KENditioner

Bought some at Sakura Classic, and when I got home it wasn't in my backpack

Looks like I'm in the boat with all of y'all for waiting for some more

 

Yea, wet wood will dent more than chip, but a finish will actually prevent the exchange of water with the atmosphere, so I'm unsure that it would work in this way. The finish is going to be waxy/oily, but it may alter the wood's characteristics in a similar way way.

Woodworkers speak of a finish like this 'protecting the wood' in the sense that the finish seals the wood, filling the pores on the surface of the material. This makes it so that the wood will not pick up oil/dirt/water/stains/etc. So by using this product, if you apply a good coating, I think your ken will look nicer for longer (the hand-grime won't turn your ken black after some sweaty play, or at least, the grime won't work itself into the wood).

Kendama players have a different idea of what 'protecting the wood' means: for us it is all about stopping chips, dents, etc. Perhaps sealing the wood with a product like this would add the _tiniest _ amount of protection against chipping, as the product would fill air holes, making the piece more 'solid' and perhaps even dampening, but I'm seriously not convinced that this difference would actually be large enough to matter at all. The impacts experienced during modern kendama play likely involve much higher forces than the product could hope to protect against.
What I mean is, if your impact force is 100N, and this product adds protection for up to 5N extra, are you really going to see much of a difference at the end of the day?

Here's some fairly comprehensive info on sealing and finishing wood products. Notice that there is no mention of protection against physical impacts/chipping/etc. There is mention of protection against scratches/dents, but that is in reference to finishes that are much more involved / harder, like the type you would use on your hardwood floors (very different than what you're getting with Kenditioner).

Like I said before, Aynedter is a homie, I've spent some good time hanging and jamming with him, and I do love that he's brought something like this out. I think the product is good enough to advertise without making audacious claims though, I'm never a fan of false advertising, I think


At the very least, it would actually be interesting to run some tests to see if there is a noticeable difference in durability with different finishes.
I'm imagining an apparatus that holds a ken firmly with the base cup pointed up, and has a track that a tama falls down, so that it impacts the cup with the centre of the tama hitting the edge of the cup in a consistent way. You'd probably want 3+ kens to test with each type of sealant, to help account for differences in the individual pieces of wood (I mean, 3 pieces is pretty terrible statistically, but its better than one. If anyone wants to sacrifice a ton of kens for this, lets go!). Different wood species may act differently as well, but for our purposes I think just sticking to beech is a safe bet (simply because the majority of commercially available damas are beech).
Manipulated variable would be the 'finish' applied. I think it'd be interesting to test: no finish, kenditioner, linseed oil (dub boiled prob), beeswax, superglue, wood glue, water, and wood glue / water 50-50 mix.
Record observations of how much denting each cup ridge endures (in mm?) after a certain number of drops (1, 5, 10, 15, etc), and if a piece chips off, record when that happens.
It would probably require a fairly substantial deviation in results for any statistical significance against a small sample size, but nonetheless, would be interesting to see what the results are.

 

Could anyone inform me if i can prevent ken stains by applying beeswax or a Kenditioner?

Will the wax close the wood pores, and make it un-susceptible to hand stains and oils?

 

I use another wood finishing product for pretty much the reason you describe and have had pretty good results though the type of wood will change the effects. I've also used some waxes that just sit on top of the wood and refuse to soak in even under fairly high heats. In my case it doesn't seem to completely make it impervious but it makes it all the same color at one time and usually keeps it looking nicer longer.

Here is a red elm I did recently.

 

Can't really say about Kenditioner in particular but my limited experience with wood finishers is that they are better for the wood in general and seem to perform some of the same functions of hand grime without some of the potential negatives for the wood like acidity in hand sweat. Oddly what's good for wood might not end up actually be good for play and break-in but the jury is still out on that one. On a couple of recent RWB natties with finisher on them they seem to play great for most who've tried them so I've been leaning toward using a finisher on most of my kendama lately.