This video is by Brad Goedkoop of Kingfisher Woodworks, with whom I’ve had a collegial relationship for several decades discussing wood and weaponry. Brad makes some of the best wooden weapons I’ve seen anywhere, and manages to merge both tradition and innovation. I am very intrigued with his initial test of the strength of woods. The latter portion does leave me with some concerns. Testing one kashi bokken tells one little – who made the bokken, to begin with – and sadly, there is a lot of not very good kashi these days, as the wood becomes scarce in Japan. Also, although testing a bokken in a fixed frame is one kind of data, I am most interested in how weapons perform in ‘action’ – personally, I would like to test various bokuto of the same configuration during kata (something I may have the wherewithal to do in a year or so, with the support of some others).

Lest there be any doubt – I am, nonetheless, a fan of hickory. It is a wonderful wood for weaponry, as I discuss in my own commentary.

These two videos are by Trevor Higgins. Trevor has made me some excellent weaponry using hickory and jojoba. Here are some brief films showing his work.

SOME OF THE GREAT BOKKEN ARTISANS OF JAPAN