THUNK

A staff and also an experiment



A staff with many carvings.
I had a cockamamie plan. I knew this wasn't going to work, I *KNEW* that this was destined for... a poor ending shall we say. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it a thousand times over, and yet... it had to be done.

Just what. Just what would happen, if you took a fuuuuuully fresh sapling, tightened off the ends, varnished it up as fresh as the day it was cut, with liiiiike 10 layers of varnish... literally... and see what happens. Can you preserve the colour.

Ok, so I started out with the usual, clamping the ends for 3 days, clamp it more, wait a day, and start on it. More or less the second I knew the length, I hit it with layer after layer of varnish, just... let's get all that green in there. What's gonna happen.

It got SO many compliments you would not believe. Oh my god, people stopped to talk to me, compliments just about every day. It was shiny, it was glossy, it was just standing out bright. It could have been made of glass.

Six months, it gives ya. You varnish in a fresh stick, it gives ya six months. Six months, and then you get the last few photos.

Yah! Yah, the moisture inside seems to have wanted to escape, so it made all these spikey towers as it pushed air up to the surface. So we have a spiked grip on one side, and then the other side... well... did the moisture just kinda slip down due to gravity or something? That's my guess. Anyways, we got rot happening at the top and like... the... exit points for where said rot escaped XD

So, I got me a poisonstick here. I dunno, I can't imagine it actually doing damage... it's run of the mill wood lol... but it's amusing. SO, this is what happens when you varnish fresh fresh fresh fresh fresh wood :P

Oh, the symbols and stuff on there all have meaning, the majority of which were recreated on the followup staff Vee, so go check out that page fo the meanings of most of those symbols on there.

July 2019 		The stencil of the karate pairThe word Koa carved inLooking towards the base of the staff, showing all of the lines zig zagging down one side of it.The word THUNK carved into it, all in capital letters
The upper portion of the staff, showing a bit of the name Bert, the figure skater, and a heart.Blue lines working their way around the karate pair, with the figure skater beneath.A further away picture, showing most of the staff, with yellow lines around the grip, and beginning to show the linework of the bottom.Showing some of the scrollwork lines curling around
The Shinesparkers symbol on the side of the staff.The genderfluid symbol, with the trans flag as the colours inside, and green vinework around it, as well as the kanji for karate.The keyhole, that the Holy Rosary prayer book fits into, with green linework around it.The other side of the keyhole, with one of her Spirit names 'The Hare' above it.
The keyhole with the book inside, and it held in there with an elastic. There's also a small loop above one side of it, where her ornaments attach.The staff showing some speckles, with the paint still looking pristine.A closeup of the speckles that came up when air was escaping from the wood.The very top of the staff, showing a bit of colour of rot. The part just below that, showing a whole lot of the colour of rot.Kabutroid holding the staff, the kinda darker colour is showing through in the grip as well. It's still thickly varnish covered though, so it's just the inner colour at this point.Showing around the word THUNK, with the raised speckles all around it. The experiment drawing to a close... what actually would happen.Just showing general rot and light speckling around one of the lines.


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