So I went with a good quality white oak boken so I can do two man practice but I will be picking up an ironwood boken in the future.
I plan on taking a wax of some type and coating the wood while also getting tennis racquet grip tape and wrapping the handle since I've done this with a few other weapons what's your opinions on this?
Don't. Just don't. No wax… it's not a surfboard. No grip wrapping, as Paul pointed out. You've done this with other weapons? Take it off.
Thanks for the feedback I'm still torn about not wrapping the handle portion since I was almost hit by others flying weapons multiple times while training kung fu but I can see where you guys believe it's not necessary.
Don't wrap it. "Flying weapons" is not solved by a tennis racquet grip… it's solved by actually gripping the weapon properly in the first place. If they were flying around in your kung fu class, it wasn't the fault of the weapons…
I'm very aware of my own grip and am my biggest critic
I'll say this bluntly. If you are your biggest critic you need a new instructor. Either you have a false idea of how much you genuinely know (which is likely the case based on the questions here), which means that your self criticism is coming from a less-than-informed place (and therefore isn't really of a level to be of true benefit), or your instructor knows so little themselves that there's no reason to learn from them. To be honest, based on my last three decades or so in this, it's more likely to be the former… as that's fairly common and natural. But it may help to take a more honest look at your situation there.
Put it this way… some of my guys sometimes say that they're their own biggest critic as well… until I start pointing out everything I see wrong in what they're doing. Believe me, they're always far more generous to themselves than they think… or than I am.
so I really don't think I'd develop bad habits with a grip on the boken
If you think that, then you're not in a position to comment, honestly. All it shows is that you don't have anywhere enough of an understanding of proper grip to know if you're developing good or bad habits at all.
but I'll leave it as is with a good coating of oil on it for now till I decide on what to do.
No, not a "good coating of oil"… you oil the wood for maintenance… to ensure that it doesn't dry out (leading to splintering). Depending on the weather/humidity in your area, you might only need to oil them very infrequently… but you want the oil to soak into the wood… any excess is wiped off. You don't want to have the oil coating the outside of the weapon itself.
I heartily suggest you talk over training weapon maintenance with your instructor… most will have their own preference, although commonality will be found in each method… and, if they have no suggestions to offer you, seriously question what they're real knowledge in weapon usage and training is.
