Wood Recomendation

[Elfan]

I'm interesting in getting a nice pair of sticks/clubs for Christmas. I was wondering what type of wood wood be best. Something dense although not necesarily heavy. I have heard something of a "koca bala" (sp) hardwood that sounded good.

Any recomendations would be apreciated!

 

[arnisador]

There are other types of hard woods too of course--Kamagong, Bahai.

These aren't for partner training, right? Rattan or the like is best for day-to-day training.

 

[knifeman.dk]

Hi there!

Take a look on this german site (in english). www.quick-stick.de
Alfred Plath has a huge section on different FMA subjects including different sticks / materials.
sincerely knifeman.dk:asian:

 

[Angus]

Cocobolo (or cocobola, etc) is the wood you're thinking of. It's a good hard wood, pretty similiar to bloodwood and purpleheart. However, like with kamagong (macassar ebony, great wood) sticks, your partner better have the same sticks or you'll shred them up. Rattan works well if you have partners with rattan or softer.

If you want to strengthen your hands/wrists by working with heavier sticks, go for the kamagong/ebony, which are the heaviest of the 4 aforementioned. All are fairly heavy compared to rattan, though.

Edit: I have no experience with the Bahai sticks. If I knew what wood it was (I don't recognize Bahai), or at least the family, then I could probably make a guess. However, I've never worked with it so I don't have a clue.

 

[LabanB]

Hi Angus,

Bahi is wood from a Palm Tree - Anahaw, if I remember correctly is the Filipino term for the type of palm tree it comes from.

The sticks I've got are mottled brown in colour. Weigh in somewhere between Cocobolo (a beautiful wood but a pain to work with due to the dust) and Kamagong.

Bill Lowery

 

[Elfan]

Lol no these arn't for training with a partner! I already have a pair of really lite sticks for that. I prefer to keep my partner in one piece. ;-) (and I don't want to get hit back with a kamagong stick from what I'v heard of it)

So cocobala and kamagong both sound good. Could someone compare and contrast them?

Also, any recomendations on where to buy them (preferably cheaply of cource) would be great!

Thanks

 

[lhommedieu]

Originally posted by Elfan

Lol no these arn't for training with a partner! I already have a pair of really lite sticks for that. I prefer to keep my partner in one piece. ;-) (and I don't want to get hit back with a kamagong stick from what I'v heard of it)

So cocobala and kamagong both sound good. Could someone compare and contrast them?

Also, any recomendations on where to buy them (preferably cheaply of cource) would be great!

Thanks

Elfan,

I just ordered a pair of bahi sticks from www.wdsupplies.com. I'll let you know how they look when I get them. Bahi is from the outer layer of a species of Filipino palm tree, where the wood is very dense. Re. bahi and kamagong: both are hard, heavy, dense woods, but kamagong is somewhat more brittle. I don't know much about cocobolo, but I imagine that it is also a hard, heavy, dense, brittle wood.

BTW, "brittle" is a relative term; any of these woods is very hard, which is why they were used in Filipino challenge matches to break and smash bone. They will splinter when used against each other over and over again in drills. Then again, so will ash and hickory - woods that are used in western stick arts. They are also hard on the hands due to the reverberation, which is another reason why rattan is used for practice.

Best,

Steve Lamade

 

[K Williams]

Purpleheart or Bloodwood is dense, but not really heavy. I got mine from Kris Cutlery.

http://www.kriscutlery.com/Kris/philippine/Philippine.html

 

[Elfan]

Thanks! Any other suggestions are still welcome.

 

[lhommedieu]

I just got my bahi sticks in the mail (see my post, above). They are heavy compared to a rattan stick - and I use a pretty heavy stick to practice with sometimes. The same-size stick in hickory would feel much lighter by comparision.

It's easy to see why these sticks or something similar would be used in challange matches: the wood is heavy and dense enough to smash bone. No way you'd want to use these for partner practice, but for solo practice they'd be fine - and they would be excellent for self-defense.

The wood is a mottled brown (medium brown with black streaks). As they are intended as a gift, I plan to sand them down with fine steel wool (there are a couple of marks where they have been taped together at some point) and then work in several coats of tung oil between subsequent sandings. I think you could probably find a prettier wood - but this one is attractive enought and definitely servicible. The tung oil will bring out the grain a little and may darken the shade of the medium brown undercolor.

I would definitely order sticks like these again, or perhaps try the kamagong to see if I like it better. At $50.00/pair, they're slightly expensive but worth the cost.

I am also getting some dowels made from Australian ironwood within the next few weeks; I'll let you know what that's like.

Best,

Steve Lamade

 

[lhommedieu]

Sorry about the recent server problems with MartialTalk.com. You guys have done a great job bringing the forum back on-line.

For those who missed my last post: polishing the bahi sticks that I ordered recently and rubbing in several coats of tung oil brought out the black grain and darkened the brown under color. The sticks looked great by the time I gave them to a friend for his birthday.

I've recently updated my "training resources" page to include information that relates to this thread:

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze4fs8i/training_resources.htm

Best,

Steve Lamade

 

[Elfan]

Thanks for all the info!