Sarado Slip... You're playing and you start to hear that dull or double clack... stalls aren't stalling... TIME TO PUSH DOWN ON THOSE CUPS! In my (limited) experience there are two woods that are the worst offenders when it comes to loose sarados: Keyaki & Ash Two of my favorite woods. But I know with a keyaki ken within about 2 hours play it's time to slip some tape between the sword and cups. With ash, I usually have to jam tape in after about two days of solid play. So...??? I'm throwing it out to y'all. What, in your experience, are the worst offending woods on SARADO SLIP?
I've been using the method below for a while now and very seldom have any sarado slip. On older kens or ones that have too long of a spike I double a medium band and it generally works pretty well, otherwise the smallest ones are great for most applications.
i feel like older kens do this much more frequently. I have seen the sweets "how to fix" that issue. they take the stocky piece of a sticky note and wrap it around the point you want the cups to stay. I have an ash ken I got second hand, where the original owner did the same thing with saran wrap.
Not a specific wood, but the Legaxis cups slip off the ken really easy (full maple). Have even put in 2 strips of masking tape and still manages to work its way off. Haven't had this problem much with ash, but I will agree with keyaki. Once I put in a strip of masking tape though, it hasn't been a problem since.
Woods that are hard will probably be the worst offenders, especially if they're finished well (smooth). So @sambarboo has got it right that ash and keyaki will be more prone to it than say, birch or maple. Look up the Janka hardness scale to see where each wood species ranks against all others. However, ken shape has just as much, if not more of an effect. The shape of the spike's taper matters a lot, same with the sarado drill hole. The sarado drill hole needs to be spot on, or else your chance of loose cups goes waay up. The worst offenders? Anyone with a Sunrise performer will understand loose cups well. Take a look at the ken shape: right below the sarado, the ken flares out a bunch. So once you push down to that point, you kinda hit a wall and can't push them much further. The result is looooose cups
Also noticed that having an external string knot sticking out below the sarado tends to put upward pressure on the sarado (think Ozora or Shinfuji). I find myself putting a TK16 style divot in the ken under the sarado for the knot. It's really noticeable on the monster Kenzilla where a miss puts a ton of stress on the sarado as the knot jerks up to try to follow the tama.
I have been putting my favorite cannabis concentrate on the parts of the sword that are under the serrado. It works like a soft glue that doesn’t harden. I suppose other plant resin like pine sap would work too, but I like to combine my hobbies .
..:UPDATE:.. The best solution I’ve found is plumber’s tape (Teflon tape). There’s no residue, and it’s cheap.
..and now u get to throw that errl on the banger, instead of having to use it on your Ken to lace a Banger..! haha quartz jokez