Leave the bark on the musclewood - I've made dozens of musclewood staffs and after you use them for a long while, the sweat and oils from your hand will turn the bark a nice, darker color and bring out the striations on the bark. One of the best staff woods - super strong and dries light. I also really like staffs from young ironwood saplings - not quite as strong as musclewood, but still tough - sweat and oils make the light red bark turn a much deeper red and smooth - very light when dry but can take a lot of abuse. Cheers!
I have never used any alcohol based stains but from what I know about them they do not penetrate as deeply as a regular solvent based stain. From what I understand about alcohol based stains they kind of just set on top so that would be a bad choice for very tight Grain wood
Blue beech is hard stuff when you cut it and if handled right, like for making those walking sticks or handles for tools, it is nice. However, if you want it for firewood, beware. Unless it is kept really dry, it goes bad super fast. This is surprising for a wood that is so hard but left uncovered in a woodpile it will go bad within a year or less.
I just received an email from your wife, she ordered a Blue Beech "THUMPING STICK", what is that all about!
No Hornbeam/Blue Beech in my area,a bit far west from its native growing range.Though it does grow in parts of northeast & eastern Iowa,up into Wisconsin & Minnesota.Both Hornbeam & Hophornbeam are distant cousins to the Birches. I have a couple chunks/small logs of Hornbeam purchased from a small wood retailer in Ohio a couple years back,havent done anything with them yet though. A small amount of Hophornbeam/Ironwood growing on parents acreage.Between the 4-5 different species of Oak & 2 Hickories out there,they don't allow much competition in the understory.I rarely cut more than 1 or 2 a year,just recently dead or ones damaged by wind/ice storms.Very common but scattered all over the Midwest/East. Both woods are excellent for tool handles,mallets & anything that needs long wear & takes abuse.Early settlers used them for the same thing.Finishes very smoothly,takes very high polish.Rivals Hickory in resilience,hardness,shock resistance & I've heard its great for long bows.Though Osage Orange (hedge) is numero uno in that application.
