what do people use?

do you make them yourself, or buy them? where from? or how do you make them?

i've been thinking of several designs, however realistic feel is an issue that needs over coming. that is, to make bludeoning weapons... that dont bludgeon... are difficult to make and feel right. you get me?

i've seen a few sites here and there... anywho, now to you.

My father makes them for me... I bought one bokken from my Kenjutsu sensei... and my dad makes copies from that bokken i bought.

but surely a wooden bokken is not suitable for contact sparring??

I've made several sets of sticks from lancewood which is a NZ native hardwood and can break oak. It is really hard and knarly but makes nice sticks.

The only downside I've had is that my last set started to splinter after about 4 years of hard use, so I've replaced them with some nice rattan ones instead.

Some of the guys made their bo from lancewood too, but I prefered rattan and oak because the lancewood ones are very lumpy to handle.

[IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/rolleyes.gif[/IMG]

I bought my bokkens, the first one split very quickly and the manufacturer replaced it free because the wood was obviously not seasoned properly.

I've seen a couple of sites with patterns for nunchaku too if u are interested.

For some basic contact weapons, don't know if these are similar to manufactured ones, but you can look up NERO on google (type in NERO weapons or Nero weapon plans, you get the idea), it is a real life Role playing game and they have to make thier own weapons. There are alot of plans on net to make them. most consist of pvc pipe foam padding and duct tape. Some of the guys in our school use wooden dowels with plumbing pipe insulation covered in duct tape. Don't know if this is what you had in mind, just a thought.

[This message has been edited by coxne (edited 09-30-2004).]

thankyou coxne, that is what i had in mind, i dont want to know about wooden training weapons for they are unsuitable to spar with.

I've seen other organisations like the one u mentioned, namely dagohir seems to be the largest. AEMMA, and ARMA are two european martial arts groups that also have instructions on making padded sparring weapons. Im just looking for added input.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by nose:
thankyou coxne, that is what i had in mind, i dont want to know about wooden training weapons for they are unsuitable to spar with.


Tell that to the Dog Brothers.

Most stick fighting uses wooden weapons, it wouldn't be traditional to use anything else. We spar with all wooden sticks.

Ditto that with bo.

You have to pad up well if you are really going to it properly [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

I would think that plastic padded weapons would be too light to use correct technique with and that strikes with proper weapons would suffer because of it.

The Dog Brothers( a MA training group in California) use fencing masks and hockey gloves. That's it. No other protection. Then they use ratan batons and go at it full power. Apparently, they don't consider it to be unsuitable. Sure are a lot of crazy people in this world.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Reiki:
I would think that plastic padded weapons would be too light to use correct technique with and that strikes with proper weapons would suffer because of it.[/QUOTE]


That is probably why the guys in class use padded wood ones, they don't wear any padding or armor or anything of the sort.