I had a burr from an oak tree that we had cut down several years ago that I've been wanting to do something with for a while. The wood was in bad shape (that's why we had it felled), but I had hope for this burr. By the time I got down to a decent block of wood, however, there was not enough to make a crook handle. There was, just barely, enough to make a "nose-in" market stick handle. The handle is a little "chunkier" than I'd have liked, but I was afraid to take it down any further and with good reason. As I bored the hole for the shank, one of the veins turned into a crack. I drilled a hole and epoxied a peg in there. It's usable as a fashion stick, but I wouldn't put it through any abuse for sure. The whole stick is 51" long - shorter than I would want a crook, but appropriate for a market stick for someone my height. It was a good learning experience and I have a couple more shanks to make crooks out of.