Scissorqueen, did you know that you can also use the back of a spoon or any piece of rounded metal and burnish the wooden dowels to make them less splintery, harder and shiny? Just apply pressure and rub the rounded part of the spoon back and forth on the dowel and turn it now and then. The wood will look polished and become very hard. What you're actually doing is compressing the grain. You can stain it first then do it if you want another color.