Here in North Dakota, there grows Hop Hornbeam, also called Ironwood. Its seeds look like little female hop flowers, hence the name. It is on my list of trees to find to make sticks out of.
There's hop hornbeam around here, too. I have a few sticks curing in my stash. Hornbeam has a smooth bark, unlike hop hornbeam. It is sometimes called blue beech. The thing that is notable about it is that the wood grows with a sinew like structure. The tree limbs look like they are bulging with muscles. The long branch I've been working on looks rather like a bundle of tendons.
From counting its rings, the stick appears to have been somewhat older than 20 years, and is only about 1 3/4" thick. The grain is extremely fine. It is proving hard to stain. While the pores take the alcohol based dyes I've been using, but the dye just sits on the top of the rest of the wood. Likewise, tung oil barely penetrates it. I may have to re-surface the whole thing, and just put a coat of carnauba wax on for a finish.
The hop hornbeam I have is somewhat thicker. I hope the grain is as tight, if somewhat more regular than the "muscle wood.: