Hypothetical

This custom wood fishing net is my entry into this year's "Best Brother Award" competition.  Pretty sure this will clinch the win.  Granted, I am always the only contestant...  Christmas and my brother's birthday were coming up, and he needed a new landing net.  I happen to make landing nets.  What a coincidence, right?  Starting as a "hypothetical" gift, this net turned into a beauty!  The handle was made from fiddleback myrtlewood, curly maple, and cherry, with the "wings" made of burl asian satinwood and a curved strip of walnut.  Hoop was made of bubinga, maple, wenge, and sapele.  I haven't used bubinga as an outside hoop material before, but the deep red, almost radish color, makes it stand out wonderfully.

I also tried something slightly new with the handle.  Without any practice, something I should have done, I penciled out the outline of a trout, carved it out with a 0.5 mm end mill on an air powered rotary tool, and gave it a smooth brass inlay.  I do all my signatures and net markings/numberings this way, but an actual carving was new.  It shines in the light!  I have a short video on our Instagram feed (here) that shows the handle in more depth.