another pass the 100 grit, 120 grit and finishing with 220 grit sandpaper. My arms wanted to fall off by the time I was finished.

Heka was/is the Egyptian goddess of magic, said to carry a staff in the shape of a snake. This staff, with the mottled shadows of bark along its long surface, looks like a rattlesnake. 

Displaying the staff to Heka, in case she's watching.

My first staff. I like it. Twenty-four hours later I'm still sneezing from the sawdust I inhaled while clearing its surface.

Bocote Wand

Agor told to post the journeyman's notes. Agor good. Agor post.

"On Saturday I finished this wand of stock bocote wood, adding a circle of hematite to the base:

The bocote started as a 12-inch, 1x1 blank I picked up at the local Woodcraft shop. I love the shop, I try not go there because I only have so much room in my house for wood I'm not actively working on, but the selection of exotic woods is too compelling to pass up. I chose the bocote for the grain.
Here's a photo of the wand emerging from the squared blank, sitting atop its intended design:

The wood is heavy and cool, and its dust is silky like ebony wood, but with this particular piece, as I worked my in toward the center for the point, the heartwood began to fall apart and I lost about an inch and a half, so the final wand is 9.5 inches.

The best part about the bocote wand is that it stands on its end:

Until I make a second wand from this type of wood, this one shall be called The Bocote."