Carribean Stick: THE REVEAL

I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I’m going to keep updating this post as the process continues. Long story short: it’s in the final sand/buff right now.

I started Caribbean Stick 2 right after Stick 1 as a backup.

Stick 1, I built before I had the best equipment made for the trade, and used a practice that came out of a training video but with some caveats that didn’t make it into the course. So as soon as I had the new equipment, I made Caribbean Stick 2 as a back up, and without me posting to the blog about it, the stick’s been progressing.

Tonight… THE REVEAL.

There’s so much to love about this stick. The pin is a black aluminum American Ball thread, screwed into a phenolic plug in a carbon fiber shaft. The pin is 90% lighter than the other pin/insert combo I’ve used on other sticks.

The upper end of the butt has wood I selected especially for the job. The grain is stunning. If you watch the video you’ll see where it appears there’s squiggly parallel lines in the sand under the water, as waves leave on a beach. That’s natural wood grain.

This stick features 100% spalted and stabilized maple. A lot of the maple is curly, which also contributes to the water ripple effect.

Last up, the way I apply the dye also adds a ripple/wave effect.

All in all I’m eager to see this thing buff out. I’ll post more updates as the evening progresses.

This is the stick at the start of the last sand/buff. The film is from epoxy dust wet-sanded a moment before I remembered I wanted to take a picture.