Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

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Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby MaartenSFS on Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:24 pm

With my return to the West looming ever closer, I have thought of another necessity that I'm not sure can be bought in the U.S; long, flexible wooden poles. The type I need is about two metres long and the thick end about the same diametre as the OUTSIDE of the circle your thumb and index finger make. I intend to mostly swing them, but also do some specific pole-shaking with them, so it needs to be flexible enough to shake a bit. I won't hit anything with it. I'd be more than happy to use native wood. Is it easy to find these? Thanks in advance! ;D
Last edited by MaartenSFS on Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby Ozguorui on Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:58 am

Some people use NYLON 6,6 ROD

https://vimeo.com/241697237
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby MaartenSFS on Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:23 am

Interesting, but that looks way too flexible for my purposes and probably too light as well. Would probably work fine just for training Shaking Power, though.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby Peacedog on Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:41 am

PM Dale Dugas. He makes a lot of his own training equipment and I'm sure he can help you out with the correct contacts.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby LaoDan on Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:47 am

It is probably difficult to obtain whole white wax-wood poles of the desired size in the USA, but there are companies that sell rattan as uniform diameter (shaved down) poles of various dimensions (some even with free shipping to the contiguous US states). I even know that there is a USA martial arts distributor that grows his own crop of white wax-wood (but I do not remember his company name at present – I had talked to him at a tournament many years ago).

I have one white wax-wood whole pole about 10’ long for pole shaking, but it tapers too much and is rather too spindly (and slightly kinked) towards the tip, and I have not attempted to obtain a better example (note that I have forgotten where I obtained it as it has been over 25 years ago). Instead, I had a local woodworker shave down an ash wood pole to my specified dimensions (grip diameter, length, and taper). I find this to work quite well. It has decent resilience that can be felt from the vibrating tip through the shaft and to the hands. While ash wood is not extremely common, I think that you should be able to obtain it from local lumber dealers. It would likely come as a board rather than a round pole, so it would need to be shaped (my woodworker primarily used a draw knife). Any wood used for manufacturing bows should have sufficient resiliency to work for pole shaking. I chose ash because the woodworker that I had shape it had some available.

A random example of rattan poles is the following:
http://www.franksupply.com/bamboo/
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby marvin8 on Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:15 am

Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/74-White-Wax-W ... 0752.m1982

74" White Wax Wood Staff
Seller: tmasus (870 ) 100% Positive feedback
10 available 85 sold / See feedback

Price:US $20.95
Shipping: $8.00
Economy Shipping | See details

Item location: Duluth, Georgia, United States
Estimated on or before Wed. Jan. 31

Item specifics
Condition: New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See the seller's listing for full details.
Brand: Tiger Claw
MPN: TC-32-74

Ultra Light Wushu Wax Wood Staff. Slightly tapered on one end. Approximately 74 inches in length, bottom is approximately 1" diameter, tip is approx. 1/2" in diameter.

Note that these weapons are all handmade and subject to slight variations in measurements.

This item ships as oversized because of its length.

Edit: I read oak wood is not flexible enough for pole shaking, etc. But, I'll include this since I already copied it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/72-Wood-Traing ... SwTaVaBMj6

72" Wood Trainging Practical Bo Staff Martial Arts Stick 6 Feet Natural Hardwood
Seller: peachsunday (1925 ) 98.1% Positive feedback
Item condition: New
More than 10 available 14 sold / See feedback

Price: US $39.95
Shipping: FREE Economy Shipping

Item location: Franklin, Wisconsin, United States
Ships to: United States
Delivery:
Estimated on or before Wed. Jan. 31

Item specifics
Condition: New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is ... Read more
Brand: Unbranded

72" Wood Trainging Practical Bo Staff Martial Arts Stick 6 Feet Natural Hardwood
Oak Wood
Light, Durable, Strong
Natural Color Hardwood
Overall length 72", 6 feet
Diameter: 1.25"
Last edited by marvin8 on Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby KEND on Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:57 am

Wing Lam Enterprises Kung Fu - Martial Arts Supply
https://www.wle.com/
WLE Martial Arts Supply carries martial arts swords, staffs, escrima sticks, Kwan Dao, martial arts gear, tai chi DVD, kung fu uniforms, MMA gear, protective equipment, focus mitts, sparring gear, and much more.
‎Martial Art Weapons · ‎Martial Art Swords · ‎Tai Chi Swords (Premium ... · ‎Bo & Staffs

Has 8/9 ft dragon staffs
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby Fa Xing on Tue Jan 23, 2018 12:08 pm

I prefer http://www.kungfudirect.com/ they have lots of great stuff, WLE would be my second choice. Ebay is good for antiques...or at least it used to be.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby taiwandeutscher on Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:46 pm

In fact, waxwood is a kind of Chinese ash, so the native variation might have common qualities?
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby Trick on Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:29 pm

LaoDan wrote: I had a local woodworker shave down an ash wood pole to my specified dimensions (grip diameter, length, and taper). I find this to work quite well. It has decent resilience that can be felt from the vibrating tip through the shaft and to the hands
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraxinus
"The tree's common English name, "ash", traces back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name originated in Latin. Both words also mean "spear" in their respective languages". It seem to be the right choice of wood
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby taiwandeutscher on Wed Jan 24, 2018 2:16 am

Yes, Fraxinus chinensis is the waxwood: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%99%BD ... 1%E6%A0%91
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby Ron Panunto on Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:48 am

You might want to get a bunch of practitioners together who will buy one or more and have them shipped to you directly from China. My Chen taiji teacher did this and I bought two 10 ft. white waxwood poles from him, and then we did a similar thing with a martial arts supply store in New Jersey and I bought two more 10 ft white waxwood poles from him. They averaged $50 each, but they are downright beautiful and full of spring. However, not all of the poles in the shipments were of best quality, as some were bent and some had too many knots. Also, be careful to treat the poles so that the weevils won't turn them to sawdust.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby taiwandeutscher on Wed Jan 24, 2018 7:18 pm

Yes, we did buy in China as well, but if not there, quality (time of harvesting is winter, not year round!) can be a problem. And shipping longer poles (they are sold with up to 5,2m, I work now with 3,5m) can be very expensive.
Knots can be worked on with sandpaper, and after making bent poles hot over water steam, they can easily be straightened. In fact, poles are all harvested more or less bent and are worked on to straighten them.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby dragonprawn on Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:18 am

Yes. Be careful. Powder beetles just ate all of the untreated waxwood spears at our school in NYC. I know that some species are widespread in the US.
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Re: Aquiring wooden poles in the States?

Postby MaartenSFS on Sat Jan 27, 2018 10:32 pm

Thanks for all of the replies, guys. It sounds like I have some options. Centuries ago I purchased some Sanda equipment from Kungfu Direct, when I was teaching Sanda in the States, briefly. The prices for some of their stuff don't seem too bad.

Has anyone used rattan before? Is it easy to break them when shaking (like bamboo is)?
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