It is still too cold in the basement to make the back for this banjo, and I was looking for something that I could do to push the project forward a bit anyway. Then, I remembered that I had cut the bridge out of a piece of scrap from the neck... a piece of scrap that has really nice curl in it. I was somewhat disappointed in the results because the curl in the bridge is invisible. Take a look at the bridge.

This Bridge Got Nuthin'

The bridge works fine, but I left it in a raw state, and it isn't as pretty as I thought it would be. So I got the bright idea to pop the figure in it the same way I did the neck, by applying some stain and finish to it. I dug out my Transtint® stain, same stuff I used on the neck.

The Stain, Still in the Can

Put on the rubber gloves (always use the rubber gloves) and dig the stain out of the can again.

Opening the Can

I applied a tiny bit of stain to the wood to get this:

After I Applied the Stain

The bridge is still wet in that photo, so the curly figure looks pretty good. But after it dried out, the curl was not so prominent anymore. You can see in the photo below that the bridge has dried out, and the curl has somewhat disappeared again. I drew it across some 600 grit sandpaper very gently to take off the whiskers that were raised up by the water in the stain.

Sand Gently So As Not to Remove the Stain

Then I applied an equally small amount of TruOil®.

Apply Some TruOil

I had to poke a screwdriver through a dried skin of oil inside of the jar to get at some liquid oil, but under the crust the finish seemed to be OK.

Here is the bridge with the curly figure popped.

The Curl Really Pops Now!

I only put one coat of oil on it because I did not want to weigh it down and make it shiny. I just wanted to soak in enough finish to make the bridge look permanently wet, which makes the figure stand out more.

I do wish the weather would warm up so I could get to work on the back.