Sheleighly

I made this sheleighly as authentically as I could. Some recent cutting across from my apartment complex took down a stand of buckthorn and other trees. Traditionally an Irish sheleighly is cut above and below where a branch meets the trunk of a buckthorn (or similarly tough as nails shrub or sapling) using the branch as the handle and the section of trunk as the head. They are NOT walking sticks, but rather the weapon of choice for bar fights and peasant uprisings throughout the emerald isles. I have fire hardened this and finished it in linseed oil. Buckthorn is a curious wood I have come to find. It is very very hard and dense, standing in defiance of even the sharpest blade. It is also very tough BUT as it dries or weathers anything with a diameter over an inch or so seems to split no mater how long it is allowed to dry. The heartwood starts out a yellow orange when green but slowly darkens to the color of smoked salmon turning rust red with oil, as you will see in another piece in the works to be posted later. It also seems that a tree can stand dead for years, and the bark and outer sap wood will turn rotted and punky but a singe stroke with a sharp blade will reveal the sunset of orange and pink seasoned heartwood that seems to be just as hard and sturdy as when the tree was living.