I used walnut for the toggles on my Baidarka. It works well, fairly dense and slides well.
They were turned on a lathe and then drilled through afterward on a drillpress with a forstner bit for a smoother hole. I also countersunk them so it doesn't catch on the leather.
Only difficulty I had making them was that I used a really old dry piece of walnut so they tended to catch a lot on the lake and take chunks out, might also be because it was my first time using a lathe.
For a finish I just put tung oil on them, I put a new coat on every spring and they still look good.

I also did beads but I got lazy and just bought a bunch of wood spheres from lee valley. Much easier than turning them. Only problem I ran into is the grain was hit and miss, so I exploded a few while drilling them, also a few have cracked, but they still hold on the lines so I don't mind much. If you go that route buy a few more than you need, they are cheap. It definitely makes it a lot easier to grab the lines with the spheres there.

: I think I used the wrong word there. I'm referring to the 2 hole
: sliders to tension the deck rigging, not the carry T-handles. On
: this boat, I expect to have grab loops/paddle loops near the
: ends.

: I did find a discussion of the subject from Feb 09. Here's the link
: to the last entry which points toward photos of Mr. Nystrom's
: rigging. Looks like wood sliders. And I like the idea of beads
: to elevate the grab line around the boat.

:
: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi/md/read/id/177210/sbj/imo-there-s-no-comparison/