Full review: Star Sticks, Drum Corps model

Sometimes -- not often -- I will buy something purely on a lark, out of sheer curiosity.
That was the case with these drum sticks, made and sold by Ukranian company Star Sticks.
The company sells their products on Etsy, has a Facebook presence, and they have their own web site in Ukranian (Google will translate it for you but be warned that translating Ukranian to English is tough even for a computer).

I sprange for a pair of their "Drum Corps" sticks, because they were being offered with free shipping to USA, and the ten dollar price wasn't bad. Plus, they were made out of a wood called "hornbeam" in their literature.
After Googling "hornbeam" to discover it was real ("Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus Carpinus in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere." Thanks, Google!), I decided to place an order.
I figured that, coming from the other side of the globe, I'd treat it like ordering a pad from Xymox: hit the "return" button and then forget about it until it arrives.

Then, to my surprise, a package arrived today, only three weeks after I placed the order.

I opened the package, and checked them out right away.

Mindful of the advertised manufacturing process, I expected a stick that would be a bit harder than hickory. I didn't know much about the wood so I couldn't be sure about weight.

(below: from Star Sticks Etsy page)

At first blush, the sticks looked pretty good. The imprint was clear and the white paint fully covered the stick A closer look revealed that the sticks had been dipped in the paint and the ends had not been "trimmed" of excess paint drippage -- something I hadn't seen on American drum sticks in decades.

I hefted the sticks in my hands to see if there was any noticable difference in weight, and was surprised to find that there was a slight difference.

This would likely mean that, when I tried to play with the sticks on a drum or pad, I would hear a slight difference in pitch.

In fact, when I began to play with the sticks, the difference in pitch between the two sticks was nearly a full scale step, far more than I had expected.

You can hear if clearly in the video below.

It's too bad. The sticks feel nice in my hands; at slightly smaller [Length: 16 59/64" (430 mm)
Diameter: 669" (17 mm)] than Vic Firth's Jeff Queen Solo sticks, it would have been a welcome alternative for drummers with smaller hands.
But since sending the sticks back would be costly for an individual like me, I'll keep them and chalk it up to another lesson learned. I hope the company (with whom I've shared the review) will take my notes into account as they continue to develop their products and build a larger following outside Ukraine.