Last year, when I was still "new" to kendama (lol) I loved cushion clear. I could/can catch lunars with relative ease - even sloppy swings up to odd angles on the ball, the cush grabs the cups and holds it for you. Now though, I am not so fond of it. For lighthouses and lighthouse flips it has to land dead on flat - zero room for error - or it topples. And you can't really adjust the ball under the lighthouse - again topple city. I've got an extremely well broken in Mint Berry Crunch with well over a years play on it and these issues still persist. It's a super fun dama - as long as I leave lighthouses out of the mix. But who wants to not have fun with those?! That's my 2 cents.
Is cushion on wood grain a different feel than cushion on top of paint, for those of you who have owned both? Do you notice a difference in the grip when it comes to stalls? Or is cushion just cushion?
In my experience, cushion clear on natty tamas are more durable than cushion clear on painted tamas. Takes more to chip and peel on natty cushion tamas than painted cushion. As for playability, I feel like they hold their grip longer on cushion natty tamas. Takes more to break them in to a slicker play than it would on a painted cushion tama.
I've heard that the cush on natty kendama is not as consistent. It is either much better or not as good.
IIRC Sweets was putting Cushion Clear over aTack paint to try and speed the usability. Since Cushion Clear is tacky out of the box and aTack takes a bit to get rolling my understanding was that they kind of expected the Cushion Clear to go away and leave a tacky aTack paint behind; that would have the tama tacky start to finish.
In my experience the species of wood being cushioned can make difference on how tacky the cushion feels. My HG maple striped cushion tamas allow more slip than my ash and even the new v2 splice. All that said I've gotten tamas with a thick layer of cushion and tamas with just enough to where you can tell it's not natty. I prefer the latter but no way to tell unless you're buying in person. So idk if that's specific to the batch or inconsistency during application or even variation in formula. I like cushion because I play a number of damas and breaking in a natty is fun but takes time to get to the "sweet" spot. Pun intended lol.
Do you know if that's under the current custom runs (V7 & 8) or if that's how they've always done their cushion clear tamas?
I’ve got 3 cushion setups: ash, maple stripe, and spec stripe. They feel similar enough. The maple with spec stripe has the thickest later on it. So much so that it “deadens” the sound of landing tricks. Nonetheless, they do grip and slip fine for my likings.
Had a birch HG with cushion on it. Honestly wasn't a fan. Like mentioned above, it was crazy grippy and made adjusting lighthouses almost impossible. But a painted cushion? That's where it's at.
I saw Parker Johnson post somewhere on this site that sticky paint was just a tool. And not every player likes this specific tool (sticky paint) when it comes to the intended action (light houses). But do not write cushion clear off as a bad paint its super useful for those attempting to learn Border balance or cliffhanger or even some stall tricks underbird. There are better paints for learning these mechanics, also I wouldn't spend money on a higher end kendama like a HG, to use it like a beginner, needing to have extra grip to catch certain tricks. I have purchased like 3-4 hg's and none of them have had cushion for that reason.
https://sweetskendamas.com/collecti...m-v8-christian-fraser-throwback-cushion-clear 35$ on a prime. but its just the bevel. Just my 2 cents.
I heard Cushion clear plays differently with different kinds of woods. For example, Cush is super sticky with Beech but is slick as hell with maple.
Good question, from what I remember they started life that way but I haven't inquired about the v7-v8. Guess I should probably ask since we have a few of them. Maybe mineral spirits but no clue what it would do to the wood. You'd probably benefit from hitting it with a wood finisher after stripping it.