Hey all, I recently discovered what could be one of the best martial arts weapon suppliers around. It is Kingfisher Woodworks (
www.kingfisherwoodworks.com). I surfed to their site about a month ago, and was impressed by the wood they used and their craftsmanship. They only use impact grade hickory (if you don't know much about the aspects of the type of wood uses to make martial arts weapons, or don't know what impact grade hickory is, check out
http://www.aikiweb.com/weapons/goedkoop1.html for this information). The lowest grade of the impact grade hickory he uses is over twice as strong as normal hickory and Japanese white oak. Kingfisher has several different grades of impact grade hickory, the lowest grade of which is evaluated at the above website. The craftsmanship is awe-inspiring. Brad at Kingfisher does not use sandpaper; all the work is done with woodworking tools. I called Brad and asked if he could make a set of escrima sticks as I did not see any escrima sticks on his web catalog. He said he could custom make them without any problems. After I placed the order, I called twice within a week to change the order (I was worried that the sticks would be too heavy). Brad was polite when I asked him to change the order, and when the sticks came; they were exactly what I had ordered. On his website, Brad places emphases on the fact that he uses woodworking tools to finish the weapons, not sandpaper. I did not see an advantage to this until the sticks arrived. The sticks are polygonal with between 30 and 40 sides. While the sticks appear to be round, when you grip them you can feel the woodworking marks, and they provide an excellent grip. I recommend you check out their site if you are serious about your weapon training. Their site is
www.kingfisherwoodworks.com. Train hard!
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