"Hello. I see you offer staffs made out of the same wood and size, but their weights are mentioned as sometimes being different. Is this correct? And how can the weights of wood be different if they are the same wood? Can you explain?" I've gotten this question a few times, and if you haven't worked with wood in your life then this is a very reasonable question. We often think that a material is a material and therefore it has the same properties wherever you see that material. We do live in a very uniform society... after all... and uniformity is often a goal in manufacturing, but these are handmade objects made from working with natural objects. So this...
Actually, the title of this blog is kind of backwards to the way I approach wooden weapon making. The way I approach weapon making is that I get a feel for the weight, and then I am able to determine what sort of weapon it will be. In other words, the wood informs ME on what weapon it should become. Once I acquire a batch of wood, all the wood is then graded with the intention that I will only make weapons that are appropriate for the wood I have. Wood that is either too heavy or too light would not work for certain staffs . Often I don't have certain items in stock, because I...
Most people that feel their first real hickory bo or jo staff didn't know what they had been missing buying a mass produced product, commonly a white oak staff. So why are hickory staffs not more common? First, why are most staffs white oak? (Which I do not use anymore. But for more information on White Oak you may read one of my FAQ pages https://www.scrapwoodmartialarts.com/pages/buying-guide-for-choosing-martial-arts-wood) But in a manufacturing setting, first white oak is often very straight grained. In a batch of wood, maybe 80% is good to use for staffs. (Although I have still seen staffs from huge manufacturers of karate equipment with sections of wavy grain that isn't even close to anything acceptable that I could pass, so...
I wanted to do a more thorough explanation of what goes into the making of our bo staffs. One needs to listen to what the wood wants to be, and then it needs to be made into the appropriate item. At no point is this process is automated, in a way that you shut your brain off and just go. Every step requires careful attention, and decisions.
I wanted to tell a little story of what I feel and what I think of when I make staffs today. When I was a young brown belt testing for black belt, during my black belt test, in which I was the only testing student that year, the Sensai sprung bo kobudo applications for a kata which I had purposely not been trained in these applications. I had to pick moves in the kata, and show what the moves were doing with a partner. I was of course exhausted out of my mind by this point. And the board wanted to see how I would do, doing something new. And my Sensai pointed to one of the black belts who...
