Bo staff

[CloudDragon]

Oh BTW, I have seen a lacewood bo, it kind of looks like a crackle finish in design but the color is a wood grain, it was beautiful and light, unfortunately it was $150.00 US!

[Shorin Ryuu]

For excellent hand made traditional wooden weaponry, I recommend both the Weapons Connection, Crane Mountain and Murasaki Kobudo, all located in the states and all very reputable and reliable.

 

I've had people purchase weapons from all three of them and say nothing but good things about them. They are reliable, but handmade to order and of extremely high quality.

 

I've ordered a bo and eaku from Crane Mountain, although it is still being made (most of these orders take about 2 months to fulfill, as the utmost care is given to them).

 

I can personally voucher for Murasaki Kobudo. The former owner (Doug Perry, who I've mentioned off an on in various posts) was the same one who I mentioned even had to put correct Shureido about their sai...

 

Anyway, I know for a fact he was never in it for the money, and he made sure that his successor in the company (he passed it on because he didn't feel like dealing with the money issues, as he has a lot of other stuff to take care of) felt the same way.

 

I have a pair of purpleheart tonfa, ash tonfa, purpleheart nunchaku, ash nunchaku and ash nitonbo from Murasaki and I am incredibly pleased with the quality.

 

http://www.murasakikobudo.com/

 

http://www.weaponsconnection.com/

 

http://crane-mountain.com/

 

I thought these would be good resources for those who are willing to spend more money for a weapon to literally last them a lifetime. They're not too expensive, but more so than cheap mass produced ones.

[Kicks]

OK, one last question..I think. Does size matter?

 

I'm just under 6', and my son is about 5' . What size Bo should we be using for the quick, agile techniques used in competitions and demostrations. We already have a large selection of hardwood staffs at our dojang for use in self defense purposes.

[Shorin Ryuu]

I've seen two theories on this. One theory is that the bo should be about a fist length or an inch or two above the head, the other is that for an adult, it should be 6 feet long.

 

The first one is more of a customization issue (I certainly wouldn't force your son to use a 6 foot bo). The second stems more from tradition in Okinawa. When the Satsuma samurai re-inforced the weapons ban in Okinawa, they even extended it further and more strictly to the royal guards, policemen and the like. This included cutting the naginata like weapons the guards carried at the six foot mark. The weapon before this was basically a staff with a blade at the end, which was like a spear or the japanese naginata (closer to a sword blade at the end). Therefore, the six foot mark is seen to be sort of a traditional length of the weapon they trained with.

 

That being said, the Okinawans also trained in the jo, which ranges between one to two feet shorter than the traditional (rokushaku) bo. (Rokushaku just means 6 "shaku", which was a measurement of length about a foot long). They also train in the nintonbo, which is a about two foot long.

 

Different lengths for different purposes.

 

Short answer: Tradition or customization. In this case I go with tradition, simply due to the many techniques that were designed to have a six foot bo length in mind. This doesn't mean they won't work with differing lengths, I just like it to be that way...

 

Of course, since I am 5' 11'', it is rather a moot point for me.

[smktkd]

hrm. swing it around in circles then hit the person on the head. sounds right to me! (yes i accually know how to use one)

[Rotten Head Fok]

I agree with going to class, you will enjoy learning, what I call a staff. In my style we use lengths of 7,8,9, feet staffs made from white wax wood, very flexible and tough, but are not confined to only this type of staff (General staff training.)