Thoughts on licking your bevel

I will sometimes lick the bevel for birds. That being said how freaking odd does this look to a non Kendama player. Trying to think of other sports or games people game an advantage like this. Only thing I can think of is the "spitball pitch" Which was banned in baseball.

 

Same! Also with wiping ur sweat off with a natty is super weird but dang does it work well

 

Sometimes my friends look at me like a freak. I try to explain. But, it is still weird.

 

Lol it’s soo Germ-y..! From ground drops to sharing Damas to get friends interested, there’s just too much dirt and possible germ spreading for this to be a safe good practice in my opinion.. but to each his own!?

 

Building that immune system

 

Showed a friend a dama edit. He asked how the pros get so good. Told him they lick the entire kendama before every sesh. I had him for a minute.

 

The real question though, taste out of 10?

But in all seriousness Keyaki is great.

 

Some people say it’s gross but in the end, it helps a lot. I noticed that after licking the bevel, the wood becomes too soft and gets kinda flat and was worse for stalls than it was to begin with.

 

For neat freaks, instead of licking your bevel, I suggest getting a small spray bottle filled with water and spritz a bit on the bevel. Makes the bevel moist without having to worry about germs (though I admit it's not as effective).

Jake Wiens also suggests rubbing your sweat into the bevel, which is, I think, the most effective way of getting your bevel honed for stalls (disclaimer: it's really unsanitary though).

 

It definitely isn’t cheating, but non dama players will assume it is....

 

Different subject, but I'd say in the same category: Anyone grind their bevels on concrete to speed up the break in process for stalls? My Tj deep sea was trash for stalls, and then today I grinded the bev on some concrete and it was immediately amazing for stall tricks. Do you do this? Thoughts?

I first got the idea from when I was playing scags in ken once and he did this to help a stall trick.

 

What I do is I put a 5 cent coin in to the hole and grind it, and then just keep going up and up to a quarter and half a dollar. It usually works well with kendamas with no bevel at the start.

 

I've never done this, and don't think I would like to. Seems like if you just play the dama long enough the bevel will wear in naturally. I do see the temptation in doing it to win a game of ken though.

I have a Sweets Ruby which has a painted ken and it's pretty solid for birds. Maybe the Sweets ken paint is extra grippy or something? It's my only painted ken so I can't compare it to anything

 

I thought of this at one point and decided not to do it. It just looks bad. If you play 1 kendama only for a week, or month, the paint around the bev will naturally chip away, making it better for stalls. My Dwesty mod paint around the bev is chipped away over a period of like 3 weeks to a month. Honed for stalls...

 

It’s become a habit, I’ve even done it if I’m not doing tricks involving the bevel involuntarily