ok, all my kendamas are beech wood and I want to get one that isn't for once. I'm thinking about getting either ash or maple. I know for sure that maple is hella durable but I'm not sure about ash. I kinda want the ash more because of the sick design but I need to know if it's durable. Also what about walnut or red oak? Mahogany? And lastly Rez.
Alright first off let me tell you that ash wood is not very durable. It plays amazing don't get me wrong. it is still durable but there are alot of other woods that are more durable I would definitely recommend that you get a maple kendama, get a craft slim bro you wont regret it maple is a very good weight as well, it is not to heavy and not to light. my craft is ken: 67 grams tama:79grams. when I first weighed them I was thinking dang!! this is way off weighted but it actually plays amazing even though its 12 grams off I have played with walnut as well and they last FOREVER!! I have never played a red oak or mahogany but I have played a rez. You need to be very careful with a rez kendama if your doing a triple spacewalk and you don't catch it and you are playing on concrete that thing is a goner. make sure you are playing on carpet or grass. but overall I would definitely recommend you get a maple they play amazing and they have a long life span. I would say 3-4 months. hope this helps
What about hickory? I'm gonna get an RWB and I'm thinking what setups I should get. I was thinking Hickory ken + ash tama, maple ken + birch tama, Ash ken + maple tama
that sounds good. you honestly just have to try them out for yourself and see what you like. but rwb is the way to go there damas slay
Generally, it looks like this: Softer woods will dent up but will not chip. Harder woods will not dent, but may chip under heavy impact. This isn't a perfect correlation, but in general it works well. Here is a list of average wood hardness for many species. Of course, every piece of wood is different, sometimes one piece of maple will be very hard and dense, another piece of maple may be soft and light. Some woods are very hard, but also quite durable (like Ebony, or maybe jatoba). If you've only tried beechwood kendamas and want something very different, I would say try padauk. It has a very 'glassy' kind of feel, very crisp. It may chip easier than beech though. Maple is also a favourite of mine, dents more easily, but quite durable all around. Try a few different things out! You'll never know until you try
I'm such an idiot I forgot that I bought a natty padauk kaizen and my bro had your pro mod. What else do you recommend?
One thing you have to tell before putting up threads like this. Are you willing to pay more if you dont like what you have? If so get both.
Are birch or hickory ones durable? I've also heard that ash is "shock resistant" what does that mean?
From my personal experience Birch is softer than most woods (I have a Birth GT-1 aka GT-16). Like Alex mentioned, it will dent when you play but won't chip at all. I've had mine for months and there are signs of dents but no chipping yet. Hickory is pretty hard from my experience. Similar to Keyaki, it's a much harder wood but still very durable. Since my only hickory ken is a Nic Stodd mod I'm pretty careful with it but not much damage on that one either.
@Giulian Tena What @Thomas Ishikawa said is true, birch is softer, so it isn't prone to chipping as easily. Hickory is hard, but it also seems pretty resilient. I have a suuper old first batch hickory GT, I think its my only hickory dama. I've put some work into it, but not a ton. Seems like as a species it'll probably be quite durable overall. I'm not sure what "shock resistant" would mean in relation to an ash kendama. Ash is a fairly hard and stiff species, if anything it will transmit the energy of an impact efficiently, as opposed to something like birch which would dampen it slightly. This sort of measure is what I think will give a certain species a very 'clicky' or 'glassy' feel (like padauk), or a very 'soft' or 'solid' feel (like birch). I wonder if there is some already quantized measure that we could look up, it could serve as a rough guide to how a wood might feel while playing. hmm..
Do you know any good kendamas that are natties but have eye tracking or anything? Preferably ones below $60
If you want natty and tracking you'll need something that is woodburned, maybe a GT tama of some sort. Tamas with laminated stripes are really hit or miss, if the grain isn't aligend right when they make it then your tama won't last a long time (sidegrain chipping around the tama hole). But if you get a good one then they're legit. Other natty's below $60 that are cool? You could try out the KUSA Craft, or one of the new maple Ozora. Terra beech LBBs are around $45 US, so you'd still be under $60 even after shipping (and if you find the LBB thread in this forum, I left a couple discount codes in there that would save you another $10 ). Those things slay hard. If you want to get into some different domestic wood species, maybe look at RWB, they have a few options at a solid price ($40-50 usually I think). Of course, if you want to add a tracking stripe to a natty tama, it isn't that tough. A simple way is to use a sharpie permanent marker, put your tama on a flat surface, so it is sitting with the bevel side down. Next, find a book or something that you can put next to the tama, and is the right height so that if you put the sharpie on top of the book with the tip hanging off the side, it will hit the tama at the right height for your stripe. Once you have it set up, you can just hold the marker firmly in place, and carefully spin the tama up against it to draw a stripe. Doing it this way helps keep the stripe straight and clean! Much easier than trying to sketch it on freehand
Whaaaaat?! This is great. Very simple (like why didn't I think of that). I had been wondering about a good way to put a sharpie stripe on a tama. Has this been posted anywhere else? Do you mind if I throw this tip in a video some day? All credit going to Alex Smith of course!
Hmm I don't think I explicitly read this anywhere, but I also don't think I'm the only one / the first one to think of it. Don't mind if you mention it in a video at all! Worth mentioning: different wood species and different markers may act a little differently. Most notably, the ink from some markers might pull into the grain of some species of wood, so the line will not be super crispy in the end. Thinner ink and more open grain would be the worst for this (think: india ink on white ash). Using a fine tipped paint marker might not be a bad call, though paint may eventually wear away easier than a marker/ink.
@htimSxelA Right on, great info. So what about just beech then? I got a couple of natty Jumbo Tributes from the $11 sale, thought one of them might undergo some minor mods... Regular sharpie okay maybe? Also, I was considering eventually drilling the base cup. Thoughts on this?
Yea, sharpie on beech should work fine, beech usually isn't too open-grained. You may get the tiniest bit of bleed, but only upon close inspection. Personally, I'm not usually a fan of bottom cup drilling. It makes lunar balance better, but makes bottom cup tricks feel less 'solid' sometimes (I mean, there is literally less wood than before! so it makes sense). I'd play them first, see how they like luanrs, then make the call if you want to improve the lunar balance a little. Trib jumbos have some pretty fat sarados though, so in all honesty I would guess they'll be alright for lunars out of the box, though since they're natty maybe a little slick at first.