Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi all.  Just wanted to share an experience yesterday with polishing up a recently "finished" flute.  This is nothing revolutionary, but it's low cost, low effort, and made a nice improvement.  All the ideas are from the forum here, so thanks to all.  I found the ingredients at Lee Valley Tools and they're all very natural and human/enviro-friendly as far as I know.

Started with nice enough Japanese madake, very fair in complexion.  Perfectly good but nothing remarkably smooth or shiny about the natural finish.
1) Wetted a 3M superfine rubbing pad and added 4F pumice stone powder.  Rubbed lengthwise, rewetting and repowdering regularly.
2) Rinsed/wiped clean.  Bamboo surface was smoother now but maybe slightly duller.
3) Wetted a cotton handkerchief and added very fine Rottenstone powder.  Rubbed and reapplied as above.
4) Rinsed/wiped clean.  Bamboo surface was smoother again and getting shinier.
5) Thinly spread some Clapham's beeswax & mineral oil salad bowl finish down entire culm, including root nubs and root end grain.
6) Let sit for an hour or so for the beeswax mixture to penetrate and solidify somewhat.
7) Hand buffed to remove wax.  New shine and smoothness were quite apparent.

Even more than the shine, the smoothness of the resulting finish was really impressive.  The flute is extremely pleasing to touch.

I would probably spend even more time on steps 1 & 3 next time.  And I -think- going with the "grain" (i.e. lengthwise) is the right thing to do, but maybe others can comment.

-Darren.