@Ben Lowe Sharpied cherry ozora tama! fresh and jammed. I also beeswaxed it. Ive done this with a beech tama too. You may get some bleed as Alex says, and some may rub off onto you fingers at first, but that should stop after a while! To get the lines straight I put them on a lathe.
What are any of your guys' opinions on BLK? I checked their website and found exactly what I wanted: natties with eye tracking.
Ash plays amazingly and like maple, has great clack but as there is some grain with many empty spaces in it, the grains tend ti make the ken chip alot. Tats wat happened to my ken The grain is sick tho Brands like GT makes use of the grain on ash and oak to make their tamas grippy tho
Didnt read through everything so excuse me if im repeating anything but some exotic heavier/denser woods chip as opposed to dent, so the bevel may get a lil messed up, but those same woods make super durable kens IMO. Lighter/less dense woods will be less likely to chip and make for good tamas because they just dent. Hope this helps and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!
@Michael Joseph Reeves you're correct that denser woods usually chip as opposed to dent, but some break this trend and are durable across the board. For tamas, it's a grain alignment thing. Oak endgrain tama will last forever. Oak sidegrain tama will last a sesh, then have a giant chipped flatspot around the hole. I've seen some companies make some VERY questionable products in this regard. If you're buying a natty tama with a wood stripe, make sure it is endgrain around the bevel, or maple around he bevel (maple is softer and doesn't chip as easily). Even endgrain is sometimes iffy... wood doesn't glue as well endgrain-on, and it expands most in the dimension orthogonal to the grain alignment, so you can have ridges develop along the glue joint.
Just by looking at it. If the woodgrain runs top-to-bottom on the tama, it's endgrain around the bevel. If the grain runs horizontally, its side grain.
some good photos of grain direction for reference with Red Oak as an example: http://www.wood-database.com/red-oak/ Plus they have lots of data for many wood types if you're curious.
Didn't read everything And don't have a beech but the maple is defiantly durable! Also I have a padauk silk from KUSA I swear the thing is indestructible unless you really want to break it or decide to slam it on concrete and rage quit.
I have one of two of them in my collection. For the most part I can just look at a design and tell you what's up with it though, play testing not necessarily required.
@TheWickEffect Which one are you referring to? Aren't there multiple woods and styles available? If you have a pic that'd be best
@htimSxelA Wood around the bevel is oak. It looks like the grain is on an angle. not sure if this is the case for each piece though..
@TheWickEffect youre on the right track for sure. Oak endgrain will be durable as hell, side grain will last maybe one sesh though. At an angle like the one pictured, I wouldn't expect it to last very long at all (or at least, one side of the bevel will get destroyed quick). Like you said, it'll depend on the piece. There very well may be some in the batch they made that are straight sidegrain, and others that are straight endgrain
@htimSxelA Thanks! I may have to go with the solid oak tama and burn tracking stripes if I feel like I want them. I have burned stripes before with good results using your wood burner clamped to a bench beta. I may also try a torch stripe at some point..