Please Help Me WIth My Staff Design

I've been spinning poi for a few years, and I just decided to make a staff so I can learn that too. Below is a picture I just Photoshopped up of the design I have in mind:

Non-Https Image Link

I'd appreciate any input anyone might have to offer on the design and its construction. I have three questions in particular about it that I would really appreciate getting some advice on.

The first is what type of wood to use for the staff body. I'd like to harvest the wood from my local area and carve it myself. The woods around where I live are made up mostly of California costal live oaks, California valley oaks, California bay laurels, buckeyes, redwoods, California sycamores, madrones, and Douglas firs. Also, about an hour and a half away there are Monterey pines, Monterey cypresses, and giant sequoias; and I know of a grove of olive trees nearby that I might be able to harvest a staff from. I was thinking of finding a fallen redwood limb of the right size; whittling down the bigger end so that it's identical to the smaller end; and then sanding and lacquering or polishing it.

I've heard that oak is supposed to be a good wood for staves, but if another type of local wood would work well, I would prefer not to have to go through all the labor of cutting and carving oak when I'd probably have to start with a large piece to get a long staff, and it's such a hard wood.

My second question is where I could get some metal caps to put on the ends of my staff, or if they'd even be necessary. My plan is to sew a pair of cotton-core/Kevlar-sheath hybrid wicks, and attach each of them to the ends of the staff with a single screw screwed into each end. I was thinking that it would be good to have metal staff-ends to protect the wood from the fire and prevent it from splitting at the ends, but maybe those aren't issues to be concerned about..

I read one poster in this forum talk about a wooden staff they made where they just fitted sections of a metal pipe over the ends of it, leaving the ends open. I not sure, they might have been talking about the more traditional wick design where the Kevlar is wrapped around the body of the staff itself, but even if that type of staff-end would adequately protect a staff with the wicks screwed into the ends, I'd still prefer to have closed ends for aesthetic reasons, if for no other.

I was also thinking of maybe making my staff in a tapered design, with the center having a slightly larger diameter than the ends for strength and appearance. I know that you want to have as much weight on the ends of the staff as possible to keep the momentum up, but maybe that wouldn't be so important if I used a relatively light wood, like redwood. Anyone have any thoughts?

Again, I'd really appreciate any input anyone might have to offer.

Thanks,

Robin

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