Irish Stick Making 2 – Real Hardwoods
Picked up a cheap bandsaw and some scraps of various hardwoods to mess around with. I wanted to see how my drawknife and spokeshave handled much harder woods than red oak or white maple. Today I made a short stick out of purpleheart and a longer but thinner stick out of hickory. I started one in bloodwood today but did not complete it.
My intention was to try and make sticks with more of a knob on the end and I wanted a bandsaw to help thin out the blanks. However I don't quite have the saw tuned properly so I did more harm to my materials than not. Either that or the saw is just a POS or I just suck. Had to "redesign" all the sticks I worked on today. 
The bloodwood sadly had to be shortened about 4", which I'm somewhat upset about, but I am a beginner after all.
I rushed the hickory so the knob end is still rough. The shaft is too thin for any serious contact but it will be good for light contact practice. The purple heart stick is very short; kid sized really, but it moves pretty quickly and handles well. I could probably practice tomahawk with it easily.
As prototypes, I learned a lot with these. I like all three woods in fact. I have a bunch more purpleheart, some cocobolo and a bit of mahogany I can play with later.