white and red oak bokken from taiwan

[jezah81]

Are they the same as Japanese red and white oak?
regards,
Jeremy Hagop

[Tim Atkinson]

Watch out for the cheaper Taiwan boken. The white oak are often just red oak that has been bleached! They may well be a third of the price, but a good Japanese white oak boken will well outlast the cheaper version.

Also the use to which you will be putting the boken will depend on the quality that you need.

Martial Arts World have a good selection of white oak weapons.

Hope this helps.


PS. They will soon be stocking a Spotted Gum boken, which is meant to have very similar properties as the white oak. I use a spotted gum jo, it has a good weight and has warn well.

[gendzwil]

Also note that Japanese white oak isn't really oak like we have in North America, it's a different species of tree.

[kokumo]

Jeremy,

With a couple of exceptions, all of the so-called "red oak" weapons from Taiwan I have seen have been a comparatively cheap light wood which has been stained red-brown.

On several different occasions, I have seen such weapons shatter in practice involving what I would characterize as "moderate" contact, with sharp jaggedy pieces flying off at unpredictable and really quite dangerous angles. Conversely, while I have seen oak, osage orange, and hickory weapons break in practice, when they have done so, they cracked while still blocking the blow which cracked them, the cracks were even rather than jagged, and no pieces went flying in unpredictable directions.

My views on this matter are quite firm: For students, use of such weapons in contact practice is a hazard to oneself and one's training partners. For instructors and dojo operators, permitting the use of such weapons in contact practice is, at best, negligence. For the manufacturer and for martial arts supply houses, production and sale of such "practice weapons" without explicit labelling and advisories as to their unsuitability for contact practice is similarly negligent.

Don't buy trouble, spend the extra $15-20 for a decent piece of wood.

Best regards,

Fred Little

[R A Sosnowski]

Stay away from the junk being sold as "economical" varieties. As previous posters have mentioned, they are a safety hazard and they cannot take repeated contact use.

Consider education yourself on the types of woods available and their properties such as at the Woodworkers Source Site, and woods used to make weapons such as the Seidokai Wooden Weapons Catalog and Kingfisher Woodworks' Materials.

FWIW.

[ulvulv]

Some years ago, I saw a netstore that sells bokuto and jo approved by some authority in shindo muso ryu. The kanji in "Shindo Muso Ryu" was burned in as a sign of approval. Do anybody know this store?

[Tim Atkinson]

I was told at some time, it may have been in the Jo forum that the branding with the kanji was just something members of the dojo did at that time.

I was not aware that the "right" to do so was given to one supplier only.

[ulvulv]

Originally posted by Tim Atkinson
I was told at some time, it may have been in the Jo forum that the branding with the kanji was just something members of the dojo did at that time.

I was not aware that the "right" to do so was given to one supplier only.

Not the right do do so for only one one supplier, only that some jodo hotshots gave their approval to some jo/bokuto supplier. just a gimmick, I guess.
As far as I know, anybody kan brand, write or carve whatever they want on their tools. No use in "fancyfication" in my opinion though, just a subtle mark to distinguish my gear from everybodys elses is enough.I only have a colured dot on the end of the jo and the tsuka of my bokuto.