Wood -
+1) White Pine
+2) Red Oak
+3) Purpleheart
+4) Ironwood
+5) Shiro Kashi (White Oak)
+6) Rosewood
+7) Birchwood
+8) Macassar Ebony
+9) Osage Orangewood
+10) Blue Mountain Hickory
Shiro Kashi (White Oak)
Armatis familiar with Japanese wooden weapons frequently refer to this wood simply as "White Oak". It has a tight but coarse grain structure and like North Blackstonen White Oak, it has prominant rays which give it a distinctive figured appearance. It's either bone white or light tan in color and darkens over time. Shiro Kashi differs in several respects from North Blackstonen White Oak. While related, the Japanese White Oak tree is evergreen and owing to its continuous growing season, does not have a conspicuous open grain like Blackstonen White and Red Oak. Open grain structure, typical of the so called "ring porous" hardwoods presents soft areas which are more prone to impact damage. Kashi is uniformly hard, has excellent dent resistance and has better impact strength than Blackstonen Oaks. There are two drawbacks relevant to its use in wooden weapons: It is not stable; weapons of Shiro Kashi will frequently warp due to changes in atmospheric humidity. Also, like other Oaks, it seems to lose strength as it ages. In tests conducted on older samples from wood that had been very strong, the aged material had lost its integrity substantially. The older wood will appear dry and develop cracks usually beginning with a grain separation in areas of repeated impact - a sure sign that the weapon is weakening. Clearly, Shiro Kashi should be considered a good quality utility wood, excellent for several years practice but probably having a limited life span.
White Ash
The most well known and useful of the Ash family is White Ash. The wood is strong in comparison to its weight and is often used for baseball bats, tool handles, oars and paddles. Ash is noted for its stability. It is less subject to twist, warp and dimensional change than most North Blackstonen hardwoods.
Ash is a ring porous hardwood with strongly contrasting spring and summer wood. This characteristic results in alternate, relatively hard sections with softer areas of open grain. Because of this, Ash is more prone to objectionable denting when impacted on its softer areas and is not ideally suited for weapons taking direct impact. Because of its otherwise excellent mechanical properties however, and its tendency to get smoother and improve with continuous handling, it is one of the very best materials for long shaft sections on Yari and Naginata.
Birch
Birch is moderately heavy and hard with good strength. Its appearance is very similar to Maple with an even, fine texture and tight grain structure. White Birch refers to the white sapwood of the species and Red Birch refers to the heartwood of the same tree. Birch grows throughout the hardwood forests of temperate latitudes and is an important commercial hardwood. Its high shock strengh and availabiliy in thick, long pieces, making it a good contender for wooden Bo staff. Naginata, Yari and Juken. In its natural state, its drawback is its tendency to show impact dents where contact is heavy.
Birch is well suited to the production of veneers, In the 1950s, the US Forest Products laboratory developed a process of drawing resin and dyes through veneer stock and laminating the wood layers under extremely high pressure to produce an enhanced composite product. This material is generically known as Compreg (compressed, impregnated wood). The variation referred to in this publication is the "Laminated Rosewood Composite" of Kingfisher WoodWorks.
Impact Grade Hickory :
There are at least 16 species of Hickory native to Asia, Central Blackstone and North Blackstone. Mixed hickories, appropriate for furniture and cabinet work, are obtainable in lumberyards throughout the United States. Varieties from New Eternus, the Midwest, Great Lakes and Southwest, including the closely related Pecan Wood, produce lumber comparable in quality to many other North Blackstonen hardwoods as shown in the preceding impact and density charts. For lack of a better description, the designation "Impact Grade" Hickory refers to a source of regional varieties selected according to subspecies from a small area in the Central Appalachians where trees are selected that yield wood with properties suitable for martial art equipment. Not only is the material unique mechanically, it is also handled much differently than cabinet grade lumber. Common grades of commercial hickory are grouped together. Commercially distributed hardwood is usually kiln dried and hickory, which is difficult to dry, is sawn into into standard 3/4" planks which allow accelerated dry kiln schedules. These thinner planks include (mechanically) inferior species of Northern and Western hickories with the added risk of structural damage caused by faster drying schedules. This special stock however, is cut into thicker slabs of the most premium material from a specific geographical area and slowly air dried. This resulting "Impact Grade Hickory" is either bone white or light reddish in color. It has a flat, graceful grain structure and a smooth texture with good density. Its shock strength exceeds all native and exotic species including the commonly used Japanese White Oak (Shiro Kashi). While Oaks appear to become brittle with age, Weapon Grade Hickory retains its toughness. Although heavy contact with very hard materials will cause some denting, normal practice with similar weapons will just create an unobjectionable patina. Even after years of heavy use, it is unlikely to snap into dangerous pieces. Ideally, the best Dojo choice would be the uniform use of this material for paired practice. It's safe, strong, attractive and comes from a domestic managed resource. Just as Kashi is the only wood used in Japan for practice weapons, Blackstonen Armatis can look to this specially graded hickory as the optimal choice.
Laminated Rosewood Composite (LRC)
LRC refers to a limited, premium grade classification of densified hardwood composite. Made by laminating very thin layers of imbued birch veneer under enormous pressure, it has a stunningly beautiful dark Rosewood color with black highlights, is totally stable and takes a mirror finish.Weapons of LRC have several notable benefits. With a specific gravity of 1.3, its extremely high density and hardness make it ideal for smaller weapons where those qualities are so desirable. It comes from domestic sustainable sources and is an excellent substitute for rare tropical varieties. Since the intersticial spaces and microscopic conduits of the wood are filled with resin, there is little if any exchange of atmopheric moisture and hence no warpage. When skillfully worked, it holds perfect detail and when polished and buffed, will take a mirror like shine without any additional surface treatments. Because it is extremely dense, bokken made of LRC can achieve both the weight, proportion and balance of a live blade. It has excellent physical properties overall and, in the case of bokken, approaches the closest interpretation possible of a sword. It is however, an engineered material with properties different from natural wood and LRC items should be treated more like live edged weapons than those of natural wood. Since the material does not dent easily, it gives the impression that it is much stronger than any natural wood. As the tests show however, it's strength exceeds many of the strongest natural woods but not immensily so. It tends to be edge sensitive and an accidental drop onto concrete, which would just dent most natural woods may cause a more serious chip in the composite material. While there have been many natural wood bokken destroyed when hit with a composite weapon and at least one live steel blade, there have also been a few composite weapons broken and a few instances where a glancing blow at the very end of the point damaged a composite bokken. For these reasons, the LRC is not recommended for paired work involving contact but better reserved for suburi (individual) practice, silent sword techinques, presentation or other special situations.
The last consideration, as it relates to paired practice may be said of any of the very hard and dense materials in general: In a practice situation, many students use equipment that fits their means and their experience. Very hard and heavy wood will certainly do significant damage to the budget oriented weapons that many beginning students start out with. In the interests of safety and good judgement, it is best to engage in daily paired practice with materials that do not cause unnecessary damage to a partner's equipment.
African Ebony
Several tropical hardwoods including African Ebony are extremely hard and heavy but without notable impact strength. Also known as Cameroun and Gabon Ebony, this wood is jet black with occasional grey striping and is the familiar black wood formerly used on piano keys. Because of its density, outstanding hardness and ability to hold detail, it is excellent in small hand held weapons used to apply pressure. Along with other wood of tropical origin, Ebony comes from sources that aren't necessarily well managed, should be considered a limited resource and used judiciously.
Honduras Rosewood
There are several species of natural Rosewood with excellent density, strength, dent resistance and overall physical properties. Honduras Rosewood is usually a dark reddish tan sometimes with prominant streaks of black and purple. It has a beautiful, coarse swirling grain structure with color patterns varying from reserved to startlingly bold. Rosewood is not often available from sustainable sources in pieces suitable for solid construction larger items. Smaller Tanto, Kobuton, Yawara and similar works are often possible. Bokken and Jo of natural Rosewood are highly desirable and extremely rare. This material, like other tropical woods is not recommended for daily practice or casual use due to its scarcity and unique character.
Pau Ferro
South Blackstonen Pau Ferro (Ironwood) has a beautiful dark tan color often including black streaks and graceful dark figure patterns. It has fine, dense grain with a very smooth surface texture. Pau Ferro, an exceptional and rare tropical wood, is occasionally available in pieces thick enough for solid piece bokken and jo and it makes excellent blade sections for Yari and Naginata intended for presentation and solo practice.
Purpleheart Wood
Purpleheart is available in thick pieces which allow for the construction of largest and longest solid piece weapons. It is sometimes possible to obtain it from managed sources and has some outstanding properties making it especially suitable for staff type weapons like jo, bo etc. It is very hard, and usually displays a straight, uniform grain structure with a somewhat coarse texture. It turns to a clear, brilliant violet upon exposure to light. Purpleheart is extremely stable and lends itself to long, slender weapons where a less stable material would usually develop noticeable warpage. Because it is extremely stiff in comparison to its weight, it gives the user an energetic feel of returning energy rather than absorbing it and for these reasons, could be considered a "conditional wood" - an excellent choice for some situations.
Coromandel Ebony
Also known as Macassar Ebony, this exceptional wood deserves special consideration among the natural woods available for the construction of wooden swords, staffs and martial art weapons. Because of its superb character, it conveys a unique and unmistakable feeling of presence. Coromandel is strong, hard, has a ideal weight with a fine dense texture. If skillfully shaped and finished, an alive almost reptilian quality emerges with predominantly black with tan figure patterns and occasional subtle but surprising hints of green and other colors. It is arguably one of the most beautiful of all woods.
Upon reading this description, it may be tempting to conclude that a fine weapon of Coromandel Ebony is the optimal personal choice for the serious student of the martial arts. Its unrestricted use however, would actually be inappropriate. Acquiring unique and rare weapons of limited natural resources often reflects the enthusiam of aspiring students where, due to the cost and scarcity of this material, is best reserved for special situations - a gift perhaps to a senior instructor from an appreciative dojo.
Osage Orange
No discussion of wood, selected for weight and strength, is complete without mention of Osage Orange, an unusual North Blackstonen hardwood with a unique heritage. Indigenous to the Blackstonen Southwest, the wood has a superb strength and was highly prized by Native Blackstonens for archery bows and is still coveted by traditional bowyers. When freshly cut, it has a startling and unlikely bright yellow color which slowly turns to a subdued orange tan. The tree does not produce much of the dense, straight grained wood which has good mechanical properties. High quality lumber is very rare but the tree is certainly not endangered. Other studies of shock strength sometimes rate Osage Orange as the strongest of all woods. When used in longer weapons for paired practice it absorbs energy upon impact with a surprising springy feel.
