Has anyone tried using wood other than Japanese oak for their e-bu?
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I know of people who have, not sure what they used, however be aware that tournament regulations require 'oak" by which they mean akakashi or shirokashi. Yes, I understand that "Japanese oak" is not technically oak, but even if other woods were allowed they would be unlikely to meet the weight parameters which are based on Japanese oak. -
I hadn't realised that akakashi or shirokashi was specified in the tournament regulations. Bother. Thanks for the info Bruce.Comment
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On the upside, I know that there is a lot written about woods online (okay, maybe not a lot). Ellis Amdur just started a new blog about wood choices. While a lot of these post suggest that other woods are suitable or sometimes even superior to Japanese shirokashi I have found that this works well as a guide to finding wood outside of Japan, but I have had weapons made of some of the highest rated woods on these threads which have lasted only marginally longer than poor shirokashi weapons, but at a significantly higher cost. It is much better to choose a better supplier for your Japanese white oak weapons. For example some of my group members were using e-bogu and they broke and average of 2-3 weapons per year, we switched to Tozando and have had no weapons break since, and these Tozando weapons have been in use for about 3 years now. The ones from ebogu that broke often had hidden twist or knots in the wood when the breaks were examined. I'm not knocking e-bogu, I have had good experiences with them, with the exception of their choice of supplier for their wooden weapons, it is basically an expensive way to buy your firewood.
I think that the idea of making your own naginata for day to day practice is great though. Here is Ellis' great guide: http://www.zaimoku.org/Comment
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Thanks again Bruce especially for the link to Ellis Amdur's blog. I had started to try and find the botanical name of akakashi and shirokashi and there it was in the blog.Last edited by Tasha; 8th October 2015, 01:50 PM.Comment
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