Well for me, if I'm chasing a new trick, I'll just start jammin' a prime or a pop (or like, anything with crazy grip) as my main. I'll just slay until I get the new trick down consistently, then I'll switch to a dama with a bit less grip (or just slay until the original dama starts losing grip, honestly haha). Eventually the trick becomes so easy and consistent that it doesn't even feel weird to pick up an Ozora or a natty and bust it out. As for the beeswaxed tamas, in my experience it sort of does give me extra grip (not from the wax itself really, just makes it feel like it's already broken in). The way I was taught to apply the wax was to rub it on, heat it until the wax melts, rub it in (repeat for desired number of coats) and then heat and wipe away excess (that way, it's all IN the wood, not on the outside making it sticky).
Makes sense! Part of my issue is that I haven't really played any other really high quality damas other than the Pop and the Prime. So for me, the other dama I'll be trying it on will be KUSA classic or samurai or something. I really should pick up an Ozora soon.
Ozoras are classic, always gotta have an Ozora around. Another good brand to try is Royal Kendama (if you can find one); they're a bka approved dama, very similar to an Ozora. Their logo and styling is sort of ugly and cartoony but I've found them to be on par with Ozoras and they're pretty affordable. I'd also recommend grabbing a couple standard sized damas but with satin or sticky paint from the brands I mentioned earlier (Analog, Sol, Active), just so you can figure out what feels right for you. Never been a huge fan of KUSA damas, love what they do for the community and their edits blow me away but every kendama I've gotten from them is either oddly proportioned/weighted or the paint chips too quickly
Actually, that's kind of the purpose of what we try to do on Downspike. If you're familiar with the Facebook Kendama Community, you'll know that it is filled with too many of the same posts being reposted every day. So to combat this, try not to make a new thread if there is already a thread on a topic you want to talk about. Just bump the old one instead!
Duly noted. I've just been on forums before where people treat you like trash if you bump an old thread lol
dang that's a bummer! there's certainly none of that on here, so bump the oldies also, that seems kind of counter-intuitive of the use of the threads haha
Yeah I guess it kinda makes sense if the info contained in the threads is outdated, can't be bumping old threads and having people get info that doesn't apply anymore. But I suppose that's not really a problem here (yet lol)
Having been on a number of other forums in the past, I can attest to the fact that sometimes reviving old threads can be against the rules big time. That said, I know every forum is different. I noticed that while there's a reminder to use the search function in the READ THIS post, there's nothing clarifying that it's fine to bump old threads. Might be worth an add!
@jooshbag1108 Merged your thread with an older one on a similar topic so all may see the previous posts. Probably would have been good to post your comment in the FAQ thread but I've brought it up with the team so no need for that now. For the time being however I'll just say that the preference, as @Nick Lectura mentioned, is to revive older threads rather than posting another on the same subject as was done here. As for bumps it would be beneficial if a person posted the reason they thought an older thread should be back up top or adding info to that thread rather than just posting "bump" to chase points/stats. Also mentioned in the FAQ thread is this thread, Welcome To The Sesh, which might give you more info you seek.
I just ordered some Eclipses over the weekend, but it was before the site was updated with info about engravings/sticky cups. They said my order would ship on Wednesday so I'm hoping I'll get to try them out. If not, oh well (originally just wanted the tamas anyways). I'm just wondering if it's going to be sticky enough to mess up some of your throw ups, and how long it's going to last.
My Yumu package finally arrived. I bought one of their "sticky" paint tamas and a whirlpool tama, which feels like the same sticky paint. The paint isn't sticky to the touch and has a smooth, scotch-tape texture to it (similar to Musou paint). The playability of the ken is pretty good. It has huge cups. The ken itself is very thin; the line that they put to indicate how far the sarado has slid down the spike is an area where the ken flares out a little, so the spike portion of the ken is actually a little thicker than the part of the ken directly below the sarado. The sticky big cup ring feels exactly the same as the paint on the tama (not sticky to the touch, but will kind of stick to the tama if you press them together really hard). The extra grip helps landing lunars and it also helps in holding them at a steeper angle. My only experience with cup engravings were with the new Analog shape, and the engravings felt pretty useless in all honesty. The engravings on the eclipse seem to actually work though—you can easily stick janky as crap birds that would just slide off sideways on any other ken. At $15 for the cheapest version, I’d definitely recommend people pick one up for themselves!
I bet you can caught some gnarly looking lunars with that. I’d like to see how extreme of an angle you can hold a lunar on.
This is about as far as it goes with the cup sort of snagging on the edge of the bevel. I think you can get similar angles with other damas that have super grippy paints (prime clears, slaydawgs, etc).
I like bigger bevels! Also i think it's perfectly fair cause it makes stalls harder past a certain bevel size. For example, the Prime tama bevel, at least in my case, isn't "prime" (pardon the wordplay) for my bird tricks. Also, certain spike tricks like UFO become harder as well cause a bigger bevel means there's a higher chance of the ken falling out of the tama hole. Sticky paint is fair in my opinion. It's a tool, not a cheat code. Giving a noob a sticky-painted tama doesn't make him a Bonz Atron. Also, no matter what kendama I use, the grind is still there. So it makes the game easier in some respects but the essence of kendama is still there.