# Time to play Stump the WoodHeads.



## Mike Hill (Jun 13, 2022)

Who knew there is something called a Penturners Symposium? Well, I did not until Thursday - and it was to be just down the road in the same building that the TAW was and that I built 20+ years ago. Well, Lil Mikey wanted to go so off we went. A little too much plastic, but still pretty fun. As I was leaving, there was an older dude sitting outside on one of the column plinths of 20 years ago and was carrying/using one of the more beautiful canes I have ever run across. Absolute perfection in workmanship and finish. He doesn't build them, a buddy does, but he does the finishing. Lil Mikey could see the reflection of his big nose in it - it was so shiny. Asked all about it, and the finish is something familiar to gun owners - TruOil - but like 30 coats. He is a master at it and luckily, he only lives 20 miles away and has said I could come visit and learn! Now the woods were something else. Here is a pic, and this is the stump. What are the 2 woods?

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 3 | Way Cool 1


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## Arn213 (Jun 13, 2022)

That is beautiful Mike. Would like to see more photo’s of it. Casey’s TruOil I didn’t know about until 1992 from an EBMM EVH that I owned that had a birdseye neck which was finished with multiple coats of TruOil. It felt smooth and natural in your hands- not sticky like typical guitar clear finish gets. Typically, guitar companies will not give away what finish they use, but Ernie Ball/Music Man did and they even gave out the brand and told you how to clean the maple before reapplying the finish (0000 steel wool). There is a downside to this finish and it depends on how many coats you use. Due to the strings being metal alloy and dirt, grime in your fingers, sweat, it will tend to stain the maple (or any light color wood), leaving a pale graying color “shadows”. It would be evident on the fingerboards as there would be tell tale signs of “fretting finger shadows” where a guitarist populated traffic in certain areas. Yes, the fellow is correct that the more application thickness layers you lay down the more glossy it will be (a lot of elbow grease to get it at that point). In a guitar fretboard you just have to be careful not to slop it down as you don’t want that to get underneath the fretwire as it will push out the tang (loosen it that it will push up) and accumulate gunk from fretting. I have used Godards cabinet maker wax as a top layer to give it a little more protection and to give it a slighter hardness to the finish. Use an 0000 steel wool to get it smooth and polished.

Over the years, I have switch to Watco brand because the ingredients, the way it properly dries is more suited for guitar finishing outside of a finish film option (a finish film is more protection compare to oil)- IMHO and my experience.

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 1 | Useful 1


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## Mike1950 (Jun 13, 2022)

wild guess black ash- ebony. I know someone who was a vender there.
Tru oil is a nice finish. I have used on gun stock, wipe on wipe off finishes are hard to screw up


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## Mike1950 (Jun 13, 2022)

Arn213 said:


> That is beautiful Mike. Would like to see more photo’s of it. Casey’s TruOil I didn’t know about until 1992 from an EBMM EVH that I owned that had a birdseye neck which was finished with multiple coats of TruOil. It felt smooth and natural in your hands- not sticky like typical guitar clear finish gets. Typically, guitar companies will not give away what finish they use, but Ernie Ball/Music Man did and they even gave out the brand and told you how to clean the maple before reapplying the finish (0000 steel wool). There is a downside to this finish and it depends on how many coats you use. Due to the strings being metal alloy and dirt, grime in your fingers, sweat, it will tend to stain the maple (or any light color wood), leaving a pale graying color “shadows”. It would be evident on the fingerboards as there would be tell tale signs of “fretting finger shadows” where a guitarist populated traffic in certain areas. Yes, the fellow is correct that the more application thickness layers you lay down the more glossy it will be (a lot of elbow grease to get it at that point). In a guitar fretboard you just have to be careful not to slop it down as you don’t want that to get underneath the fretwire as it will push out the tang (loosen it that it will push up) and accumulate gunk from fretting. I have used Godards cabinet maker wax as a top layer to give it a little more protection and to give it a slighter hardness to the finish. Use an 0000 steel wool to get it smooth and polished.
> 
> Over the years, I have switch to Watco brand because the ingredients, the way it properly dries is more suited for guitar finishing outside of a finish film option (a finish film is more protection compare to oil)- IMHO and my experience.


I use general armor coat -actually Prelude which came before armor coat. Bought a case of it cheap. and a wax which leaves a silky feel.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mike Hill (Jun 13, 2022)

Mike1950 said:


> wild guess black ash- ebony. I know someone who was a vender there.
> Tru oil is a nice finish. I have used on gun stock, wipe on wipe off finishes are hard to screw up


Yeh, I met him and bought a bunch from him. If he had had more of the torrified maple - I'd a bought more. 

No to black ash - yes to the ebony (duh - easy), but he said it was Nigerian Ebony - the darkest there is? dunno.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mike1950 (Jun 13, 2022)

Mike Hill said:


> Yeh, I met him and bought a bunch from him. If he had had more of the torrified maple - I'd a bought more.
> 
> No to black ash - yes to the ebony (duh - easy), but he said it was Nigerian Ebony - the darkest there is? dunno.


Id ing burl is difficult LV I had looked a bit like that


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## Jonkou (Jun 13, 2022)

Carpathian elm burl. Nigerian/Gabon ebony are both from the lowlands in the equator region of western Africa, could be the same tree.


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## Arn213 (Jun 13, 2022)

Mike Hill said:


> Yeh, I met him and bought a bunch from him. If he had had more of the torrified maple - I'd a bought more.
> 
> No to black ash - yes to the ebony (duh - easy), but he said it was Nigerian Ebony - the darkest there is? dunno.


Nigerian ebony is Gaboon ebony- west African region. The darkest and complete jet black ebony to the best of my knowledge is Madagascar ebony (diospyros perreiri).

PS- cane handle is possibly stabilized buckeye (I know it is a light density wood) OR more leaning towards to Canxan Negro burl (aka Nargusta) because of higher density suitable for this type of application that matches closely to ebony density.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mike Hill (Jun 13, 2022)

Stabilize buckeye is exactly what I thought - but not. I left out a clue - here is the whole cane head - not stain or dye -only TruOil.

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 1


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## Greenacres2 (Jun 13, 2022)

Well, that tip of the head almost looks like Amboyna Burl--but i've not seen the rest look that way. Same for Red Malee Burl.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mike Hill (Jun 13, 2022)

I looks like Amboyna Burl because that is what it is! Never seen the staining in Amboyna like that! When I asked him if I could take the picture of his cane, he asked me what I knew about it. I mumbled something about not using buckeye for much, but that a friend of mine has a 10' diameter slice of BE burl. He laughed - then set me straight!

Reactions: Like 2 | Way Cool 1


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## Greenacres2 (Jun 13, 2022)

Looking at it on my iPad instead of my office monitors, I’d have stayed only with amboyna. Great looking stick!!


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## Mr. Peet (Jun 13, 2022)

Mike Hill said:


> Stabilize buckeye is exactly what I thought - but not. I left out a clue - here is the whole cane head - not stain or dye -only TruOil.
> 
> View attachment 228041


Neat, amboyna was not on my list of guesses. So is a sapwood hook with just a bit of heartwood, or is some spalt involved?


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## Mike Hill (Jun 14, 2022)

Looks that way to me, although I have no idea of why the darker color in the sapwood be it mineral stain or result of some sort of spalt.


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