alawen there are not any sanding gouges, all exposed surfaces are 400-grit glassy. except on the top. i was going to carve both ends, but it's a practice shillelagh, so it actually differentiates the top from the bottom in a very subtle way. the bottom is chisel carved to round in the style of some japanese style weapons, bo, jo, yawara, and bokken.i did this for that reason at first, not really ever meaning to use this as a walking stick, but only as a practice staff.. but after i had carved the one side, i had the realization that not only would that allow me to use it as a walking stick (sometimes you just need to see it), but that it gave the differentiation between top and bottom to practice bataireacht or modern shillelagh either with or without that differentiation.
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